DIL State of the Lab Winter 2016/2017 | Page 3

WINTER 2016-2017

Dear DIL Colleagues ,

In 2012 , the Development Impact Lab ( DIL ) at UC Berkeley was established with an aim of developing scalable technologies that reduce poverty and accelerate equitable economic growth . The Lab took a unique approach , by integrating innovations in the social sciences-- such as behavioral economics , A / B testing , and willingness-to-pay experiments-- into the iterative design of new technologies . This approach , which we call Development Engineering ( Dev Eng ), builds scalability and sustainability into the innovation process , yielding new products and services that positively impact development outcomes . Since its start , DIL has invested in over 135 projects across 35 countries , through research awards , travel and exploratory grants , and student prizes such as the Big Ideas Contest .

This year , DIL has focused on institutionalizing the Dev Eng approach . We supported faculty-led research , launched an open access journal called Development Engineering , and established a Dev Eng PhD concentration at UC Berkeley . We invested in a number of development solutions , not only by funding research , but also by supporting “ top-up ” grants , data visualizations , and animations to accelerate the translation of projects in our pipeline . These efforts are creating scientific breakthroughs , generating actionable evidence for development practitioners , and catalyzing changes in policy globally .

One major milestone in 2015-16 was Facebook ’ s aquisition of the “ Community Cellular Network ” technology , a suite of hardware and software that can provide low-cost , solar-powered mobile connectivity for remote , rural communities . DIL seed-funded the project , led by Berkeley professor Eric Brewer . It was initially prototyped in Papua , Indonesia and is now being scaled in the Philippines , through partnership with a local telephone company . Some of the researchers on the team have joined Facebook to help commercialize the technology ; others have stayed in academia and continue to innovate in the space of rural connectivity .

In May 2016 , DIL reached another milestone with the launch of Development Engineering : The Journal of Engineering in Economic Development . The first volume of this open access publication was released at the 2016 Technologies for Development Conference in Lausanne , Switzerland . It features rigorous studies of promising development technologies-- from clean cookstoves and rural electricity grids , to sensors that monitor household water filters and pumps . Importantly , it includes a failure analysis explaining why an RFID inventory tracking technology ( commonly used by retailers in the U . S .) fails to work for small enterprises in Sri Lanka . The journal is committed to learning from success and failure alike .

In 2016 , DIL also graduated the first cohort of Berkeley doctoral students enrolled in the Dev Eng concentration , including graduates from engineering , economics , and environmental science departments . Spearheaded by Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Blum Center Education Director , Alice Agogino , the National Science Foundation also recognized Dev Eng through its award of a $ 3M grant to focus on the intersection of food , energy , and water systems . The new discipline is now spreading to other university campuses , including Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland and Duke University , which are both offering certificates in development engineering . Additionally , the Dev Eng ecosystem was recognized through a shared award from the UC Office of the President to nurture entrepreneurship ( with new funds made available through California Assembly Bill 2664 ). The Principal Investigator , Professor Ikhlaq Sidhu , will be collaborating with Phillip Denny , Program Director of the Big Ideas Contest , on this initiative . The continued expansion of Dev Eng will help train a next generation of innovators to harness technology for sustained , scalable development impact .

Toward the end of this year , we were fortunate to engage the broader development community through our 2016 “ State of the Science ” conference , which focused on the Science of Scaling : Building Evidence to Advance Anti-Poverty Innovations . The event brought together over 100 researchers , policymakers , industry leaders , and academics to share ideas about scaling anti-poverty interventions around the world . As reported by DevEx , the meeting offered durable lessons and rigorous evidence about the scaling process , including new ideas on how to generalize the learnings from specific technology deployments .

As DIL enters our fifth year of programming , we will continue accelerating research projects in our pipeline , and we will work with partners to spread the reach of ” development engineering ”. We hope that you will continue to follow our work , and we encourage you to reach out and get involved . You can sign up for our biweekly e-newsletter at bit . ly / DILNewsletter and visit us online at dil . berkeley . edu .