Wednesday marks final judging for U inventors in competition

The classic idea of an “inventor” might be a lone genius tinkering in a basement lab. But University of Minnesota electrical engineering alumnus and inventor Patrick Delaney ’s innovation process has involved world travel and lots of listening.

He’s been working on ways to help developing Nicaraguan communities since he first visited the Central American country in 2004.

Four years later, he and teammates Matt Beckler , a computer engineering alumnus, and electrical engineering senior Caleb Braff are one of 12 finalist teams — narrowed from a field of more than 100 — in the nationwide Collegiate Inventors Competition with their solar-powered light.

Final judging is scheduled to take place Wednesday in Kansas City , Mo., where one grand-prize team will receive $25,000, and two other teams — one undergraduate and one graduate — will each receive $15,000.

The team’s invention is a miniature solar-powered system that charges a battery, which then powers a light-emitting diode for nighttime lighting.

Because the team is in the process of getting a patent for the design, Delaney didn’t reveal further details.

Powering LEDs with solar energy is nothing new, but the team’s invention is novel because it can overcome some of the challenges of providing solar lanterns to developing communities, team adviser and electrical engineering faculty Paul Imbertson said.

Figuring out a sustainable system for getting solar lanterns to people through a business model or conditional transfer system, rather than simply giving them away, is a challenge.

Beyond that, there are issues with getting materials for the lights and shipping the parts.

Imbertson said Delaney’s idea gets around many of those roadblocks.

“It’s the whole holistic picture, which I thought was very, very unique,” he said. “Ideas are a dime a dozen, but what’s a big deal are solutions.”

He said he expects the innovation to be used in a variety of ways.

“Part of the beauty,” he said, is that it “can be directly integrated into local culture.”

It could also be part of a new model of power distribution for developing countries, he added. While developed nations like the United States depend on central power plants, some think a distributed model might be better.

Since developing nations can “start from scratch,” solar lanterns and other micro-power systems might be the first step toward new distributed power models.

If his team wins prize money, Delaney said it will be put into studying the idea further.

He said he’s particularly interested in figuring out how to distribute the light so it will increase access to education.

That’s where Macalester College economics assistant professor and University alumna Amy Damon comes in.

She has experience evaluating education programs in Latin America, and now she’s working with Delaney to evaluate how lights could impact education in Nicaragua.

“The idea of bundling this new technology and the evaluation of it is kind of fun and new for me,” she said.

Extending the amount of “productive light” in a household could give kids more time to do homework and can have a positive impact on their overall education.

By randomly assigning households to receive lights with and without the condition that the families’ children attend school, she’ll try to learn what factors enable a household to invest in education and skill development.

The University team is one of only four undergraduate team finalists. Two others are from Johns Hopkins University , while one is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.