Our Mission
Myriam talks to us about the financial challenge of sending her children to school.
This Spring, Team From Concentrate made a pact to do something for those who need it most – the other 90% living on less than $1/day.
We’re a team of 6 Stanford Engineering and Business students and grads dedicated to empowering rural household communities with affordable and reliable off-grid electricity. This summer 4 us will travel to Tanzania to work in villages near Arusha and Karatu. With a richer cultural understanding of those living in rural areas and well below the poverty line, we hope to be able to take our new found insights and design a device that truly fits their needs.
Our focus is to simultaneously provide a technology that will bring electricity to off-grid households and facilitate increased income generation. We have found that a significant portion of household income is being spent on fuel for lighting, batteries for electronic devices, and cell phone charging – money that could otherwise be directed towards better education or proper heath and nutrition.
We’ll update our blog frequently and we hope that you’ll follow along on our adventures!
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Our Team
The Engineers:
- Greg Lee *homeboy* is a Master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He received his undergraduate degree in ME from Stanford as well. He currently works at D-Rev and previously worked at CoolEarth Solar for two years, a utility-scale solar power venture in the bay area.
- Nathan Parkhill *the Apple Guy* works for Apple and helps out on the engineering side for FromConcentrate. He received his M.S and B.S from Stanford in Mechanical Engineering.
- Lesley Silverthorn *d.thorn with d.puppy* will be working at D2M in the fall. She graduated from Stanford with a B.S in Product Design and an M.S in Mechanical Engineering.
- Bryan Duggan *fromtheGREATlakes* is also a Master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford. He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University. He previously worked at Johnson Controls.
The B-Folk:
- Patty Buckley *Adult Supervision* received her MBA from the GSB at Stanford and is also working towards a Master’s in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Prior to grad school, Patty worked at Google for 4 years, in California, Brazil and Argentina.
- Amanda Gonzalez *Young’n w/skillz* is a Master’s student in Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) with a focus on Energy and the Environment. She finished up her undergraduate work this year in MS&E. Amanda is interested in social entrepreneurship, social justice, and sustainable development.
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I wish you success in your endevor. I look forward to hearing more about your project. I have been a long time advocate of locally sustainable technology. Uncle Tracy
Hi! So glad you’re reading our blog! We’ll keep you updated!
Hi — A very admirable activity. Happens I was trying the same thing in 1970, using PV to power a low-lift water pump to help in irrigation — in Indonesia and Brazil at the time. It failed because of economic problems.
Don’t forget that someone will be negatively impacted by your success — the “rich” folk that provide the charging services now. That is what killed the project I was leading in 1970. Displacing someone earning 5 cents an hour pumping water on a stair-stepper like pump would have lost his job.
I love reading all your blogs and admire all of you for your commitment and ambition.
Good luck — Amanda’s maternal grandfather
Greetings team. I wish you the best of luck. I have just returned from Karatu, Tanzania and have spent much of my academic career working on the transfer of renewable energy technologies. Perhaps I could help you out. Let me know.