Crafting effective teams.

[Re-appropriated from the ESW class blog. Written by me.]

It's hard to believe that all this -- the solar kiosk project, the Chife Foundation, and now this class -- began with a simple officer application to ESW a year ago. That led to applying for the solar grant through SunEdison. I fell into a leadership role to design a solar device -- something I knew nothing about. I was more than a person among my student peers, trying to do something interesting with solar technology: people looked to me for vision, direction, and motivation. While daunting at first, I have come to genuinely enjoy this role. It is deeply satisfying to help create this amazing opportunity, which will also benefit people in need.

The challenge, of course, is knowing how to craft an effective team. Rarely are we taught the theory behind it. Most managers in the professional world are promoted to the position by default of seniority and expertise. This is odd. Management is not necessarily intuitive and is rarely cultivated in undergraduate schooling. I think we, as a society, underestimate the difficulty of the position. As an engineer, I still feel obligated to produce tangible work outputs. This translates into me spending time doing the work that my team should be doing. It's a common mistake, and easier to diagnose than to treat. For me, the challenge is to fundamentally recognize the value of management work and to focus more on team building than doing everything myself.

That said, I am absolutely ecstatic about the prospects of this class. Our class leaders have great technical experience in the field and will be valuable resources for guidance and knowledge. There are stellar students here, passionate about sustainability and eager to make real contributions to the world. It will be a real fun group to work with.

The Spirit of Democracy != Nigeria.

Larry Diamond on Nigeria: "Nigeria is one of the saddest places on earth."

What an amazing professor. He knows his stuff thoroughly, has traveled all over the world, and genuinely hopes for better governance everywhere. He is equally articulate in writing and in person. I look forward to reading the rest of this book. I found it inspiring to speak with him in person and discuss Nigeria and its future prospects. His appearance was timely, needless (though unfortunately) to say.

His presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6adzpz12AE

Partnering with The Chife Foundation

Good news, folks: Green Islands Solar is set to provide solar charging kiosk(s) for the Chife Foundation next year. Whoo! This means we will head to Nigeria next summer to install the kiosk in Anam City, a prototype sustainable "rurban" African city. Whoo!

My presentation of our group went over well with the Director last week. I framed it as, "This is the energy systems work I've done for you as an intern, but there's much left to be done and our group can help you make it a reality." He was excited by the idea of solar kiosks as a seed project, and amused by my outright pitch for our group. ("So, when's the IPO?" he joked.)

We have yet to work out the financial details for the pilot project. They will pay for materials and shipment, but it's unclear how much they would contribute to fly the installers to Nigeria. These details will be ironed out as we get better cost estimates and a clearer design. However, a partnership on a project receiving international recognition should make it easy to close any gaps with fundraising.

Assembling the presentation prompted questions about our business model. Our work in business development has identified two potential paths for GIS: producer of solar battery charging systems (which leads to mass manufacturing, micro-franchising, etc., a la Fenix Intl.), or standalone solar infrastructure consultants (which leads to customized engineering, design, and installation, a la Inveneo).

With the Chife Foundation, we have the opportunity to serve as energy consultants for their systems design. They are sitting on a contract for a 100kW installation and don't know how it should be used. (My impression is that they don't have an installer, either -- just a supplier.) We could act as the consultants who suggest they use the capacity for X, Y, Z, and here's how it would look. Their PV system design was nonexistent when I came in. While I have provided an array of ideas for how a city may exist as a collection of standalone PV systems (i.e. green islands of a much larger scale), there is much work to be done in providing real design, capacity calculations, construction engineering, etc. Depending on the technical capacity of our team, we could even assist with installation, training, etc., of those larger-scale systems. I am concerned about jumping in over our heads, but hey -- we've done that from the beginning and look where we are!

All of this is very exciting and happening quite fast. I never could have anticipated where this green islands project would end up. Who knows? This could potentially lead to a career, a business. Or at least some fantastic experiences constructing solar installations in rural areas.

Green Islands gets the green light

We won funding to prototype our Green Islands project -- a solar-powered battery charging system. $7,500 to build it. I am so stoked. What an amazing opportunity to be the project leader on a promising idea for rural electrification. Connections with international NGOs are already materializing. This project is for real.

A door opens.

I applied for an officer position with Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW). The position I chose was co-Director of Events, which is essentially to plan quarterly technical, social, and networking events for the group.

I went in for the interview. The position wasn't all that thrilling, but at least I'd be involved with ESW.

The two officers there told me they were very impressed with my resume and thought my talents would be better utilized elsewhere. They had just heard about a new project opportunity with excellent professional networking and long-term funding options. There is a request for proposals to design a solar-powered water delivery system for rural India. The officers said they wanted me to be the project leader. It's a project that will be exciting, challenging, and open-ended. And I could potentially go to India over the summer. I would be leading a team to submit a proposal, develop a design (if we win the funding), define the scope of the project, and lead a class in Winter and Spring quarters to get other students involved.

Step 1: submit a proposal and get funding. Step 0: make a proposal. Step ... uh... -1: figure out how the hell to design a solar-powered water delivery system.