September edition
Note from the Chair
We are pleased to announce the launch of the SIGHT individual membership program to and encourage each one of you to formally join IEEE SIGHT.

This is a free membership for both IEEE members and non-members. To leverage this program completely, members are encouraged to participate in a SIGHT. 

We learned from our past experiences that delivering sustainable solutions to underserved communities is challenging. Many of these challenges are not technical and beyond our trained areas of expertise as engineers. Therefore, it is important for us  to approach this discipline with the same rigor that we put into our profession.

Starting 2016, each SIGHT will have four requirements: Education, Project, Capacity Building, and Self-Assessment.

We hope to provide a platform for all IEEE members who have an idea to create social impact by leveraging technology. We hope to influence them to move beyond good intentions, to take an action with their "feet on the ground," and support them in learning how to make their initiatives sustainable.

Kartik Kulkarni, Chair, IEEE SIGHT Steering Committee
Find SIGHT Membership Resources at the Online SIGHT Toolkit

Learn about the new requirements of SIGHT membership and find resources to help accomplish your goals with the online SIGHT Toolkit.  
Tweeters around the world are using #IEEESIGHT to tag their SIGHT updates. Use the tag at conferences, during field work or any time you tweet about SIGHT. And search the tag on Twitter for updates from your colleagues around the world.
Coming Soon: SIGHT's Annual Report
Please look for SIGHT's annual report in your inbox the week of October 10th.  It will be attached to an email by Michael Wehrman of IEEE.
Connect With Us
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The IEEE Electrical Safety Awareness Film by SIGHT-OPSAP in India
The newly launched Overhead Powerline Safety Awareness Project SIGHT in Hyderabad has released this video on powerline safety. It is in a regional language with English subtitles, created for villagers in rural communities outside of Hyderabad, the southern Indian city where the SIGHT has headquarters.

The SIGHT serves as a pilot for the Global Overhead Powerline Safety Awareness Project, launched earlier this year by the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS). SIGHT OPSAP-Hyderabad aims to reduce injuries and fatalities from overhead power lines.
IEEE SIGHT in bytes l Making SIGHT Projects Sustainable
 
This new SIGHT webinar is presented by Khanjan Mehta, founding director of the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program and an assistant professor of engineering design at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in State College, Pennsylvania.

For further reading, Mehta has made his latest book available free of charge. Find a PDF download here:

Solving Problems that Matter (and Getting Paid for It): STEM Careers in Social Innovation and Global Sustainable Development

The book is also available in Korean in a translation by the social enterprise Misociety.
And see Mehta in his TEDxPSU talk: Social impact...takes a planet! 
Wind Turbine Design Workshop, Argentina  

Two hundred IEEE student members and SIGHT representatives from Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay participated in a wind turbine design workshop at Buenos Aires Institute of Technology in Argentina June 15-17.

"The main goal of this workshop was to teach the design principles of a small-scale and low-cost wind turbine capable of proving rural electrification assembled with reusable materials," says Mario Alem�n at SIGHT Nicaragua.

Please see Flickr for images from the event.

Also in the region, SICEET SIGHT and R9 members led a humanitarian track for 80 undergraduate students of electrical engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The track offered the students a vision of emerging technologies that have societal impact, and covered ways to get involved in SIGHT, says Alem�n, who was a lecturer in the track.

Please see Flickr for images.
Wind Turbine Upgrade
SIGHT Nicaragua and Innovative Engineers from the University of Minnesota worked together to upgrade and maintain a 1kw wind turbine in Jinotega, Nicaragua. The team replaced bearings and tightened anchors as part of a maintenance plan to provide energy access to the off-grid community. SIGHT Nicaragua also provided technical assistance to a solar street light project in a remote community in response to blackouts and safety threats. Users were trained in the appropriate use and maintenance of hydrogen levels in the battery. For more from the light project please see the Flickr photo album .    Photo courtesy of Mario Alem�n at SIGHT Nicaragua. For more from the turbine project please see the Flickr photo album. 
Deadlines for SIGHT Newsletter Submissions
Share news about your events, innovations and successes with the worldwide SIGHT community. Submit announcements or story ideas by the first of each month for a chance to see it in the next month's edition.
 
Submission guidelines:
  • 150 words or less
  • Include photos! (with captions)
  • Include Web links! (Interested people will want more information)
Please send correspondence to Rob Goodier at r.goodier@ieee.org. Thank you!