Oh, patents! Energy-generating soccer ball

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Someone – incidentally a female Harvard graduate hailing from Nigeria – is making waves producing energy-generating soccer balls to democratize access to energy.

Her name is Jessica Matthews and her company is aptly called Uncharted Play. Jessica Matthews was just 19 years old and enrolled in a class, when she invented SOCCKET, the soccer ball that generates off-the-grid clean energy, using the kinetic energy of play and happiness! An invention that has since then also led to light producing jump ropes!

If you are ever panning for gold on the Internet, then Jessica Mathews' company,  Uncharted Play , is also a gem. Uncharted Play produces:

“energy-generating play products that power and empower communities worldwide”

and in this capacity is also a full-fledged participant in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to end poverty by 2030. Additionally, Uncharted Play  sponsors a US Department of Education STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum to uplift 1 million social inventors by 2020. 

The patent application filed for the energy producing soccer-ball is US2013023365 titled Energy storing device and method of using the same. The invention disclosed in the patent application comprises an energy-generating module, inserted within a soccer ball. The energy-generating module comprises a pendulum, which produces energy when it swings, and thus charges the energy-generating module using the kinetic energy of play. The energy generating module is coupled to a battery which then stores the captured swinging pendulum energy for use after playing. 

The document further discloses that the invention arises in a context of 1.5 billion people without electricity in the world, a portion of whom have to rely on kerosene-burning energy. Kerosene-burning energy compounds the problems of the absence of energy with noxious and toxic fumes. Kerosene is also a very expensive source of energy, estimated to use up to 30% of a household budget.

Finally, the absence of energy, mainly in the Third World, is disclosed as a factor that significantly stunts possible mobile app-based developments, which depend on the use of electricity. Consequently, this invention primarily arises in a problematic socio-economic context of poverty, exacerbated by the absence of energy.

The Abstract for US2013023365 titled Energy storing device and method of using the same is included below with the Figure 1 drawing extracted from the disclosure. An image of the commercially available product "in-action" is included above. 

A ball includes a shell defining a spheroid. The shell includes an opening and a panel to close the opening. The panel has a sleeve that extends radially inward. A generation module is disposed in a cavity defined by the shell. The generation module includes a housing. A pendulum, an electric generator, and a battery are disposed in the housing. The pendulum is mechanically coupled to a rotor of the electric generator at a first axis of rotation of the pendulum and the electric generator is electrically coupled to the battery. An acceleration of the ball causes the pendulum to rotate about the first axis of rotation. The rotation of the pendulum rotates the rotor of the electric generator. The rotation of the rotor of the electric generator generates electricity, and at least a portion of the generated electricity is stored by the battery. [Abstract US2013023365]

References

Uncharted Play

http://www.unchartedplay.com/

STEM – US Dept. of Education
https://www.ed.gov/stem

October 11, 2015 – International Day of the Girl Child

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Today is the International Day of the Girl Child, promulgated in 2011 by the United Nations. This year’s theme for celebrations is “The power of the adolescent girl: Visions for 2030”.

Indeed, 2015 is an important benchmark year as it marks both the deadline for measuring all that was accomplished since 2000 when the UN set the first series of Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), and the onset of a second set of Goals for Sustainable Development (GSDs) with a deadline in 2030.

Looking back on the past 15 years, progress is reported for Millenium Development Goal Number 3 designed to promote gender equality and to empower women. The girl child has more chances of attending elementary school, of being vaccinated and of receiving food. However, girls still lag behind in receiving an education at the secondary and university levels. They still do not receive enough information or means to manage their reproductive health, to avoid child marriages, or to protect themselves against sexual violence. (MDGs - Report, 2015)

Recognizing the pivotal role (beyond reproduction) that girls play in the economic development  and well-being of nations, the Goals for Sustainable Development set forth in 2015, include girls in goal Number 5 – Gender equality, with such targets as:

•        End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere
•        Eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in private and public spheres
•        Eliminate all harmful practices (including genital mutilation and forced marriages)
•         Recognize the value of unpaid and domestic work with the provision of public services and social protection
•        Ensure women’s full participation and opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making
•        Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health
•        Undertake reforms to ensure women’s right to economic resources, access and ownership of land
•         Enhance the use of enabling technologies, and
•         Adopt and strengthen policies that promote gender equality (UN- Goal 5 )

 In 2030, the girl child of today will be an adolescent girl, and the UN recognizes this day her power to change the world, contingent upon the achievement of targets set forth this year for Sustainable Development Goal Number 5, in 2030.

As for the first set of Millenium Development Goals that the UN drafted 15 years ago, in 2000, nations will be able to monitor progress of the new Sustainable Development Goals set forth this year, during the course of  the next 15 years, with an ever better fate for young girls.

Happy Girl Child Day to all gals big and small!

References

UN International Day of the Girl Child 2015

http://www.un.org/en/events/girlchild/ 

UN - Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all girls and women

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/post-2015-development-agenda/goal-5.html 

UN - Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/post-2015-development-agenda.html

UN- Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml 

Millenium Development goals Report 2015

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf

 

International Women's Day 2014 at the UN

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Today, March 8, was International Women’s Day, celebrated with a very special invitation at the United Nations, in NYC, for men and boys to hold up one half of the sky and walk side by side with women on the path to equal rights.

Why? Because: equality for women is progress for all

This is the message that was reported and substantiated in a UN panel session convened on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2014, and it is the new foundation upon which the UN will devise a second set of development goals to end world poverty, once the UN Millennium Development Goals of the year 2000 expire at the end of this year.

Indeed, it was an extraordinary victory for women worldwide that equality and the empowerment of women was included as Goal No. 3 in the UN Millennium Development Goals of the year 2000, considering that 188 nations ratified recognition of the role of women in economic development beyond childbearing. And it should be even more interesting and extraordinary to see how good men and boys will respond to an explicit HE for SHE program in support of equal rights for women for the purposes of fostering development for all.

Please feel free to listen to this important invitation in the speeches of H.E. Mr. John W. Ashe, President of the United Nations General Assembly, and Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuke, Under Secretary and Executive Director of UN Women, directly at the UN Women Watch site: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/

You will also find in this webcast of the event plenty of additional data and information in the speeches of the other 3 members of this distinguished 2014 International Woman’s Day UN panel, including:

H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who kept a promise to tell the world about female genital mutilations, and to speak in support of women activists seeking to put an end such practices;

Former US Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who called for Women Rights as Human Rights, 20 years ago; and 

Ms. Andrea Nunez, Vice President of the World YWCA Board, representing young women and civil society, working in the field to end child marriages and violence against women, and to support equal rights for women.

References

International Women’s Day at the UN (March 8, 2014)
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/

UN Millennium goals

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/