Teachers & Educators
Ücloud System: ICT local-server kit with DIY Open EdPortal
Our pitch:
The problem we aim to solve is the huge lack of access to essential education within low-income settings throughout the world. This problem affects 60% of Peruvian districts and 2/3 people globally who still don't have reliable access to the Internet and technology. More than half of this group subsists under poor living conditions, heavily affected by everyday problems that are easy to prevent and solve. We are convinced that the lack of access to education is the main reason preventing the development of countless communities.
Taking into consideration the growing demand for education and the shortage of teachers across the world, we believe that our innovative “Do-It-Yourself” approach will enable marginalized users to sustainably access free quality education and will also be key in helping educators personalize their teaching to effectively serve diverse groups of learners, including other educators and even public servants.
Üaiki has created the first low-cost, easy-to-replicate, “Do-It-Yourself” learning system designed to break-down social, economic and geographic barriers in order to connect disadvantaged communities with the greatest opportunities the era of information and technology has to offer. Our solution consists in deploying virtual classrooms with local-network-systems by equipping available settings with Üaiki’s ICT tool-kits(ÜcloudKit) and ÜcloudApp, our open education portal. The ÜcloudKit consist of a Raspberry Pi server, a high-speed router, and an external hard-drive, all pre-programmed to work optimally together. Once the Ücloud:Local-Network is deployed, users will be able to wireless access, download and even share digital content and tools through our app via different devices. ÜcloudApp’s intuitive and user-friendly interface provides an easy to use “Do-it-Yourself” learning experience from the start, allowing users of all ages to discover new interests and develop essential skills.
Furthermore, ÜcloudApp works online and offline thanks to being compatible with the Ücloud:Local-Network and our remote-internet-server, enabling users to access ÜcloudApp from basically anywhere. It’s worth to note, that our system allows to keep all resources and data updated by syncing ÜcloudKit’s local-server with the internet by periodically connecting it to the nearest internet port.
Our strategy depends on ÜcloudApp's user-base to assure its sustainability and the progressive growth of available resources. For this reason, we encourage ordinary users and educators who count with reliable internet to share essential resources either created or compiled by them to help us change the world by delivering essential education to the people that need it the most.
Moreover, our NGO, Üaiki Global Initiative(ÜGI), produces original educational content such as video-courses and step-by-step manuals designed to solve critical day-to-day problems while promoting sustainable development within the world’s most challenging habitats, including Urban-Marginal, Sierra, Forest, Desert & Frozen-Tundra. Hence, we strategically chose, Peru, the world’s most diverse country, as the ideal platform for Program-Habitat5 before we expand abroad to reaffirm our approach.
It's worth note that apart from ÜGI’s creative work, users will be empowered by accessing a wide variety of essential open-resources, including videos, books, art, photography, music, history, news, sports, science, Wikipedia-pages, vocational-training courses, educational apps, games and more.
Watch our elevator pitch:
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Lima, PeruThe dimensions of the Challenge our solution addresses:
What makes our solution innovative:
We have applied cutting-edge innovations to engineer an integrated system that enables to sustainably deliver educational programs in low-income communities. Our solution has been designed completely user-friendly, allowing educators, community leaders and ordinary users to take advantage of our solution from the start. Our portal together with our ICT tool-kits(Ücloudkits) permits to easily deploy and sync our local-networks, enabling to wireless access and share terabits of updated open educational resources from anywhere and at no-cost. ÜcloudApp is intuitive and provides a diverse category menu to ease-up access to all available resources including: videos, PDFs, apps, audio, and pictures.
How technology is integral to our solution:
The exponential technological development allows us to take advantage of multiple innovations and movements to create our solution. Today's Internet capabilities along with advancements in hardware, software and in the supply-chain of open educational resources allow us to engineer a complete and scalable system. Our hardware innovation consists of low-cost ICT tool-kits, including powerful local-servers and other tools such as tablets, solar-systems, projectors and more. These kits, come pre-programmed to be compatible with ÜcloudApp and with our remote-internet-server, allowing to keep resources updated, while encouraging ÜcloudApp users counting with internet to share essential open resources with those in need.
Our solution goals over the next 12 months:
We need to exploit our first-mover advantage to the market. Therefore, during this incoming months, we will prioritize the launch of Üaiki's digital marketing and crowdfunding campaigns till the end of Tuesday 27 of November(#GivingTuesday, the new global day for giving back). This will enable us to earn exposure, credibility, a community of supporters and more importantly financing from incoming sales and donations. Once achieved this goal, Üaiki will be able to continue with Program-Habitat5, helping 4 more completely different communities in Peru before we expanding abroad to the community of Santa Maria de Chimalapa in Mexico.
Our vision over the next three to five years to grow and scale our solution to affect the lives of more people:
ÜcloudApp will always be available in most languages and at no-cost. Moreover, we’ll offer our hardware through our website and other channels like Alibaba and Amazon. Moreover, Üaiki will exploit the social impact of Program-Habitat5 through a powerful digital marketing campaign centered on Mexico/Kenya/India/China and Papua New-Guinea, the next 5 countries we plan to expand to. It's worth note, that we’ll expand to just one community per country, each representing a unique habitat. This will strategically help raise awareness globally and will boost the demand for our hardware and software solutions to allow greater social impact worldwide.
