Student startup “Pumping Life” wins first place in second annual Hult Prize @ FIU

Jasiel Lopez/Contributing Writer

“Pumping Life,” a student startup business focusing on converting kinetic energy into electrical energy, has won first place in the University’s second annual Hult Prize competition on Friday, Dec. 15.

Several teams competed in creating a startup business that tackles a problem affecting the global community. The challenge for this year, as stated in the Hult Prize 2018 Challenge packet, was to create “a scalable, sustainable social enterprise that harnesses the power of energy to transform the lives of 10 million people by 2025.”

The winning team of this year’s competition, “Pumping Life,” consists of four members: Luisana Zambrano, a junior majoring in international relations; Daniel Teran, a sophomore majoring in finance; Maria Giraldo, a junior studying biomedical engineering; and Samuel Hernandez, a sophomore majoring in finance.

The team’s proposal is to create a system that utilizes kinetic energy from existing water pumps in Sub-Saharan Africa and converting that kinetic energy into electrical energy. The electrical energy created could be used to power cell phones, which are often used for mobile banking in that region.

The team believes their idea can help transform the economic reality of poverty stricken countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Sometimes Africa is excluded from globalization, from the global market, so once we get them in to that financial system they’ll develop as countries, as communities,” Zambrano said.

The team believes that this can be achieved through more access to mobile banking by having sources of electrical energy that power mobile phones.

“Through mobile banking, people can be more economically stable. Our main purpose is to facilitate the use of that and [for them to] be more prosperous in the future,” Hernandez said.

The group of four competed for the first time this year to fulfill a requirement for their social entrepreneurship class. The team was randomly put together, according to Teran, but not knowing each other, he said, worked in their favor as it took them out of their “comfort zone.”

The idea of “Pumping Life,” Teran said, was inspired by other harnessed forms of sustainable energy.

“At first we were looking at energy bikes, [but] people don’t want to spend an hour mindlessly pedaling a bike,” Teran said. “[But] what if we bring in an action that they already do and get energy from that?”

It was then that the idea of using existing manual water pumps occurred to them.

Having won FIU’s competition, the team will now compete in the regional rounds for the Hult Prize, which will be held in Boston on Sunday, March 4, for a chance to head to the finals. The winning team of the final competition is awarded $1 million dollars to fund the business startup concept, according to the Hult Prize @ FIU website.

And “Pumping Life” is already looking ahead to the Regional competition.

“We plan to work hand in hand with StartUP FIU and the engineering center, get our research done, get everything to a ‘T’ and make sure our presentation is on point,” said Hernandez.

“Pumping Life” is confident that they can represent FIU well in the Regional Competition and even take home the win.

“We’re excited and nervous at the same time because we don’t know what we’re facing, but we have a solid idea and I’m pretty sure we can get funded,” Hernandez said.

The team is also excited to think that their possible startup business for a mandatory group assignment could be world changing.

“It’s life changing. We’re thinking to go beyond big picture, thinking big, that has been our mentality from the beginning,” Hernandez said.

 

Featured Image by Jasiel Lopez/PantherNOW