This week at Change we will be hosting Katie Curran, a PhD student in epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health. She recently returned from Kenya where she spent 7 months collecting data for her dissertation. One part of her study involved using SMS to collect daily & monthly data on HIV risk behaviors from participants of a larger HIV prevention clinical trial.

Mobile phone text messaging represents an emerging low-technology and low-cost option for data collection in Africa. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a novel HIV prevention strategy. Adherence to PrEP is key for effective HIV prevention, and understanding patterns of adherence related to sexual behavior may be especially important for PrEP efficacy.  Katie conducted a study of daily Short Message Service (SMS) data collection among HIV-uninfected members of HIV serodiscordant couples to measure sexual behavior and PrEP use. Come to Change this Thursday to find out more!

Before coming to UW, Katie completed her master’s in international health at Johns Hopkins and worked on HIV research studies in Tanzania and India.

What: Katie Curran on HIV prevention in Kenya

When: Thursday, May 17 at 12 noon

Where: The Allen Center, room CSE 203

This week at Change we will be hosting Dr Grace John-Stewart from the UW Department of Global Health.

Dr. John-Stewart trained as an internist and pediatrician prior to specializing in infectious diseases, and received a PhD in epidemiology. Her research is focused on international HIV-1 studies, primarily based in Kenya. These include studies of transmission, prevention, clinical epidemiology, clinical trials, and molecular epidemiology. She is currently the Director of the CFAR International Core, Kenya Research Program, and UW Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents and Children (Global WACh). Dr. John-Stewart received the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award, has mentored over 60 students/fellows, received a K24 Mentorship Award, was nominated for the UW post-doctoral mentorship award and received a UW School of Medicine mentorship award.

What: Dr Grace John-Stewart

When: Thursday, May 10 at 12 noon

Where: The Allen Center, room CSE 203

This Thursday at Change, James Dailey will talk about his work with MicroEnergy Credits.

MicroEnergy Credits is a financial intermediary which links microfinance institutions to the carbon markets when they lend for clean energy. Founded in 2007 and based in Seattle, Washington, MicroEnergy Credits works with Microfinance Institutions and Carbon Emission Reducers around the world. MEC is a for-profit social enterprise financed by impact investors. Today, MEC reaches over 120,000 households with clean energy services in partnership with 20 microfinance institutions.   James will speak about MicroEnergy Credits successful program in sourcing tens of thousands of tonnes of  carbon emission reduction credits from Mongolia, one cookstove at a time.  MEC’s Credit Tracker, which automates carbon monitoring, is a key part of that process.

James Dailey is the co-founder and CTO of MicroEnergy Credits. In his role as CTO, James is the primary architect and visionary behind Credit Tracker, MEC’s cloud-based platform for tracking and monitoring of microfinance-based carbon credits.  James founded the microfinance opensource project MIFOS, and was a key figure in starting OpenLMIS, an open source solution for public health logistics in developing countries.  He holds a degree in MIS from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters in International Environmental Policy from the University of Washington.

What: James Dailey on MicroEnergy Credits

When: Thursday May 3rd at 12 noon

Where: The Allen Center CSE 203

Where: Paul Allen Center, Room CSE 203

The Vodafone Americas Foundation designed the Wireless Innovation Project as a competition to promote innovation and increase implementation of wireless related technology for a better world.

This year, UW Change’s FoneAstra project was chosen as one of the eight finalists.

FoneAstra integrates a temperature sensor probe with a commodity mobile phone to ensure safe pasteurization of donor breast milk at human milk banks. It is a low-cost accessory for mobile phones that provides continuous temperature monitoring and real-time feedback to users during pasteurization, and archives temperature-time data at a server for remote review and audit. The total cost for the monitoring system will be less than US$100, compared to commercial-grade pasteurizers, which cost up to $12,000.

FoneAstra and PATH, recently received a Gates Grand Challenge Exploration grant to deploy the technology at human milk banks in South Africa. FoneAstra will help ensure that the breast milk given to vulnerable infants is free of bacteria and viruses, including HIV, while retaining its nutritional value.

Congratulations to Rohit Chaudhri and the entire FoneAstra team (in CSE, HCDE, and PATH) on being named a finalist for the Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project.