The Blum Center for Developing Economies

And this year's Big Ideas Grand Prize winner is...

Yasha Zink and SipDisk!

SipDisk is a compact mirror with a built-in drink-spiking test that can accurately detect 9 common drink-spiking drugs discreetly, affordably, and in just 5 minutes.

Congrats to Yasha and to all of our finalists for capping 20 years of innovation and impact!

On to the next 20 years!

How Berkeley Development Engineering and Big Ideas Contest alum Paige Balcom turned plastic waste into economic opportunity through her recycling company in Uganda:

Giving plastic a second life - Berkeley Engineering UC Berkeley Engineering alum Paige Balcom is turning plastic waste into economic opportunity through her recycling company in Uganda

Ashmita Kumar, the 2024 Big Ideas Contest winner, co-founded Code Blue, a startup that uses AI to detect strokes. She's emblematic of UC Berkeley's top ranking for producing student- and alumni-led startups, so many of which are focused on social good:

From Vision to Venture - Cal Alumni Association How Berkeley became a leading launchpad for startups

Attention, Berkeley students!

Do you want to design and build solutions to real-world civic challenges in your own backyard?

The Big Ideas Contest has just launched the Civic Innovation Challenge, a fast-paced, 7-day design sprint that empowers UC Berkeley students to do just that with challenges put forward by City of Berkeley leaders and community organizations.

CIC culminates in pitches to city leaders with feedback and awards, including up to $4K per winning team.

Applications are due December 1. Check it out here:

Civic Innovation Challenge – Big Ideas Contest What: A high-energy 7-day innovation sprint culminating in pitches to Berkeley city leaders with feedback and awards (up to $4K per winning team). The CIC pairs UC Berkeley students together to co-design solutions to pressing civic challenges.

Congrats to Berkeley Bioengineering Professor and Blum Center Faculty Director Dan Fletcher for his induction into the
National Academy of Medicine!

Dan was recognized for his work developing mobile phone-based microscopy to diagnose infectious diseases in developing countries and for contributions to the mechanistic understanding of biological self-assembly and mechanotransduction.

Read more about his contributions here: https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/10/21/national-academy-of-medicine-adds-two-from-uc-berkeley-to-its-ranks/

Congrats to Will Tarpeh on being named a 2025 MacArthur Foundation Fellow!

Will, who did a Development Engineering PhD at Berkeley, has developed ways of sustainably recovering and recycling resources like nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus from wastewater, which can be used to create cost-effective fertilizer in places with limited infrastructure and prevent nitrate pollution in farm fields and waterways: https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2025/william-tarpeh

Kerosene lamps are vital to many people's lives. But they carry health and economic costs.

Portable, off-grid electrical lighting, however, is better for health, income, and the environment — and millions are adopting it.

This is the story of how Berkeley Lab's Dr. Evan Mills, with Blum Center support, helped put off-grid solar on the map:

How Dr. Evan Mills, with Blum Center support, put off-grid solar on the map - Blum Center With support from the Blum Center, the Berkeley Lab scientist and his colleagues provided the first substantive analysis of how electric lighting — specifically, high-efficiency solar-powered electric light sources unattached to an electrical grid — improves the lives and well-being of people us...

Attention, Cal undergrads interested in understanding and tackling poverty!

The Global Poverty and Practice Minor is hosting info sessions Sept 25 and Oct 1 on Zoom.

The deadline to declare the GPP minor is Oct 14!

Happy World Water Week!

We spoke with Development Engineering Prof. Kara Nelson about how water-infrastructure innovations — including producing fertilizer from urine — can combat poverty and address a changing climate:

World Water Week: Prof. Kara Nelson Talks Water, Waste, and Engineering for Climate Action - Blum Center World Water Week is an annual conference and global observance focused on tackling the world’s most pressing water-related challenges — urging policymakers and innovators to take bold action on sustainable solutions. This year’s theme, “Water for Climate Action,” highlights the essential r...

Allensworth, CA's groundwater is contaminated by arsenic, but the town has received little help remedying it.

So the community teamed up with Development Engineering Prof. Ashok Gadgil to purify its water, with minimal human intervention and affordable costs:

Allensworth Rising: A Fight for Water In the town of Allensworth, California, residents join forces with Dr.