VOA慢速英语:Social Innovation Summit 2012 Comes to an End

More than 700 business leaders, government officials, investors and other people gathered last week in Mountain View, California. They went there to attend the Social Innovation Summit. Landmark Ventures, a financial advisory company, organized the event. It is an invitation-only conference aimed at finding new ways to deal with old problems.
上周，超过700名商界领袖、政府官员、投资者和其他人士汇聚到加利福尼亚州山景城。他们前往那里参加社会创新峰会。金融咨询公司Landmark Ventures组织了这次活动。这是一次邀请性质的会议，目的是寻找新办法来解决老问题。

Problems like traffic jams. That is an issue that student entrepreneur Christian Bruggemann hopes to solve.
像交通拥堵就是创业大学生Christian Bruggemann希望解决的问题。

“Traffic is actually really bad in most countries and we thought there must be some way of doing something about it.”
“大多数国家的交通实际上是非常糟糕的，我们认为一定有办法就此做些事情。”

Last week, his Team Graphmasters received a Microsoft Imagine Cup Grant of $100,000. The German team won the prize for its “nunav” traffic management system. Here is how it works.
上周，他的团队Graphmasters获得了微软创新杯10万美元的奖金。该德国团队凭借其nunav交通管理系统获奖。下面介绍该系统是如何工作的。

“Everyone that’s using our system sends his current position as well as the destination to our servers every 30 seconds. And with that information our central system can reroute all of the cars in a way that everyone gets his individual best possible route.”
“使用该系统的每个人每30秒将自己的当前位置和目的地发送到我们的服务器。我们的中央系统可以利用这些信息重新规划所有汽车的路线，使得每个人都能获得个人最好的可能路线。”

Christian Bruggemann says early research with the system has been promising.
Christian Bruggemann称，该系统的早期研究极有前景。

“We found out through our simulations that it could be possible to save up to 20 percent of the fuel consumption. What’s even more interesting is that it can save up to 50 percent of the time you spend in traffic so you could get to your destination twice as fast.”
“我们发现，通过我们的模拟，它有可能节省20%以上的燃油消耗。更有意思的是，它可以将你花在路上的时间节省50%以上，因此你就可以早一半时间抵达目的地。”

A team from Uganda also was invited to the Social Innovation Summit. Team Cypher256 has developed a mobile app aimed at improving health care for pregnant women in Africa. Aaron Tushabe is a member of the team.
一个来自乌干达的Cypher256团队也被邀请参加社会创新峰会。该团队开发了一个移动应用程序，旨在改善非洲孕妇的医疗保健。Aaron Tushabe是该团队的一名成员。

“Maternal and infant mortality rates are extremely high in the community. On average, in sub Saharan Africa, we have mothers dying almost every minute from pregnancy related complications.”
“社会上孕产妇和婴儿的死亡率非常高。平均而言，在非洲撒哈拉以南地区，几乎每分钟都有母亲因为怀孕相关的并发症而死亡。”

The app is called WinSenga. It measures fetal heart sounds to help establish the heart rate, age and position of the fetus in the mother. That information is recorded and stored for future use. Aaron Tushabe says the device is similar in operation to an ultrasound test, but is far less costly.
该应用程序叫做WinSenga。它通过测算胎儿心音来帮助确定母体中胎儿的胎心率、胎龄和胎儿位置。这些信息被记录和存储起来以备将来使用。Aaron Tushabe称，该设备类似进行超声波检测，但成本远低于它。

“With an ultrasound scan, mothers have to pay about five dollars each to access antenatal care, which is very expensive in a community where people still live on less than a $1 a day.”
“妈妈们每次超声波扫描需要支付大约5美元，这对一个每天生活费低于1美元的社区来说是非常昂贵的。”

And he says not having to depend on ultrasound equipment adds an even greater benefit.
而他说，不依赖超声设备还有一个好处。

“Even better we see the medical personnel being able to move into the communities then offer the antenatal diagnosis right there.”
“更妙的是，我们看到的医务人员能够进入社区，然后在那里提供产前诊断。”

Team Cypher256 received a Microsoft Imagine Cup Grant of $75,000 to help continue the project.
Cypher256团队获得微软创新杯7.5万美元的奖金以帮助继续该项目。

This is the third year for the Social Innovation Summit. The event is held two times a year, once in New York and once in California. The first one in 2012 was held in May. The United Nations’ Office for Partnerships helped to organize the event.
这是社会创新峰会举办的第三个年头。该活动一年举办两次，一次在纽约，一次在加利福尼亚州。2012年第一次活动在5月份举行。联合国伙伴关系办公室协助组织了这项活动。