Ramanathan quoted on next-generation clean cook stoves
Nithya Ramanathan, an assistant research professor at UCLA, is co-founder and president of Nexleaf Analytics, a startup that's using mobile phone sensor technology to improve health and the environment. In India, another place where millions of people rely upon wood stoves, Nexleaf is studying how various next-generation clean stoves actually perform in reducing emissions.
"Our findings so far indicate that stove breakage and a lack of stove maintenance are a much bigger problem than anybody thought," said Ramanathan, who also was a participant in Project Surya. "Our monitoring shows that some women cook for several months, but then cooking abruptly drops off. Follow-up visits reveal that these users' stoves are broken in a way they are unable to fix."
Improving stove designs so that they don't break as often, and creating a system for maintaining them is crucial for success, she said.