SDG Talks

Abishek Dutta is currently a PhD student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is Pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering Thesis work in the Water-Energy Nexus, with a main focus on energy and resource recovery from wastewater to make wastewater treatment cyclic in nature. His past experiences include water and wastewater treatment, biofuel industry, microbiology, river restoration and cell biology.

At UNLEASH 2019, Abishek worked on an initiative, (called SNKX) to create awareness on untreated wastewater among the public by starting off with education in schools to kids. These kids can act as drivers for change in society by spreading awareness about the problem. The phase 2 is to use an App for direct access to water quality on the coasts. This gives the public access to how clean the beaches are around them. Overall SNKX believes awareness among people will push for change and with this new demand for change there will be political action.

https://unleash.org/solutions/s-n-k-x/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekdutta1094/

Zahin Razeen is a math and statistics graduate from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. A little over a year ago in his home city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Zahin founded Hydroquo, an organization which ensures water security by leveraging AI and big data analytics. This is not his first venture, and he openly admits he is an avid learner and futurist who relishes designing disruptive solutions which utilize deep tech methodologies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zahinrazeen/

Grace Kwak is currently in her final year of undergraduate studies as a Life Sciences major at Yale-NUS College. Grace has had a special focus on research public health projects such as adolescent suicide in South Korea and vaccination confidence in Singapore. After graduating in May 2020, she will be starting medical school in Duke-NUS Medical School (https://www.linkedin.com/in/research-assistant-health/)

At UNLEASH, Grace’s team created a unique idea around incentivizing people in India to use bathroom.  "PoopIT" seeks to create a digital credit-based system where users gain credits for using the toilets; these credits can be used to buy desired products at retail stores. The “poop card” will be a physical and digital card, linked to a digital wallet (which can be accessed by both more high-tech smartphones and simple Nokia phone users, alike). Users simply need to tap in and tap out after using the toilet to earn credits. PoopIT is planning to use a system with simple radio frequency identification technology and a time algorithm to monitor toilet usage and prevent people from tapping in & out at toilet facilities to just earn credits without actually using them. We believe that this external motivator of rewards, coupled with educational campaigns to educate people on the issue of open defecation, will instill an internal motivation to start using toilets and promote sanitation.  To learn about the solution, considering viewing this link: https://unleash.org/solutions/poop-card/

Muhammad Miqdad (https://www.linkedin.com/in/smiqdad/) is a chemical engineering and economics graduate from the University of Rochester in New York. Currently, Muhammad is working as a global operations manager for Every water, an organization based in Karachi, Pakistan where he supports the international expansion of emerging water based clean technologies. Above all, Muhammad is an individual passionate about utilizing modern technology to improve peoples lives.

You can learn more about his startup here http://www.campustimes.org/2019/02/17/ur-senior-plays-key-role-water-filter-startup/and see his Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/smuhammad.miqdad

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Welcome to the first episode of the SDG Talks Podcast! As this is a work in progress, we ask for your feedback so this can improve over time.

The goal of this podcast is to create ongoing discussion around the SDG Goals on a daily basis. After many talents had an amazing experience at the UNLEASH 2019 event in Shenzhen China, we were hungry for more progress. While the experience was amazing, we thought: "What happens after the event?". How can we keep the momentum going for 365 days of every year for the rest of time?

In this first podcast, with Claudia Coleoni, (www.linkedin.com/in/claudiacoleoni/) we learn about the dynamics of nature based solutions and various water crises in Latin America.  Claudia is a Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Latin America Centre and an academic visitor at the University of Oxford, where she completed her MSc degree in Water Science, Policy and Management. At SEI, she provides technical and scientific support in the implementation of strategies and projects related to water management, river basin planning and sustainable sanitation. Currently, she has been working on the Bolivia WATCH Project - or WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Thinking Connected to Hydrology - to ensure both clean and available water in priority river basins in Bolivia, and on the Water Beyond Boundaries initiative in the Magdalena-Cauca river basin, Colombia. Claudia’s work seeks to implement the 2020-2024 SEI’s strategy around the SDGs in Latin America.

At the UNLEASH Innovation Lab in Shenzhen, Claudia contributed to the SDG 6 Water and Sanitation by co-creating Yaku (https://unleash.org/solutions/yaku/), a solution to address the gap between water intermittent supplies coming from water tanks and the user's need for clean, reliable and affordable water supply in the peri-urban areas of Cochabamba, Bolivia.