A packed audience of over 60 people gathered at MIT on Monday, May 2, 2011 to hear a panel describe how an innovative social impact model developed in India was being transferred to an American setting in the Greater Lowell/Lawrence region. Moderated by Todd Fry, Executive Director of the Merrimack Valley Sandbox (MVS), the panel consisted of Nishith Acharya, Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation, Jennifer Green, program Director of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) for New England, and Theresa Park, Director of Economic Development for the City of Lowell. 

The event opened with a welcome by Anil Saigal , President of  IITSINE   . Following a brief introduction of the panelists by Ranjani Saigal Co - Chair of TIE-SE special interest group  the panel discussion commenced.

Nishith Acharya provided an overview of the work of the Deshpande Foundation with its emphasis on accelerating social and technical innovation and entrepreneurship through contextual innovation. He described how their approach married the efforts of social innovators, who provided the relevant social context, with business thinking and processes to create scalable solutions for social impact. This approach was successfully implemented at the Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship in Hubli, a part of Northern Karnataka state in India. Over there the program has successfully engaged thousands of students to come up with innovative ideas to address various local social issues. The Merrimack Valley Sandbox (MVS) was launched in November working with four local colleges. It is looking to tailor programs similar to those in Hubli to address the issues in the Greater Lowell/Lawrence region. The program kicked off its first program, College Catalysts, and it has resulted in over 40 student project ideas in its first 6 months. Some of the student ideas were presented and were on display at the event.

Jennifer Green described how NFTE’s programs help inspire youth in schools in low income communities to stay in school by exposing them to the potential for creating business opportunities. They have been working in a number of schools in New England, including ones in Lawrence, where they have encouraged students to explore careers and entrepreneurial opportunities through programs as part of the school curriculum. Theresa Parks spoke of the vitality of the Lowell area and the opportunity to engage and enhance the recreation, cultural and employment opportunities in the region with the kind of programs that emphasized entrepreneurship and new business ideas.

The presentations were followed by short pitches by three student projects who were one of the first participants in the MVS Campus Catalyst program. These included an ergonomically designed plastic chair to be used while bathing by the handicapped designed by Ann  Fitzgerald, a graduate in plastics engineering, and her company Silver-Gerald; Gizmo, a really cool interactive virtual reality app for smartphones that tied into local Lowell institutions and businesses through the use of 2D barcodes created by Sam Antonaccio; and a community garden initiative, Lowell Sprouts, that uses school gardens to educate children about sustainable agriculture and local impact presented by Mary Skelly. The audience had a chance to further interact with the students after the event as they displayed and demonstrated their projects.

This event was part of the monthly meetings of the TiE Boston Social Entrepreneurs (SE) Group held this time in partnership with IIT SINE. The purpose of the TIE SE Group events is to create a networking hub for greater Boston where social entrepreneurs can meet and exchange ideas and connections with others who are interested in social impact. This is a regular monthly feature usually held on the first Monday of the month at the Tantric India Bistro and co-sponsored by Mary Sen, proprietor of the restaurant.  Please note however that the next monthly meeting will be postponed to Monday June 27, 2011 to encourage our members to attend Tie Boston’s showcase annual event TiECON EAST 2011 which is being held on June 2-3, 2011.   For more information on TIE Social Entrepreneur Groups upcoming events please visit :http://www.meetup.com/Social-Entrepreneurs-Group-Boston/ 

IIT SINE is the alumni association of all the IITs in the New England region . It holds several social events to provide networking opportunities and has seminars that are off interest to the community. For more information about IITSINE, please check out their website at http://iitsine.org.

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