Now more than a year later, travel weary and filled with memories, Fiore has returned to America with over $70K for the cause.

Fiore joined the Marine Corps in 2004 on an eight year contract. He was deployed to Senegal and embarked on a three week training exercise with Senegalese commandos. This was his first time visiting a developing country and Fiore said those interactions dramatically shifted the course of his life.

“It was an eye-opening experience to be in a culture that was fundamentally different from what I was used to,” he said in an interview with VentureBeat. “Witnessing all of these local customs made me realize how little of the world I had seen. I decided to carve out one year to travel to a part of the world I had never been.”

Once this idea took root in his mind, Fiore had to decide where to go. He looked at a map on Google Earth and saw that the capital cities in Southeast Asia form a “neat little circle” of 5,000 miles. He would start in Singapore, and then travel across Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Phillipines, Brunei and back to Singapore.

Fiore’s desire to travel was not only motivated by wanderlust. The poverty he witnessed while in Senegal profoundly impacted his outlook on the world, and he wanted to give back in some way. Soon after returning home from his duty, Fiore’s father showed him a newspaper article about Dr. Geoff Williams, a surgeon who gave up a lucrative career in the U.S. to provide free reconstructive surgeries to children in developing countries. This story resonated with Fiore and he chose Dr. Williams’ organization as his chosen cause.

“While cleft lips can cause feeding complications for infants and later, and flawed speech, it was the overwhelming element of shame that drew me to this cause,” Fiore wrote on his blog. “A cleft lip is up close and personal. It is the first impression. It, of course, appears on the most expressive part of the body, and unless it gets fixed, a cleft never goes away.”

Procedures of this nature are relatively inexpensive. They cost around $250 and only take a couple of hours. It is a problem that is widespread and pernicious, yet fixable. The ICSF has missions all over the world where they perform reconstructive operations and allot for post-surgical care and recovery time. The organization also trains local doctors so they work can continue after the mission ends.

Fiore began fundraising for ICSF before his departure by visiting rotary clubs around the U.S. He easily reached his initial goal of $25K and all the money he earned went directly to the ICSF. He paid for travel expenses with savings.

His travel costs were low, considering he rarely spent money on transportation and lived frugally. The entire journey happened on foot, except when it was impossible to do so. In a post on Google’s official blog, Maps project manager Jennifer Chen described his Android phone as “the hub of the entire operation.” He used Google Maps walking directions to navigate through remote villages, farms, rice paddies, urban jungles, and mountainous terrain, and maneuvered language barriers and cross-cultural situations using his Samsung Galaxy Note 2. 

“I spent a lot of time in unorthodox places where you wouldn’t find any pedestrians,” Fiore said. “I made sure to face traffic and wear reflectors on my vest. You might be on a three lane highway and told to turn right onto a dirt road that you can barely see, and end up in sugarcane farms in middle of nowhere. It allows you to experience this part of the world you wouldn’t know to go through.”

Fiore was a light packer, to say the least. He rarely ever carried food with him because he found that Southeast Asia is, for the most part, so densely populated, it was uncommon to walk more than a couple of kilometers without running into a roadside eatery or a place to rest. While serving in the military, one of the most meaningful parts of his experience was engaging closely with the local people. He sought out the same degree of connections during Smile Trek by staying in local homes whenever he could and patronizing local business. His commitment to deviating from the tourist trail put him in closer contact with the people he was trying to help.

“I was getting close to the Chinese border and all of a sudden, a gentlemen on a scooter passes me,” Fiore recalled. “I saw that he had a severe facial deformity known as ‘Elephant Man Syndrome’ and I immediately see he needs help. He stopped his scooter at a fish market and I finally worked up the courage to approach to him. I used Google Translate to say ‘I know a doctor who can help you, would you be interested in free surgery?’ and he understood. The stars were aligned because we were only 100k south of a city where ICSF has a regular medical mission. He is scheduled for surgery in May.”

These types of interactions happened frequently over the course of his 408 day journey. Fiore said that there were a lot of emotional ups and downs and the adventure was physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing. He had a lot of time to reflect, think, and of course, surf the web from his mobile phone.

