Imagine living in a place where electricity is unavailable, studying after sunset is difficult, and families depend on smoky kerosene lamps to light their homes. Now imagine a simple solution that uses two everyday ingredients, salt and water, to produce light. This is the inspiring idea behind Aisa Mijeno, an engineer, educator, and social entrepreneur from the Philippines who set out to make life easier for communities without reliable electricity.
Aisa Mijeno’s journey shows how science can become a powerful tool for social change when it begins with understanding people’s everyday problems. Rather than developing technology simply to gain recognition, she wanted to create something that could make a meaningful difference in the lives of people who often remain overlooked.
Her idea began taking shape in 2011, when she visited a remote community in the mountainous region of Kalinga in the Philippines while working as an environmental volunteer. During her time with local communities, she witnessed the difficulties faced by families who had no access to reliable electricity. Many depended on kerosene lamps for lighting, which created smoke, involved recurring fuel expenses, and carried the risk of fire. Children struggled to study at night, while families had limited options for safe and affordable illumination.
The experience stayed with her. Mijeno began thinking about how an ordinary household ingredient, salt, could help address this problem. She wanted to create a lighting solution that was affordable, practical, and less harmful to the environment. Her engineering knowledge gave her the technical foundation, while her experience in environmental advocacy helped her understand the importance of designing technology around people’s actual needs.
Together with her brother, Raphael Mijeno, she co-founded Sustainable Alternative Lighting, known as SALt. The project developed a lamp that uses a metal-air battery activated by saltwater. By adding salt to water, users can create the chemical reaction needed to generate electricity and power an LED light. The original design could provide approximately eight hours of light under the specified operating conditions and was also designed to offer emergency mobile-phone charging.
The idea attracted considerable attention because it presented a different approach to a familiar problem. Instead of depending entirely on conventional electricity or disposable batteries, the lamp offered an alternative that could be particularly useful for remote communities and during emergencies. It also demonstrated how scientific knowledge could be applied to improve everyday life.
In 2015, Mijeno presented the SALt lamp at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Manila, Philippines. She had the opportunity to discuss her innovation at an event attended by prominent international leaders, including former United States President Barack Obama and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. The presentation brought international attention to her work and highlighted the potential of Filipino innovation.
However, turning an innovative idea into a product that can reach people on a large scale is not easy. Developing prototypes, improving the technology, securing resources, and making the product commercially viable all require time and determination. Mijeno’s journey illustrates that creating an invention is only one part of solving a problem. Making it accessible, reliable, and sustainable is another major challenge.
Her contributions have received several recognitions. She received the Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines award in 2019 for her work in science, technology, and green technology. She was also recognised through the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service award in 2016 and the Good Design Award in 2018. In 2025, she received international recognition through the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Global Sustainability Prize.
Beyond her work as an innovator, Mijeno has continued to contribute to education and technology development. She has worked as an engineering educator and has supported innovation initiatives that encourage people to explore practical solutions to real-world challenges.
Aisa Mijeno’s story reminds us that meaningful innovation does not always begin in a sophisticated laboratory or with expensive equipment. Sometimes, it begins with noticing a problem that others have accepted as normal and asking whether things could be different.
Her journey encourages young people, especially aspiring engineers and women in science, to look beyond textbooks and use their knowledge to help others. The SALt lamp is more than an invention powered by saltwater. It represents the belief that technology becomes truly valuable when it improves people’s lives. Through her work, Mijeno demonstrates that even a simple idea, when guided by compassion, determination, and scientific thinking, can illuminate a path towards a better future.