WINTER 2014
A Letter from the DIL Directors
Dear Colleagues,
It has been two years since the Development Impact Lab (DIL) first opened its doors. Today, we are supporting a network of more than 100 creative
researchers who are solving big problems: from energy poverty and dirty water, to child literacy and worm infections. This annual report provides a
snapshot of our progress in the last year, highlighting some of the transformative science and engineering innovations happening at the University
of California and beyond.
People often ask how DIL decides which technologies and interventions to support. To source new solutions, we invite researchers in our network to
compete for resources, by sharing their best ideas for development. We’ve hosted 7 competitions in the last 2 years, attracting over 150 applications
from research teams across the world. This has yielded a portfolio of more than 40 potential solutions that span the innovation pipeline—from earlystage design and prototyping, to rigorous field evaluation and iterative redesign. Together, these projects are reaching hundreds of thousands of
beneficiaries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The projects that we support are unique—they involve engineers and scientists working alongside experts in marketing, psychology, and development
economics. Some use wireless, distributed measurement technologies and data analytics to understand the preferences of low-income households.
Others leverage breakthrough technologies and innovations to push global development to the cutting edge. Importantly, each project tackles
technical hurdles alongside the economic, political, and behavioral challenges that too often doom promising ideas to failure.
Through our work, DIl is articulating a new field, Development Engineering, which formally links technology innovation with the social and market
interventions needed to achieve scale. A recent op-ed featured in the Washington Post points to a new generation of students interested in this
discipline, and we are building momentum by sponsoring courses, conferences, a peer-reviewed open access journal, and student contests. As we
move into the new year, we hope you’ll join us in transforming the design of pro-poor innovations.
Ashok Gadgil
DIL P.I. and Co-Director
Professor, UC Berkeley
S. Shankar Sastry
DIL Co-Director
Dean of Engineering, UC Berkeley
Temina Madon
DIL Managing Director
Executive Director, CEGA
DIL Year 2: By the Numbers
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