IEEE SIGHT Project Application Guidelines Rev.

061513

Guidelines for Submittal of SIGHT Projects

I. Introduction
SIGHT groups major goal is to create opportunities for members to devote time and talents to
humanitarian work consistent with IEEEs Constitution to bring the benefits of technology to the entire
world. The understanding that 90% of all new development is designed to benefit primarily the
economic top 10% of the global population brings with it a mandate that special attention is needed to
address technology for the 90%, especially the bottom 20% of 1.4 billion people knows as the Base of
the Pyramid or BOP. World poverty is a huge burden on all world economies; eradication will benefit
all.
The types of projects to be targeted by SIGHT groups are those that lead to significant impact on
eradicating world poverty through growing sustainable benefits in technology-poor areas. The desired
result is not to exploit the BOP with foreign based and owned enterprises, but to empower people in the
BOP to become full participants by helping plant and grow technology enterprises in communities which
then become fully self-sustaining and increasingly prosperous. Since IEEE members are critical in
creating the major economic drivers of the developed world, they are therefore critical to teaching
others in the underdeveloped world how to become full participants, not just as minimum wage workers
but as technician, engineers, managers and entrepreneurs in BOP areas globally.
To achieve these goals it is proposed that SIGHT groups promote and create a range of projects pointing
to this over-arching goal. A movement called IDE90 is proposed as a framework, emanating to large
degree out of the pioneering work of Paul Polak, a practitioner for three decades in sustainable
development and author of Out of Poverty. The company he founded called International
Development Enterprises (IDE) focused on affordable low-tech solutions for poor farmers such as
treadle pumps and drip irrigation systems; and is also associated with an engineering and business
school partnership program called Design for Extreme Affordability which has spawned a number of
new startups such as D-Light and Driptech. Thus IDE has become the acronym standing for the three
guiding principles for community enterprise that all must be present to achieve lasting sustainability1:
Incubate, Demonstrate, and Educate. There are many opportunities for IEEE SIGHT groups to help meet
the full range of needs.
The SIGHT management will therefore support a range of projects up to the limits of its financial and
management resources, which will adapt as the needs grow. In addition, there are already a number of
projects underway, some quite large and ambitious, around which new SIGHT groups can organize
either as technical development or project support groups, or to expand the reach with new capabilities
1

Based on a theory on poverty alleviation that won Amartya Sen the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics.

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or synergies with other partners. Major needs are affordable reliable electricity, lighting and power
tools, communication and entertainment, clean water, cooling and refrigeration, remote learning
centers for technical education and adult education, etc. The following discusses two general types of
activities that SIGHT plans to support.

II. Part A- Education, Networking and Preparatory Projects

The following types of initial activities are of interest for SIGHT development:

A. Inspiration, Encouragement, Orientation

Orienting Engineers towards social innovation/entrepreneurship/Humanitarian activities.
Awakening interest and creating passion for humanitarian work through learning.
Identifying opportunities that will result in practical, useful projects.
Example: The Madras SIGHT group organized a Solar Lamp design contest for students and had an event
showcasing the importance of alternative energy sources.

B. Educational
Programs such as TISP (Teacher In-Service Program) which aim to help local schools in the
underserved regions, and have a good educational value for the participating school
students.

C. Networking
SIGHTs may organize conferences or networking workshops.
Example: Kerala Section had organized a Humanitarian Workshop which connected several NGOs,
Funding Agencies, and IEEE volunteers. The networking forged several partnerships. Networking is one
of the IEEE's major strengths. SIGHT projects will challenge networking to include many IDE based
groups outside of IEEE as well, such as Engineers without Borders, IDE etc.

D. Basic Steps to Applying for SIGHT Part A Project Support

Use the attached application form which contains the following sections:
Name of project or program
Brief description and main purpose to be accomplished
Term of work to be accomplished
Milestones and deliverables
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Proposed budget
Budget support requested from SIGHT and from other partners if any
Long term goal or major program involvement if any
IEEE SIGHT Applicants and key players; contact person or persons
Note that quarterly reports and a final report are required as specified in the Application.

III. Part B- Major Projects

Major SIGHT projects aims are as follows:
Support sustainable technology business initiatives seeking to have a measureable impact in
alleviating global poverty of energy, health care, sanitation, interconnectivity and other
technology-dependent solutions among the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) 1.4 billion people;
Develop open source technology solutions designed to drive down the cost of access to full
benefits in technology areas, while avoiding intellectual property restrictions that keep costs
artificially high and deny affordable access;
Leverage affordable core technologies like electricity, communications and interconnectivity
to bring affordable secondary benefits to the BOP especially education at all levels in rural
poor societies; and
Empower BOP local entrepreneurs and citizens to develop sustainable, scalable profitmaking businesses in-country to grow community prosperity exponentially by reinvesting all
profits in growth to scale and in improving community infrastructure such as roads,
sanitation, health care and education.

