Innovation

In our conversation with one of the co-founders, Mr. Valindo Godinho, we asked him what innovations Wafer is pursuing.

“Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation,” he said.

“Tungsta” is a project that aims to reduce the energy consumption of street lights by 40%-60%. Wafer utilizes Internet of Things technology and sensors that can turn street lights on and off as needed for human, vehicle, or animal trafic. Power to malfunctioning or non-functioning lights can also be shut off remotely to save energy.

Inspiration

Behind every decision on innovation that a leaders take, more often than not, there is an inspiration. The inspiration often takes shape due to the leader’s willingness to improve the prevailing conditions in society. Wafer Electronics, led by its young, dynamic, co-founders, took an inspirational step that is not only profitable, but helps to build a flourishing society as well. When we asked Valindo Godinho, the co-founder of Wafer Electronic on what inspired him for such innovation, he replied:

“We started off by working on home automation at first, but soon realized that street lights, which are the bare minimum requirement for a functioning society, were being neglected, which lead to high consumption in electricity which translates to a state spending more money on keeping the street lights running, providing power to them even when they are not functional or damaged.”

Damaged or non-operating lights can consume more electricity than functioning ones. A bad circuit can draw more excess electricity. This can also present a safety hazard. Wasted energy also means wasted tax money.

Godinho added, “Once we crunched the numbers, this really looked very alarming and this is potentially one of the largest wastes of resources, monetarily, and electricity consumption wise. We had to do something about this.”

Overall impact

As Hannah More said,, “One drop of water helps to swell the ocean… none are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service.” We should always try to align our short term goals with the long-term benefits you hope to achieve.

Godinho described the effects of his his company’s innovation:

“The short-term impact… [is to] ...help…[get]... better lighting on the streets, thereby avoiding faulty or flickering lights that could be… ...dangerous to drivers and pedestrians. In the long term, this would allow for the Government to save… ...on maintenance of the lights, which would lead to lowering the costs involved in the long term… ...The energy that’s being saved can be put to good use somewhere else, like providing electricity to more villages and solving the issue of power-sharing of any sort. The entire grid will be managed to save electricity from day one.”

Business benefit

Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable. You have to have a great vision and take very small steps to get there. You have to be humble as you execute, but visionary in terms of your aspiration. In the tech industry, it's not about grand innovation, it's about a lot of little innovations: every day, every week, every month, making something a little bit better.

When asked what benefits his innovations will have on the business, Godinho replied, “

“This opens up a lot of doors, with the tech used, this could potentially open up opportunities for other IoT companies to leverage on the network we create with our lights, to interact with their surroundings, these can be as simple as soil moisture content sensors in farms, which can alert a farmer that his crops need water or emergency services that can know that an accident has occurred even in remote areas with no network coverage.

The maintenance of these lights would open a door for more skilled labour in government electricity departments, and would also mean better safety… [for people] working with high powered lines, which would save so many lives and also promote fewer accidents during operations once strict guidelines with working with these lights are put in place.

The potential for this coming to life is huge and there is an myriad possibilities out there to interface and build up this platform.”

Social and environmental benefit

When asked about the sustainability initiatives taken by the firm, one of the co-founders -Mr Valindo Godinho, said that they strongly believe in “paper conservation.” Their office is entirely paperless, where they do not provide quotes over post or print, rather they mail all their documents, and issue receipts, bills and invoices over email in a pdf format. He even added that – “We, at Wafer, do not believe in wasting paper for things that can be easily discarded and add to the deteriorating environment.”

They follow the UN SDGs-7,9,11,12,14 which is aimed at "Affordable and Clean Energy", "Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure","Sustainable Cities and Communities",“Sustainable Consumption and Production” & "Life Below Water".

Apart from maintaining a paperless office, they also recycle the electronic components, to avoid having too much of electronic waste generated.

They also host and sponsor cleaning drives and beautification drives, which are usually very small scale, maybe 10-15 people, wherein they go out and clean up beaches, roadsides and also help do up public places wherever they have the permission to do so.

As stated earlier the maintenance of the lights in their “Tungsta” Project would open a door for more skilled labour in Government Electricity departments in future, and would also mean better safety concerns working with high powered lines, which would save so many lives and also promote fewer accidents during operations, once strict guidelines with working with these lights are put in place.

Interview

Valindo Godinho, Cofounder & CTO