Name: Jake Donoghue, Brianna Wanbaugh, Sammy Powers, and Tri Nguyen

Systems thinking challenge #1: Police corruption in Afghanistan 

• 35M Population; 250,000 Policemen
• 27% Literacy Rate (2019: 32%)
• 13 Yrs, Billions Later →  Poor Personnel and Payroll Data (No verification)
• Extremely High (Hierarchical) Corruption
• 10% “Ghost” Policemen
• Commanders get a cut from salaries
• Poor Morale; Defection to the Taliban
• Law and Order Crises; Public Trust

Solution:

The corruption in the Afghan police bodies can be accounted for by the following factors: 1) low salaries; 2) poor working conditions; 3) poor recruitment and selection procedures resulting from poor literacy rate among the population; 4) a lack of training programmes 5) and opportunities for corruption due to inadequate controls of payroll data.

As a commander in chief of the police, we will have to collaborate with different entities among the governing bodies of the Afgan to bring in significant police and institutional reforms. The entities will be included but not limited to educators, influences, policy makers, citizens, governors, and more. To address the root cause of corruption and not just the “symptoms,” our solution will be grounded on these pillars: education, enforcement and prevention. The reform practices will be as follows:

 

• Education:

 

1. Implement additional education for policers to uphold integrity, professionalism, and adherence to human rights and laws
2. Promote public education of anti-corruption intervention by publicizing the arrest and successful prosecution of prominent corrupted police officers
3. Promote the public knowledge of anti-corruption laws and use the public to report corruption. 

 

• Enforcement:

 

1. Adding police auditors and anti-corruption intervention bodies to increase the accountability of the police force. These anti-corruption investigation bureau can be given authority to freeze assets, seize passports, propose reforms, etc. They might also have extensive powers to conduct an investigation, arrest police officers who are suspicious of bribery, and probe into a suspect’s financial evidence
2. Within the anti-corruption investigation bureau, make sure there is a regulation system to make all anti-corruption investigators accountable for their granted power. For example, classify the main body into 3 sub-components, and have one group reviewed by the other 2 groups in terms of transparency and evaluative performance on a regular basis.  

 

• Prevention:

 

1. Provide incentive for fairness by making sure the working conditions are reasonable, the salaries are justified for a comfortable living environment, heavy penalties for bribery, and large bounties for reporting corruption
2. Put emphasis on the recruitment and selection procedures of future police officers; making the process more selective so that the 
3. Strong leadership, as demonstrated by the commander-in-chief of the Afghan police, will be essential to serve a role model and the beacon of hope and justice.

Systems Thinking Analysis:

Differentiation: The individual components of this large system include the community, Afghan Uniform Police, Afghan Highway Police, Afghan Border Police, Criminal Investigation Department, the Afghan Local Police (ALP) Now part of ANP, and the Afghan government.

Interdependence: Our solution depends on mutually beneficial and reciprocal relationships within the system, including connections between bodies and pillars. As a commander in chief of the police, we will work with several governing bodies in which both the people within the police system will benefit in addition to the governing bodies facilitating reform, as the improvement of the country will reflect them and their work. Additionally, mutually beneficial connections exist between pillars. For example, establishing an education plan can encourage accountability and in turn improve enforcement and prevention by emphasizing police responsibility to act in accordance with the law.

Holism: In order to increase the anti-corruption in Afghanistan, all components of the problem need to be considered in order to fully solve the problem. In this case, the police cannot exist without the community because there would be nothing to protect. If there is nothing to protect then any governing body of higher rank is not necessary. Therefore, these independent components depend on each other to create the problem and solve the problem.

Multifinality: The goal of our solution is to promote public trust in police, to minimize corruption, increase morale, and improve quality of life for the community. With this solution all parties involved will have their goals met. The community will have more trustworthy police because the rate of corruption will have decreased and if there is less corruption the community will be willing to report more crimes. Corruption will be minimized through education of the police and the public. The police will be educated to uphold strong core values such as integrity, professionalism, and their human rights and laws. The people will be educated through the shared knowledge of arrests and successful prosecutions. A strong leader will allow for the increase in morale among police officers. All of these together will lead to a higher quality of life for all of those involved.

Equifinality: As previously stated, our solution is founded on three pillars in which there are several paths to achieving our overall goal. Though there are many different approaches or “inputs” involved, the overall result or “output” to reduce corruption remains the same.

Regulation: Our solution has a system in place that helps hold the police accountable through our implementation of anti-corrupt bodies, public broadcast of arrests and prosecutions, as well as higher salaries to increase the will of the police officers to not be corrupt.

Abstraction: Though this issue focuses specifically on anti-corruption, our solution has broader applications. The implementation of our solution will result in a higher quality of life for the people of Afghanistan by ensuring a proper system that convicts crime and reduces the abuse of power. 

