Students' smartphone computer is runner-up in Smartphone Encore Challenge

7/14/2015 Claire Hettinger, ECE ILLINOIS

ECE students develop a smartphone turned computer to help improve access to computers worldwide.

Written by Claire Hettinger, ECE ILLINOIS

Neo is a personal computer - with a twist. The smartphone-turned-computer, created by two ECE ILLINOIS students, was the runner-up in the Sprint Smartphone Encore Challenge in May.

Doctoral student Biplab Deka and junior computer engineering major Kevin Lehtiniitty, along with Elizabeth Reuter, a graduate student in industrial design, designed Neo and entered it in Sprint’s challenge, which had students seeking profitable and innovative ways to repurpose old smartphones or their components.

“We were targeting two problems,” Deka said. “One was this electronics waste. The second: many kids in the U.S. and in developing countries not having access to computers.”

People throw away their smartphones after two years to buy newer, better phones, but the devices are built to last much longer, Deka said. For example, an iPhone might have a cracked screen and someone will get rid of it even though it is still functioning and capable.

Neo turns a used phone into a computer that could be sold for around $100. Users can plug in an existing monitor, keyboard, and mouse to use it for a variety of tasks. 

Biplab Deka
Biplab Deka

The project started in a course offered by the Technology Entrepreneur Center with Entrepreneur-in-Residence Brian Lilly. Students learned about the problems of electronics waste.

Lilly helped the team members apply for two grants. The Venturewell E-team Stage I grant funded a trip to Boston for a technology-to-business workshop. The second, an EPA P3 grant, which will provide funds to prototype their idea.

The team members’ design was featured in a webinar and they’ll travel to Sprint headquarters to meet and connect with others in the smartphone business.

The project is meant to help the team members fulfill a specific goal.

“We are trying to make low cost computing accessible to a lot more people,” Deka said.

In the U.S., many people who start technology companies have been programing since they were adolescents, like Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. This is another disadvantage for those who can’t afford a computer for their families.

“When I was 10 years old, I didn’t have any idea of what a computer was,” he said. “I’d seen them, but I’d never touched one.”

America needs more people in the field of computing, Deka said.

But according to a 2013 Department of Commerce report, 26 million Americans either cannot afford the Internet or afford a good enough computer for Internet access . This means millions of children don’t have the opportunity to even consider a future in computing.

“Now, I do a lot of programing for my research and I intend to do it no matter where I end up,” Deka said. “But back in high school, I had no idea what this was, what it entailed, or what career opportunities were open.”

Deka received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, and then worked as a hardware designer for a year before coming to Illinois. Hedidn't own a computer until just before he went to college, an experience which helped guide the team’s direction, he said.  

Along with his ECE classes, he’s taken the Strategic Technology Management course sequence to help him prepare for a technology business.

As part of the Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces course sequence, taught by Madhu Viswanathan, the Diane and Steven N. Miller Professor in Business at Illinois, Deka traveled to rural southern India. There, he interviewed farmers about their problems with agriculture. From this, he developed ideas and brainstormed a business model to build low-cost products that would offer value to the people in need.

“Technology is empowering a lot of people,” Deka said. “People who have access will see a lot of economic benefits and others who don’t ... the divide keeps increasing.”


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This story was published July 14, 2015.