GridApp

Lack of energy access often corresponds to significant humanitarian needs in developing countries. Local practitioners face difficulties to access data and best practices in rural electrification, so bringing electricity to vulnerable communities is particularly challenging. We aim to combine in an app a number of existing powerful open-source tools for development of solar electrification projects and overcome their complexity of use while better considering the humanitarian aspects.

Project Team

Agnes Jakab

Agnes is a Human Resources professional, working in the nonprofit sector. She is big believer in the power of multidisciplinary teams, and skills offered on a voluntary basis. She's part of THE Port organising team from the hackathon’s earliest days. She plays viola and loves the outdoors, including some crazy swims in cold mountain lakes...

Alberto Degiovanni

Alberto is an accelerator physicist. After his experience as fellow at CERN he is working in the field of appications of particle accelerators to medicine. He obtained his PhD in Physics at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He loves science and its application for society.

Amudha Ravishankar

Amudha is an architect & urban planner from India. She is a freelance GIS Consultant in Geneva. She had been part of crowd sourced attempt on mapping during the Chennai floods and Nepal earthquake. As an urban planner in India and Libya, she had been part of Disaster Management plans, master Plans and Traffic operational plans. As a volunteer and project assistant she was involved in content development of the CORE Humanitarian Training material in a NGO in Geneva and had assisted the GIS and Data Team of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative & Ebola Response, WHO, Geneva.

Anna Zinecker

Anna is an energy practioner and political scientist. Her specialties are understanding systems, translating complicated stuff into something that people can relate to, reality-checks and making things work. She works with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) on fossil fuel subsidies. She previously worked with GIZ, as an advisor on energy policy to the German government and three years for the Energising Development programme in Rwanda. She developed a results-based financing mechanism for mini-grids and solar lighting solutions for rural households and worked with government and Rwandan companies to develop a market for private micro-hydro power plants.

Anthony Thomas

Anthony is a software developer working for trainline.com, day to day he works on building and maintaining journey planning and fares software across the european rail system. In addition to this he has entered a wide variety of hackathons and produced projects ranging from interactive 3D mapping, satellite data processing applications to robotic controls and fitness trackers.

Ben Bowler

Ben is a chartered electrical engineer living in Geneva, Switzerland. His professional expertise is in electricity transmission, distribution and renewable generation covering design, project management, business development and strategy. He now manages a small consultancy specialising in rural electrification in remote areas with a particular focus on development and humanitarian applications for renewable energy. When he is not at work Ben enjoys running and climbing in the Alps.

Dessy Anggraeni

Dessy is an agricultural economist with a passion for data science and forecasting. Before she came to Switzerland in 2016, she had worked for private businesses in Indonesia and an agricultural research institute in Germany. As of of the entrepreneurs supported by SINGA Switzerland, Dessy is currently developing a data communication platform to assist small-holder farmers in South Africa. She lives in Bern with her husband and loves to enjoy the beautiful nature of the country.

Eric Verploegen

Eric has a background in materials science and received his PhD in Polymer Science and Technology from MIT. He currently works at MIT D-Lab, where his work focuses on supporting organizations based in off-grid regions to identify technologies, products, and distribution strategies to increase energy access in their communities. He also enjoys playing pick-up basketball and frisbee.

Fatima Bojaï

Fatima develops communication and advocacy campaigns and works on publications and driven purpose events. As a G3iD member, she was in the marcom team of the Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day. Last year, she did a photo-book picturing an NGO action in 5 countries : education, health, shelter, WaSH, etc. Previously, at the Geneva Red Cross, she worked on a historical book to celebrate 150 years, and organized events. In the 90s, Fatima founded an office to promote contemporary art from Southern Countries. Fatima holds some university degrees, in cultural, development and humanitarian fields.

James Jennings

James is an entrepreneur, business consultant, and former executive with experience in coffee, renewable energy, health care, and other industries. This is his third hackathon with THE Port. He enjoys travel, cooking, skiing, hiking, rowing, and making maple syrup.

Mohammad Moosajee

Mohammad is an experienced fellow with a demonstrated history of working in the public policy industry. He is a strong believer in advocating for Renewable Energy as he has experienced consequences of climate change. He is initiating an experimental start-up in West Texas/Panhandle Region to help farmers switch their mills & cotton gins to renewable energy source. Mohammad is also doing research on Quantum Mechanics and Particle Entanglement, looking for ways to fabricate quantum computer cheap and less complex. He loves to travel and explore new places, hike mountains, and camping.

Oday Darwich

Oday is a Computer Scientist R&D with interest in CyberSecurity. He is a member in the Swiss-CyberSecurity association. He is very active and he has an Entrepreneurial passion. Oday mentored the Geneva Summer Schools students projects for two months and based on a platform developed by MIT media lab called buildinprogress he adapt it to Sustainable Development Goal of the UN to a platform called sdginprogress.com where creators could share their project, its progress and keep track of their ideas.

Oliver Paul

Oliver is a mechanical engineer currently working in the Future of Energy team at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Oliver has experience across the tech startup scene, offshore oil and gas exploration and in the disaster response NGO sector, having worked within a number of disaster zones between Peru and the Philippines. A lover of the mountains; Oliver is also a passionate paraglider pilot, kite-surfer, skier and alpinist.

Phoebe Oriama

Phoebe is currently studying Electrical and Electronics engineering. She has particular interest in embedded systems and hardware programming. Social innovation is one of the main reasons she uses engineering and innovation as a tool. She is currently working with Gearbox and Fedha Electrics on different projects in Kenya that include developing and automation of systems that improve the lives of communities.

Valerio Rossetti

Dr. Valerio Rossetti worked for 8 years on the ATLAS experiment at CERN, where he contributed to the search for the possible production of dark matter in particle collision data. After a year as quantitative consultant in EY, he co-founded the startup SamurAI, based in Geneva. He develops solutions using artificial intelligence, automations and data analysis, for a variety of industries. He also organises training programs for professionals who want to boost their quantitative skills.

GridApp

Image

Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 07: Affordable and clean energy

Attributes

Environmental

Infrastructure

Team

pier-17

Events

THE Port Humanitarian Hackathon 2017