Long Range Goals based on IDE

Incubate
This is the phase of initial ideas for both technical project and the companion business development
model. Ideas formulate concepts which are investigated and criticized over the first year. It is
relatively simple to develop a technical prototype on this time scale but the marketability of the
proposal has to be tested both on paper and with discussions of potential business persons and
customers before any funds are spent on prototyping.

Demonstrate
As the name implies, if the project gets legs in the incubate phase a prototype for a pilot
demonstration is justified. For this phase IEEE proposes to extend some funding for development

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and deployment of prototypes in sufficient quantities to test the business model and demonstrate
sustainable operation over a pilot test period. This is anticipated to take about two years.

Educate
Unless there is a local Education component strongly tied to the enterprise, in which the community
learns the technology, learns the business model, and learns to collaborate with a larger community
dedicated to sustainable local entrepreneur owned and operated businesses, all efforts will
ultimately fail. The Educate phase is the key to community empowerment for all members, not just
a privileged few, and is a result of leveraging the initial IEEE investments to cover a holistic panoply
of community needs.

Demonstrate a Sustainable Business Model in BOP Communities

The major demonstration principles are:
Each new on-the-ground business ultimately must aim for ownership by local people and
not by majority absentee landlords siphoning profits away from the community;
Each new business should be started by a local entrepreneur which could be a NonGovernment Organization (NGO) with appropriate business experience but not strictly
necessarily;
Each new business that receives IEEE SIGHT support must agree to raise funds of its own for
the necessary in-country business development expenses; and
Each new initiative should have a companion technical support group formed from a de
facto IEEE SIGHT group operating under a Chapter or Region. These groups can be critical to
incubating the business and partnering with the local company organization in a pro-bono
basis to help solve any technical and/or related business problems in which the founding
group has expertise.

Basic Steps to Applying for SIGHT Major Project Support

The following guidelines are to be used when submitting a project to the SIGHT Projects Subcommittee.

Concept Proposal
Before a full project proposal is developed and submitted for approval, a Project Concept
Proposal must be submitted and approved by the Sub-committee. Concept proposals alone may
be approved for small amounts of funding in order to complete the work for a full proposal. The
following need to be addressed in the Concept document:
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Need and Solution: Describe the need this project is addressing, the proposed solution, and
if this is a local one time project or has the potential to expand to other locales and
countries. Describe the survey results which verify the need from the potential customer
point of view.
Type of Proposal: Describe how this proposal fits into an IDE framework for sustainable
development: Incubate, Demonstrate, Educate or a combination. If it addresses only a
single phase, describe how it relates to other known ongoing projects and phases or to new
planned developments.
Partnerships: Describe the established or proposed partnerships to market the results of the
investment and your vision of how partnerships are to be developed.
Survey of Similar Known Initiatives: Describe how your proposal relates to similar known
initiatives and how it is distinctly different and worthy of support2.
Team members: Provide a list of the team members, their proposed role and experience
both technical and business.
Budget and Schedule: Provide an approximate development timeline and budget needs.

Full Proposal
On approval of the SIGHT committee you will be invited to submit a full proposal which must
include the following:
Executive Summary: Describe as briefly as possible the proposed project, its IDE positioning,
overall business plan and critical partners and personnel involved, why you think it can
become a sustainable business, proposed budget and schedule
Business Model: Describe the proposed business model for the project in the following
phases:
a. Proposed product and technical personnel
b. Basic marketing plan and personnel
c. Initial field survey results if any
2

A simple example would be development of superior components using new technologies to achieve clearly
superior performance at significantly lower cost and can be an IEEE registered open source design licensed to
benefit other IEEE initiatives worldwide.

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d. Pilot phase proposed development funding, sources, deliverables, plans for

deployment
e. Analysis of competitive products on market
f. Plans for manufacturing if applicable: E.g., How many units will be built initially,
where and how will these be paid for? Will there be full scale production, where
will these be built and paid for? Who will take over the project after completion of
the concept/development stage and move into implementation?
g. Significant partnerships and agreements, e.g. NGO partner already established in
field who will form For-Profit, secure funding, establish manufacturing, take
business to full scale.
Schedule: Provide a schedule for the project and identify all milestones. Major milestones
should include approval of the Sub-Committee.
Seed Funding: Provide a detailed budget request. What funding sources, besides SIGHT,
have been identified?
Additional Information: Provide any additional information you believe the Projects SubCommittee needs to have on this project.

Contact Information:
Provide contact information of submitter and one alternate member of the group.
Provide short biographies of key personnel, IEEE Society and Company affiliations.
Provide website links to key partners e.g. NGO partner, manufacturing partner

IV. Submittal:
Please submit to:
Holly Schneider Brown, Program Manager, IEEE Corporate Activities
SIGHT Steering Committee
Holly Schneider Brown (h.s.brown@ieee.org)

V. Follow-Up
After receipt of your application it will be assigned to the Projects Subcommittee for initial
review and you will be contacted for any needed additional information. A decision should be
rendered within 30 days. Note that SIGHT funding is limited and not all worthy applications can
be supported.

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