Leverage: If the salaries are being raised the selection process can be more competitive which will ultimately allow for higher quality police officers.

 

Systems thinking challenge #2: Water hyacinth

• Water hyacinth infestation is a major problem on the shores of Lake Victoria. The moss doubles every month and blocks the fishermen’s access to the lake. It also results in spread of disease and hence they want it removed at all costs.
• An entrepreneur has figured out that she can take the hyacinth, crush it, and use it to make compost and briquettes. She hires four people to cut the hyacinth, crush it with manual machines, and bring it to her workshop. 
• This system works well for 2 weeks and her need for the hyacinth increases substantially. But the communities on the shores are unhappy that she is making money from the hyacinth. They stop her employees from accessing the hyacinth.
• How does she solve the problem?

Solution:

To address this challenge, the entrepreneur could try to incorporate the fishermen in her water hyacinth business. As the fishermen need to clean up the hyacinth to get access to the fishing area in the lake, they can also store the hyacinth on their boats during the process and give it to the entrepreneur in exchange of the shared profits earned from the production of compost and briquettes later. After having access to the hyacinth, the entrepreneur can hire labor workers to crush the hyacinth with manual machines and transport it to her workshop where she can make compost and briquettes. To prevent the community from thinking that she is solely the one that gets the benefit from the business, she could share 10% profits of the business from her products with the fishermen. To start off, the entrepreneur can partner with a few fishermen, and if these fishermen earned additional benefits in addition to their finishing income, this might motivate other fishermen to come and join the business. This will be a win-win situation for both sides. The entrepreneur can now get a steady supply of the hyacinth to make and sell her products, while the communities, including the fishermen and labor workers, will be able to earn additional benefits by taking part in the business. In addition, since the hyacinth is the source of the disease that is detrimental to the ecosystems, removing it from the lake on a regular basis is making a positive impact on the environment, which will not only protect the fish in the lake but also the health of the community who is more than likely to eat the fish from where the hyacinth is growing infestedly. 

Systems Thinking Analysis:

Differentiation:

• Fishers 
• Labor workers – crushing hyacinth and machining compost/briquettes 
• Entrepreneur
• Lake Victoria community

Interdependence:

• The fishermen would be paid by the entrepreneur to clear the hyacinth from the water
• The fishermen will be able to catch more fish 
• The Lake Victoria community begins profiting from this as the local fisherman are bringing in extra money, and selling more fish to the local population

Holism: Overall, the removal of hyacinth will allow for more fish to be bought and eaten (food security) as well as a decrease in the spread of disease which will benefit the community as a whole.

Multifinality:

• Each individual stakeholder in this hyacinth business is working with different goals:
  • Entrepreneur: get access to the hyacinth that then she can make compost and briquettes 
  • Fishermen: clear out the hyacinth in the lake to do their fishing
  • Labour workers: can still process raw hyacinth and transport it to the entrepreneur’s workshop
  • Lake Victoria community: get rid of the hyacinth which is a source of a disease
• The system itself also meet its own goals:
  • Get rid of the hyacinth
  • All involved individuals get benefits form the system

Equifinality: 

• All stakeholders are working on different parts of the hyacinth business, but they all share the same goals: removing hyacinth and earning additional benefits from the business.

Regulation:

• Create a quota in weight of hyacinth removed for fishermen to meet to ensure steady business
• Be clear that 10% of the profit automatically goes back to the fishermen

Abstraction:

Our solution has wider applications, as it improves the overall health of the environment and protects the ecosystem.

Leverage point:

 

• Partnering with fishermen so that they are not left out

Describe at least 5 partnerships with individuals and/or organizations that have been formed to support your project and that impact the success or failure of your venture.

 

Please identify partnerships at the individual, team, and Lehigh / GSIF level.

 

1.What constituted the partnership?

2.How did the partner help you? How did you help them?

3.Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?

4.What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?

 

University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) (HEED Program)

1. This partnership was born during the assignment or our project. We were given this connection initially.
2. UPD students and a professor have given us insights on conditions in the Philippines as well as contacts for the Philippine Coconut Authority.  
3. No, because of the pandemic we were not able to travel to the Philippines to collaborate with the UPD students. The UPD students were also sent home due to the pandemic where many of them did not have access to wifi so we shifted to communication with Jill Manapat only. However, due to poor connection it is hard to have productive zoom meetings
4. More communication efforts would help strengthen this relationship but given the circumstances of the Pandemic 

 

Prof. Jedlicka

1. Professor Jedlicka is the co-advisor to our project (for both TE Capstone team and GSIF).
2. She provides guidance and insight to our team based on her expertise. We give her more information about different aspects of the copra industry, which in turn allows her to provide us with more suggestions and direction.
3. This is a symbiotic relationship, as we are both reciprocating value. As we navigated through this complex coconut industry together as students and mentors, we taught and learned from each other: we taught her about the coconut knowledge that we found from literature, and she taught us how to better use that knowledge to advance our venture. 
4. An increase in the team’s efforts would strengthen this relationship since the more we put in allows for more input on Professor Jedlicka’s end. 