Our promotional video:
The key characteristics of the populations who will benefit from our solution in the next 12 months:
The regions where we will be operating in the next 12 months:
The countries where we currently operate:
Where we plan to expand in the next 12 months:
How we will reach and retain our customers or beneficiaries:
A strong digital marketing presence will raise awareness on the benefits of Üaiki’s innovation while gaining a loyal online community and boosting demand for our software and hardware solutions. Furthermore, ÜcloudApp will be an open platform, compatible with Android, Apple, and PC, serving all users. It's worth note that, ÜGI will expand to 10 communities in the next 2 years and plans to donate kits to other disadvantaged communities once financially sustainable. Moreover, Üaiki Unlimited will commercialize our different options of ÜcloudKits to adapt to different educational program’s requirements and budgets in order to potentially help every low-income setting.
How many people we are currently serving with our solution:
We continue implementing Pilot-Program-Habitat1 in Lares, Cusco one of the poorest districts in Peru. We’ve impacted around 3000 people including children and adults. Our hardware kit and app is used during the morning time in the local school and in the afternoons in Üaiki's community-development-center(CDC). Üaiki's CDC strategic location eases-up access to the entire population. Indicators show that young users have raised their school grades while adults are using essential education to improve their quality of life and promote economic development. We conduct follow-ups each week with the local leadership in charge and visit every 6 weeks to conduct research.
How many people we will be serving with our solution in the 12 months and the next 3 years:
Üaiki Global Initiative(ÜGI) will reach 5 districts in 5 different Peruvian regions by the end of the first semester of 2019. Our research predicts +50,000 people being benefited by the end of Program-Habitat5. Moreover, we plan reach Mexico and Kenya by the first semester of 2020 and we’ll conclude with ÜGI’s international expansion once reached India, China, and Papua New Guinea by the second semester of 2020. We’ll apply strong marketing strategies to exploit ÜGI’s international social impact to open up the global market and commercialize our solution through Üaiki Unlimited helping thousands of low-income communities by 2021.
How our solution team is organized:
Hybrid of For Profit and NonprofitHow many people work on our solution team:
9How many years we have been working on our solution:
1-2 yearsThe skills our solution team has that will enable us to attract the different resources needed to succeed and make an impact:
One important thing that nobody else has is enough passion and energy to be incredibly contagious. This skill has helped me build a dynamic and fully committed team.
Not being able to describe all, I will highlight two whose abilities and commitment are groundbreaking.
Lewis Yuburi, full-stack software engineer with 10 years of international experience, expert in e-learning platforms and Raspberry Pi servers. His skill is key to reaching optimal user-experience and full scalability of our system.
Anishell Freundt, audiovisual producer with 7 years of experience. Her talent will allow Üaiki’s media launch to be groundbreaking.
Our revenue model:
We will be the first in the global market to offer a low-cost, easy to replicate, “Do-It-Yourself” learning system designed to help disadvantaged communities sustainably access quality education. To allow demand for a disruptive solution to grow fast we will have to prioritize marketing. Üaiki Global Initiative(ÜGI) will trigger social impact in 5 world habitats while promoting our solution’s benefits, boosting demand for it across the world. It's worth note, that even though our learning platform will always be free, we plan to achieve financial sustainability through incoming donations to our NGO and Üaiki Unlimited’s hardware sales.
Why we are applying to Solve:
Our alliance in 2016 with Open Learning Exchange, was determinant, proving how important mentorship and strategic alliances can be.
Furthermore, we can't ignore that MIT is one of the world's top innovation hubs, being a member of Solve will definitely help us potentiate crucial fronts. For Üaiki being part of this ecosystem will enable us to collaborate with renown experts on innovation, international development, education and even business management. Without doubt, taking advantage of this opportunity will be critical.
Moreover, it’s exciting for us to have the chance to give back to the Solve community by helping other social innovators.
The key barriers for our solution:
We need to keep our technology cutting-edge, for this reason, we’ll constantly update our software and hardware to provide the most scalable and versatile educational delivery-system. Solve’s strategic advice on whether to migrate from one code to another or to switch ÜcloudKit’s mini-computer from Raspberry Pi to other alternatives such as Sapphire/AMD could be game changer in the future.
Solver status will indeed help us optimize our approach while also raising Üaiki’s credibility, attracting talent, allowing to access more resources, generating more media traction, raising demand for our solution and ultimately enabling us impact even more communities in need.
The types of connections and partnerships we would be most interested in if we became Solvers:
Solution Team
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RP
Rory Phimister Program Director, Open Learning Exchange -
Karim Rifai Burneo Founder & CEO , Üaiki
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Our tagline:
Our sustainable approach for developing disadvantaged communities enables to deliver high-quality open-educational-resources even where internet is still far from reach.