After 6 weeks of regular workshops, mentoring, peer sharing sessions, and iterative designing, the EPFL Tech4Impact Summer School comes to an end.

Between June and August 2021, 10 teams of 40 students from more than 20 nationalities and universities followed different workshops, meeting with stakeholders and working closely with their NGO partners to develop solid project proposals to design creative solutions to development challenges facing the Global South. Recognising that the scale, scope, and complexity of Agenda 2030 calls for synergistic solutions across sectors, the Tech4Impact Summer School Program, a collaboration of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia (UTEC), invited students from diverse academic backgrounds to innovatively leverage technologies for accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This year, BASE joined the consortium of internationally renowned universities and NGO’s, guiding the teams through the process of exploring different methodologies and possibilities to address their challenges and adapting the solutions to the local context. With the environmental, economic, and humanitarian risks posed by climate change indicating a pressing need for substantial action, BASE identified three issue-areas for adapting to and mitigating its effects. 

• In most refugee camps, electricity is supplied using diesel generators, which are expensive to operate over the long term and require vast amounts of scarce fossil fuels. How can we develop efficient renewable energy systems for humanitarian organisations operating in refugee camps?
• Disposal of solar products present environmental, and health and safety risks for both consumers and people who might handle products at the end-of-life stage. How could we improve the circularity of solar energy technologies in the Global South?
• Human-driven deforestation is happening rapidly in areas such as the Amazon due to the expansion of agriculture. How could we avoid deforestation happening rapidly in the great forests of our planet by greening the agricultural value chain?

To show the solutions proposed by the students, the EPFL Tech4Impact is organizing the Demo Day, an open event where you will have the opportunity to listen to their solution pitches, learn and exchange with them. 

If you are a student, an entrepreneur, collaborator in a university, working in an NGO or simply interested in sustainable innovation, join us for this amazing online event on September 1st at 4 PM (UTC+2). 

Register here: https://www.runtheworld.today/app/invitation/32269