Project Structure & Resources

The project will seek to provide a comprehensive study of the issues identified in the above goals and scope, and actionable recommendations for practitioners in the field (such as EarthSpark International) and investigators for further research. It will be conducted as a multidisciplinary academic study across under the direction of Paul McManus, Master Lecturer.

Formal Academic Structure:

Course Type: Graduate-Level Directed Study
Course Number: SI 899
Graduate Credits: 3

Period: Spring 2018 (January 18–April 30, 2018)
Advisor: Paul McManus

BU Student Team:

Students from any graduate program at Questrom or any other graduate-level program at BU may express interest in enrolling in this directed study. The team will be formed through competitive selection from a pool of applicants and consist of 3 to 6 graduate students from BU. Solicitations are currently under way with final team selection to be completed in early January, prior to the commencement of the project. 

BU Institute for Sustainable Energy:

Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) is a University-wide institute that assists and promotes faculty research, and enhances BU’s curricular offerings and communication products related to sustainable energy. The Institute is dedicated engaging and collaborating with outside stakeholders, including energy technology firms, public agencies, other universities and research organizations, and environment- and energy-focused NGOs for the purpose of:

• Promoting and assisting world-class research by BU faculty working on these challenges within and across all disciplines within the University.
• Educating BU students who will help meet sustainable energy challenges in their careers.
• Promoting solutions to these challenges through collaboration with stakeholders outside the University.

Key resources supporting the project include:

• Peter Fox-Penner, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Professor of Practice, Questrom School of Business
• Jacqueline Ashmore, Director of Research and Outreach Activities
• Tess Kohnaski, Assistant Director, Operations

BU Internal Advisory Group:

In addition to advisors within ISE, faculty/experts from across BU will be engaged to serve as an advisory panel for the Questrom student team. This list is provided as an example for the purpose of this draft. It is not comprehensive nor does not imply any commitment at this time:

• Human Centred Design and Innovation adoption/diffusion—Siobhan O’Mahoney (Faculty), somahony@bu.edu
• Sustainable Development and Social Enterprise—Caroline Flammer (Faculty), cflammer@bu.edu
• Microgrid Technology and Economics—Richard Steubi (ISE Fellow), rstuebi@bu.edu

EarthSpark International Resources:

The most successful collaboration experiences for students and the partner are based on the following criteria:

• Clarity of project goals
• Clarity of company mission and goals
• Clarity and precision of the specific project description, along definition on the research and analysis outcomes
• Staff and board of the company embrace and support the work to be performed
• There is a project “champion" in addition to the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director, or other senior-level staff member; someone who is available, who is invested in the success of the project and can answer questions related to the project
• Students have access to technical/market/financial data (if necessary)

This project will need to rely heavily on ESI resources (either staff or contractors) based in Haiti, some of which may need to dedicate substantial portions of time to complete required tasks. To this end, ESI will make available access to some of its key in-country staff.

Key contacts at EarthSpark:

Allison Archambault, President—Serving as EarthSpark’s President, Allison oversees all aspects of the organization’s day-to-day operations. Allison also led the renewable energy partners program for GridPoint, and is the founding principal of Fresh Generation, LLC through which she has consulted to clean energy companies, governments, and advocacy groups. She holds a BA in International Relations and Economics from Tufts University and a master’s in international public policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

EarthSpark Project Leader, Haiti—TBD

Activities and Deliverables

A general outline of activities and deliverables will be developed during the initial project planning and scoping phase. The following provides a general outline of activities and completion dates:

• Project Plan & Scope Agreement: Completion Date: End of January 2018
  • Deliverable will take the form of both a Project Scope Agreement
• Background Research: Completion Date: Mid-February 2018
  • Note: Primary and secondary research will be conducted by the students with the support of EarthSpark International resources in Haiti. From a time/effort perspective, student research will be predominantly secondary in nature, with a limited amount of focused in-country primary research.
• Research: Primary research is anticipated to take two forms; in-country surveys and in-person interviews, meetings, observations.
  • Due to logistical and scheduling constraints of the academic calendar, in-person interviews will conducted in Haiti during the week of March 4–10, 2018.
• • Surveys will need to be done in conjunction with in-country staff of EarthSpark International on an ongoing basis.
• Analysis and Recommendations: Completion Date: End of April 2018
  • Deliverable will take the form of both a report and PowerPoint presentation. Delivery of final presentation may be performed in person or via online channel, such as WebEx. 

Language

All correspondence, reports, and presentations will be conducted in English.