When we think of our most basic human needs, we often think of food, water, and shelter. But when architecture graduate students Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta were asked to design a product to assist post-earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, they considered the dangerous conditions at night in the tent cities and turned their attention to another critical need: Light. After the Haiti Earthquake, design students Anna and Andrea invent an idea for an inflatable solar light that packs flat. Anna and Andrea make the first 50 prototypes for testing by hand. Anna and Andrea file LuminAID’s first utility patent as students of Columbia University. Anna and Andrea travel to village projects in India to field test initial prototypes. The first version of the LuminAID light is launched on a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo and raises 500% of its initial funding goal.