 

Prof. Haden

1. This partnership was built through GSIF and Professor Haden is a co-advisor to our project
2. She helped us organize our ideas and helped us with where we should start with our project. We have helped her by teaching her about copra and the marketing of it in the Philippines. Also we will eventually publish a paper which will reflect well on her. 
3. Yes, because Professor Haden acted as a guide for where we should start and we were able to teach her about our project. 
4. More communication would strengthen this partnership.

 

Wilber (Brian Slocum and Michael Moore)

1. Our partnership with the Wilbur Powerhouse is based on our need for help in designing and prototyping our dryer. We connected through our advisor and our own relations.
2. They have helped us through the design, but also mainly the physical construction of the prototype through their skill sets, expertise, and their access to Wilbur. 
3. This is less of a symbiotic relationship because they have given us more value than we have given them, through advising us through our designs and helping us build it.
4. A more proactive approach to our design methods and an increase in understanding of the building process from our team. 

 

Lynne Cassimeris

1. Cell Biology professor at Lehigh, whom one of our team members is taking a class with. 
2. This partner has helped in furthering the understanding of what goes on a cellular and molecular level inside of cells, which can be applied to copra.
3. This is less of a symbiotic relationship as she is providing her teaching on her profession and we are learning from it.
4. What would strengthen this relationship would be being in more communication with her and asking more directly about potential guidance on how to work on copra more effectively.

 

Gregory Lang

1. One of our team members worked at Dr. Lang’s Yeast lab
2. Dr. Lang answered an email about what to do about aflatoxins when our team member emailed him and he provided his knowledge as he is a microbiology professor and has experience working on bacteria and yeast.
3. This is less of a symbiotic relationship as we do not have anything valuable from our side of research to offer him in return for his teaching.
4. More communication and working alongside him would strengthen the relationship and bring more equity to our project as we would profit from the more knowledge we gain about how to counteract spoilage and molding.

Q1: List ten specific ways in which your teaming approach has changed/ evolved since you started, teamwork skills you have developed, and lessons you have learned

1. At the beginning of last spring semester, we simply had one team on the project with a focus on engineering a design to implement in the Philippines for copra farmers. Shortly after, we had more members join the copra project including a business side and a science research side investigating antioxidants and preservatives for copra. This addition has added several new perspectives to our project and has allowed me on the engineering side to really focus on developing a design with my other engineering team members while still learning about the business aspects of our venture and the potential integration of antioxidants from newer members. 
2. Initially, the copra team was focused on creating a copra dryer. After several discussions questioning the novelty of our approach, we decided to switch our focus to creating a multi-functional coconut processing machine that would turn different parts of the coconut into several value-added products, which we continued with through our research at Mountaintop this summer. Now, as we progress through the fall semester, our approach has returned to our initial focus after realizing that drying the copra is the first step to any subsequent processes that we may add in the future. 
3. I have learned to be a proactive thinker as a result of the addition of new members to our team. Since I now have a specific focus in engineering, I have had to learn to not only actively listen to the research of the members of the business and science research side, but also think about how each sub-team fits as whole, specifically how their research plays a role in the overall design and implementation of our developing product. This requires asking questions about research from other sides of the team and discussing areas of intersection between groups. 
4. I have learned how to effectively communicate with my teammates and project contacts.
5. Through our rotation of roles as leader, I have learned how to direct discussion at team meetings and create a weekly agenda to provide structure for meetings. 
6. I have learned how to properly prepare for presentations and meetings with contacts to concisely relay what is necessary to convey. 
7. I’ve become more comfortable sharing my thoughts and findings in a group. 
8. Our team has learned to use multiple people to present to engage the audience. We have also learned how to translate feedback from peers to improve our presentations.
9. Our team has learned to foster a fun and positive atmosphere during team meetings while still getting our work done.
10. I have learned the importance of understanding indigenous knowledge in the implementation of our future product. 

Q2: Provide an updated Collaboration Plan for your team, clearly articulating your Goals (Small g and Big G), Roles, Procedures, and Relationships.

