Youth Venture: awesome inventions to change the world

Ashoka’s Youth Venture project ran the Invent Your World Challenge to  reward 16-25 year olds from all over the world for inventions that help their communities. The winners were a big hit at the recent Tech4Society conference in Hyderabad, India.

Still only 16 years old, competition winner Javier Fernández-Han invented an algae-powered energy system that combines a dozen new and existing technologies to treat waste, produce methane and bio-oil for fuel, produce food for humans and livestock, sequester greenhouse gases, and produce oxygen. The VERSATILE system is targeted at developing communities which need sources of power and waste disposal - and while it hasn’t actually been built yet, you’ve got to admire the sheer ambition of the project.

We also love Tractor Factor, designed by 23-year-old Shailesh Upadhyay from Velore, India. He found it difficult to study in the evenings at his home in rural India, so he came up with a system which uses the battery in a tractor to power a fluorescent light at night. It’s now being installed in homes throughout his village.

Really inspiring stuff for a Friday read - find out more about the winners here.