This week the energy group met again on Friday afternoon, and also met with Professor Darwin on Friday evening. Both meetings we’re beneficial to the direction our group is looking to take moving forward with this project. In our group meeting we discussed some of the problems that the citizens of Vizag are facing and began compiling a list. Some of the problems we listed included:

  • Unmet energy demand due to centralization
  • Air and water quality due to pollution
  • Grid resilience to weather/disasters
  • Electricity pilferage (stealing electricity)
  • Customer service with the distribution company (APEPDCL)

 

After discussing these problems we began discussing next steps. What we hope to do next is begin talking with some professors and experts in the energy industry to see what kind of solutions exist to these problems. During our meeting we compiled a list of contacts of professors and individuals in Berkeley who can help us. This included:

  • A stats professor here at Cal that grew up in Vizag
  • A professor in the Haas energy institute that has researched energy in India
  • The assistant mayor of Seoul (helped bring Seoul to be a #1 Smart City)
  • A professor in the Energy Resources Department that has extensive knowledge of energy development in different parts of the world

We began collecting contact info and signing up for office hours with these professors.

In our meeting with Professor Darwin, we made progress in regards to what our end goal should look like. We determined that a dashboard is what we’re looking to create. After identifying the problems Vizag faces in our meeting before, I think we have an idea of what kind of information the dashboard should present based off those problems. What we need to do next is develop some kind of business model to bring value to the citizens of Vizag and also capture value for ourselves.

The Energy Group

Chaitanya Mittal, Trevor Dowds, Natalie Chyba, Wendy Ho, Mischa Fritz, Amy Nguyen