By Clive Mutame Siachiyako
The Innovation Centre at the Zambia
International Trade Fair was introduced in 2017. In 2018, the Innovation Centre
housed a number of innovations by young people. The innovations ranged from ICT
to super-fast sports car. The aim was to showcase innovations and sharing
information. The Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) was in the
innovation Centre to help innovators on patenting their innovations. It also
aimed at creating an association of innovators to champion innovative ideas and
seek financing to mature them.
Patenting innovations gives the owner
exclusive rights to exploit and use the inventions years after the innovation’s
birth. It also prevents others from commercially using the invention, thereby
reducing competition and enabling the inventor to establish her/himself as a
pre-eminent player. Innovators can sell or license their invention to have it
commercialised by another person. The invention becomes a source of income to
the innovators in this case. Innovators have negotiating power in the process
of acquiring the rights to use their patented inventions.
Scholarly consensus shows that
innovation, which is patented, creates a positive image of the inventors. Investors,
potential business partners or shareholders view patent portfolios as a
demonstration of expertise, specialisation and technical capacity within a
country or an enterprise. This may prove useful for raising funds, finding
business partners and raising the enterprise’s market value and share. Selected
innovations are highlighted below.
Hello doctor system
Hello doctor an innovation by Abuit
Changwe, a youth from Ndola. Abuilt argued that “many countries have well
qualified health personnel, but people complain of poor health services. He
asked: what are we lacking? What can we do to improve the rate at which health
services are delivered?” He did not just ask questions, he came up with an
innovation known as “Hello Doctor.” Hello Doctor device provides signal to
health personnel in the hospital whenever there was an emergence to avoid a
situation where a pregnant mother delivers within hospital premises due to time
wastages looking for health workers. The device can be placed underneath
designated parking lots. Any vehicle with a patient requiring an emergence
medical attention will send alarm signals to the bay where health workers are
found or on the screen or wrist watch worn by health workers on duty. The
signal will provide the parking lot where the vehicle with the patient is parked.
In case of a patient already admitted in
the hospital that require medical attention, a button next to each hospital bed
connected to a watch worn by the available specialist doctor, nurse and nurse
in charge of the ward can help notify them a patient on a particular bed needed
attention. Once the button is pressed, the watch [worn by health personnel]
will indicate the bed number, and the bed-sider will tell control room personnel
the problem of the patient for an apt doctor to be communicated to in case the
personnel failed to read the message on the watch accurately.
Where
did the idea come from?
Abuit witnessed a woman giving birth in a
vehicle as people rushed to call health personnel. The hospital was blamed yet time
wastage to let health personnel know about the emergency played a part to the
misfortune. He thought he could be part of the solution to the problem. His
idea requires fine-tuning and financing to actualise it. Abuit plans to mature
his innovation as he gets into college.
Polani Medication Device and Mobile Tracking Device
This innovation uses GSM (Global Service
Mobile) and an Android-Based-System to remind patients when to take medication.
It has an inbuilt water dispenser and tray for medicine and cup of water. When
the alarm reminder goes off, the patient can press a button for the machine to
hand over medicine and water. However, within 10 seconds if the patient does
not pick the medicine, it will call the next of kin or doctor. When the patient
was away from the device, their phone will ring to remind them to go home take
medication or take if they are carrying it along. The patient’s mobile phone
can be connected to the device to call the patient when it is time for
medication in case they were distant from the device. The device and its
software was designed by Reagan Tembo. Reagan is a graduate of the Zamtel ICT
College. Reagan had a problem with a grandmother who often forgot to take her
medication. He made gadget for her to help take the medication at the appropriate
time.
Reagan also works Charles Lumbwe, who
came up with another device. Charles designed a tracking device of mobile
phones, vehicles, TVs or luggage whilst in transit. The system uses Global Positioning
System (GPS), General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), (GSM), and Internet of
Things (network of devices embedded with electronics, software, sensors,
actuators, and connectivity which enables these things) accelerometer, and
mouth piece. Charles Lumbwe was fed-up with losing things. He needed a device
that could be controlled by a mobile phone. The tracking device he made
eliminates paying huge sums of money to companies to monitor tracking devices as
his is controlled by any simplest phone. The device is encrypted via a programmable
chip.
It can be commanded by a text and it will
call the property owner. It allows the person eavesdrop on what was being said
by the persons having the stolen property. It tells the owner the location of
the stolen proper ty by a text command. The device will send the GPS location
link to track the item stolen. Charles and Reagan have since registered a
company with PACRA and the Zambia Revenue Authority to provide tracking devices
and people can buy it for tracking different items from vehicles to mobile
phones and television sets.
Sports car from waste materials
A former Northern Technical College Automotive
Mechanics student Joseph Zulu, made the sports car, whose speedometer goes up
to 350km/h, using recycled pieces of metal. A mobile phone signal from a simple
low cost feature phone is used to start the car.
This is not the only invention Joseph has
done. In 2016, he came up with safety feature on motor vehicles with overload sensor
to send a signal to owner of the vehicle that the vehicle was overloaded. The
signal would be sent to RTSA within a timeframe if the owner does not act on the
overload. Joseph whilst in secondary school invented a house security system
and a digital security system when he was in Grade 12 at Kabulonga Boys
Secondary
School in 2008 which he would present at
a Junior Engineers, Technicians and Scientists (JETS) club.
Production and conservation of
energy
Juliana Kawamya came up with an
innovation to generate and conserve energy as vehicles move along roads. She
derived her idea from the principle that vehicular flow of traffic can generate
electrical energy. According to Juliana's prototype energy generation and
conservation system, as vehicles weigh on the road, they can switch on the
system to turn on street lights and turn off hydro-supplied energy to street
lights. The system has energy storage capacity for usage when no vehicle is
using the road. Juliana believes that with constant street lighting, accidents
due to unlit streets would be reduced.
Juliana explained that the accumulation of
electric energy under her system would be proportional to the flow of vehicles
along the road. In roads where vehicular flow was low, ramp-steps could be
placed to multiply the impact of ever y individual vehicle. Juliana completed
Grade Twelve in 2017 at Kansensi Secondary School.
Chicken plucker
Michael Mukabila, a student of Design and
Technology at The Technical and Vocational Teachers College (TVTC) designed a
manual chicken plucker. The manual plucker was meant to help people dress
chickens efficiently even in case of power outages. The plucker can dress three
chickens per turn. It can dress the chickens within 30 seconds, bringing
efficiency to chicken dressing.
Innovation is crucial for the development
and deployment of technologies. A widely deployed model to understand
technology builds on the concept of the technology life cycle. The life cycle
of technologies can be divided into a number of steps – from invention, through
Research and Development (R&D) and market development, to commercial
diffusion. Different processes can be discerned at each stage of the life cycle
and different instruments can be deployed to promote innovation.
It has been established that patents are
crucial for technological innovation in the context where they apply. They can
be used to generate revenues (from licenses), encourage synergistic
partnerships, or to create a market advantage and be the basis for productive
activities. As such they create strong incentives for innovation in
market-based economies. It has many advantages for inventors and society as a
whole, which can benefit from the inventions.
Caution to innovators
Over disclosure of their innovations can
result into others stealing their ideas especially when they are in their
infancy and unpatented. Sometimes, reverse engineering can be applied to seem
as though the new innovation is different from the originators, when it is not.
Some companies invest huge sums of money for innovation spies who grasp the
concept and commercialize it at the loss of the owners. Certain information
should be kept away from the public no matter how tempting it is to disclose
it.