 

Team Name: COPRA                                                                          Date: 09/29/2020
Goals	Personal goals: Brianna:  Make as much useful contribution as possible, positively influence the group, create strong relationships,Improve my group work skills, ask more critical questions.  Then I hope to use all these personal improvements to make a social impact that matters. Tri: Learn more about coconuts processing and get hand-on experience on making coconuts dryers! Build life-long friendship with peers at Lehigh and those in the Philippines Jake: Provide hands on help with computer aided designing, fabrication (if at all possible), and testing of our drying chambers. Provide next year’s team with the necessary information to build off of and move toward getting our venture going. Sammy: Gain experience in conducting meaningful research and working on an interdisciplinary team. Make valuable contributions to move the project forward and create sustainable impact. Improve my interpersonal skills and develop a new mindset  Ami:  Contribute to the project in a meaningful way, understanding my own strengths and weaknesses , and learning how I can efficiently and effectively work within a diverse team. Help to better enforce communications within the team and outside the team, and become a better researcher and writer. Improve my own hard and soft skill sets including communications, and better understanding design thinking, engineering design, and supply chain. Rozhin: Complete experiments and write results in a lab report Publish a paper about the experiments and their relationship to the overall copra industry and how the result is an asset to copra farmers. Michelle:  Publish a paper about the different antioxidants we have researched on Pinpoint one antioxidant we can use for the copra processing  Continue with our research and see if there are other things we can improve on Brianna C: Help team with adding background information to paper to provide readers with a deeper framework and history of its problems and clarity on why proposed solution are innovative and helpful Project Goal: The project aims to improve copra processing and process streamlining for elevating the livelihoods of copra farmers by generating additional income. Is our Project Goal scaled to our resources (dreams, materials, skills, differences, etc.) and constraints (assignment, time, skills, etc.)? As a team, we have the given resources and knowledge needed to design and prototype a device that can better process copra. Unfortunately, due to given circumstances, our access to both each other and the tools required are constraining the timetable for which this project will operate on.   Since COPRA is a multi-year project, we as a team will lay up a strong foundation so that we can transfer the knowledge to other teams. The hope is that future teams will be able to scale upon the ideas and designs we come up with throughout this year.   Metrics for Success Design, energy efficiency, and sustainability of the processing technique Amount of high-quality copra that can be produced using new methods Amount of additional income that can be generated for copra farmers Scalability and Sustainability of the business model (can we actually get people to use this)
Roles	Who is responsible for which deliverables? Rozhin, Michelle, and Brianna C. will be responsible for the antioxidant testing and the deliverables that come from this. Jake, Tri, Brianna W, Sammy, and Ami will be responsible for the engineering components and the corresponding deliverables that arise from this. Which deliverables that require collaboration, subgroups & individual work? Who does each person depend upon to succeed? Deliverables  Presentation – Collaboration Preliminary Design Concepts – Sub group/Collaboration Prototype – Sub group/Individual Testing Data – Sub group/Individual Final report – Collaboration Do we need a project manager to coordinate?  Yes, we do need one. However, specific to our group, we rotate our project manager once every three weeks so that everyone has a chance to step up and take responsible for the group’s success We realize the importance of having a manager to help organize and coordinate group work and research, but believe that having a rotating leadership position helps alleviate the stress from one individual
Procedures	Decision-making  Consensus, our group has had very few disagreements If consensus can’t be achieved we will default to majority rules/the advice of our project advisor Effective meetings We’ve conducting weekly meetings (along with multiple weekly sub meetings) to keep everyone on track and updated with all the key information regarding our project Before each meeting we lay out an agenda to increase efficiency of meetings and help steer the conversation in the right direction We write weekly briefs (in accordance with our TE 211 course work) to keep documented records on what work and research we do each week We plan to continue holding these weekly meetings over Zoom at the same time and in the same fashion Keep track of time during meetings At the end of every meeting we make sure to assign weekly work to each group member to ensure that we can hold each other accountable Meeting roles During meetings the leader will facilitate the meeting and assign a different scribe for each meeting. The leader role will be rotated every 3 weeks Communication Up until this week we had planned Zoom meetings once a week on Fridays from 2:00 – 3:00 PM Bi-weekly meeting with two sub-groups, Prof. Jedlicka, and Prof. Haden
Relationships	Teamwork Our team has been very agreeable up to this point – we’ve had few disagreements if any Our assumption is that transitioning to video chatting as our primary form of communication will not be a problem For the Engineering team: We have backgrounds in Materials Science Engineering, Mechanical Engineerings, Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design The team also consists of different backgrounds such as athletics, international, cultural, and greek life. We have different interests outside of engineering: make-up and sports, band music, music composition, nature, and chess. The Science Research and Business teams have been added to the to Copra team The Science Research team have backgrounds in biology and are working on developing antioxidant research and experiments to help further the project The business has background in economics and international relations which will help further the project in terms of working on the business background of the project  Listening – As a team we enter group meetings with an open mindset and are ready listen to each other  Team Name– Copra