“Smile Trek was months and months of walking,” he said. “There was a lot of monotony involved, but with the hyper connectivity of today, it is possible to have the internet in your pocket. I can be crossing across a National Park in Laos and having a Facebook conversation with a friend of mine. It is definitely a crazy phenomenon, but it prevents you from losing your mind to know family and friends are just an email away. This was a completely different experience from even just five years ago.”

Some of his thoughts were occupied by plans for the future. During this adventure, Fiore became interested in urban agriculture and he decided to dedicate the next chapter of his life to learning as much as possible about this movement. He returned home to Bloomington, Indiana just under a week ago and has plans to move to Chicago to work on a rooftop farm. After he spends some quality time with his family and takes a few weeks to put his feet up. Literally.

Harry Kolar, an engineer with IBM, described harvesting energy from human movements as bodies becoming “an energy-generating machine,” in a blog post about what energy changes may occur in the next five years. In essence, we create energy from many of the little activities we do throughout the day. This includes the simply click of a heel on the ground, jogging and biking. It’s similar to the hamster on the wheel scenario. This time, however, it’s on a much larger, human scale and only takes energy from our regular activities. Kolar explains the energy collection could come from a small device and antenna implanted into the sole of your shoe, measuring each time it comes in contact with the ground, or even simply bends. Similar devices could be implanted on the spokes of bike wheels, or even attached to pipes to catch energy from running water.

“This science — parasitic power collection — pulls and transmits energy created by the slightest movement.” said Kolar in the blog post. “Think about the possibilities.”

Kolar also predicts that we will figure out how to best harness wave and tidal energy. Currently, we have floating energy receptacles, which harvest wave energy, but they are clunky and may have a negative impact on the environment around it. When we think of pollution, we usually think about plastic bags and bottles floating in water, confusing fish into thinking it’s food, and hurting the environment. This is certainly one kind of pollution, but rarely do people consider noise to be pollution. If you’re a person raised in the quiet countryside, trying to fall asleep to car alarms and sirens may feel intrusive. Well, this is the same for fish and marine animals who have to listen to hums and whirrs that exist from man-made machinery.

“My team is working with The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland to use real-time streaming analytics that monitor the underwater noise and track its potential impact on the marine environment,” said Koler. “That data will be shared across the wave energy industry to help build a clearer picture of how this type of technology can be safely, sustainably used and controlled.”

Others are already taking advantage of this parasitic power collection, with the goal of powering third world countries through soccer. Yes, soccer. Soccket has created a durable soccer ball that when kicked around for only a half hour can power up an LED light for up to three hours. The balls are made specifically for communities with little resources and sometimes rough terrain. The ball replaces kerosene lamps, which according to Soccket are the equivalent of smoking 40 cigarettes a day.

Kinetic energy will play a big role is where we get out energy from, and we’re already starting to develop way of capturing it. It’l be important to keep innovation rolling over the next five years as Kolar believes we’re running out of resources — and quickly.

“With populations growing and electricity demand expected to grow at 2.2 percent per year to 2035 (according to the World Energy Outlook 2010),” Kolar explain, “Our current energy infrastructure is just not enough.”

Today, the company announced on its blog that it has reached 5 million downloads and secured a second round of funding for $2.3 million from Seed Capital.

Targeting joggers, cyclists, walkers and just about any other sport that has people moving from point A to point B, Endomondo is available for smartphones running Blackberry, Android and iPhone operating systems.

Users launch the app at the beginning of their workout and can track a myriad of statistics, including total distance, speed and calories burned. Other Endomondo users can see your workouts, statistics and even ask to be a friend if you’re looking for a little good-natured competition.

Similar workout-tracking applications exist, such as Runmeter and Nike’s GPS+. These other applications allow users to track workouts and share statistics with other users, as well as the individual’s social networks, like Facebook or Twitter.

The Copenhagen, Denmark-based company, founded in 2007, previously raised a first round of funding for $800k.