On August 8, MIT held a ceremony to present the prototypes resulting from the month long MIT International Development Design Summit (IDDS) that began July 16. The summit gathered people from all over the world to work on technological solutions for some of the most pressing problems in the developing world. Participants came from 16 countries (including Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, India, and Pakistan) to work in design teams developing new technologies. The participants ranged from bicycle mechanics to MIT, CalTech, and Olin College students. Together, they worked in teams to identify problems, research solutions, and build technological prototypes throughout the month of the conference. During this time, they also receive training in various machine shops and other facilities at MIT and the surrounding area, and had the opportunity to listen to speakers from several different fields of engineering and development.

The summit was dreamed up by Amy Smith, an MIT professor and winner of the 2004 MacArthur Genius Grant. Smith also helped to organize the conference. She teaches several courses on international development and technology, and has initiated a number of innovative, development related programs at MIT. Smith believes that “solutions to problems in the developing world are best created in collaboration with the people who will be using them [1]”. This certainly came through in the IDDS conference this past month.

Not only did design teams develop actual prototypes for their projects, they developed business models and implementation plans for these new technologies in their own homes. Participants were allowed to take their prototypes home and begin testing them right away, an exciting prospect for the applicability of the new technologies. For example, Tanzanian mechanic and electrician Bernard Kiwia took home his team’s water purifying backpack, made of cotton fabric and food-safe plastic sheets. The backpack transports water while using heat and UV light to purify its contents in the process. This is just one of the many low-cost, easy-to-make projects that have come out of the 2007 IDDS. According to the Boston Globe reports, the summit is “part of a growing movement among engineers at universities and nongovernmental organizations to combat poverty with appropriate technology”. The new products are inexpensive, easy to use, and built with locally available materials. “This is a kind of engineering that involves the heart as well as the brain, and it's appealing to more people than ever before,” says founder of Engineers without Borders, Bernard Amadei [2]. As a result of such approach, many find the increased commitment to development exciting.

The results of the conference were very promising, and show potential for application in their target countries. The projects presented on July 8 included:

•    Off-grid refrigeration for rural areas using evaporative cooling methods,

•    Microbial Fuel Cells using microbes in their natural environments and locally available materials to generate electricity in the    developing world,

•    Bio-digester slurry separation to lessen the burden of water collection,

•    A low-cost greenhouse from recycled and easily available materials,

•    A low-cost water testing kit to give developing communities and small scale NGOs the ability to test water sources and supply chains,

•    Pedal-powered hammer mill to produce flour from grains,

•    A system that combines the collection, transport, disinfection and delivery of drinking  water for the rural household,

•    A low-cost, modular water filtration unit to provide clean drinking water,

•    A patient health tracking system using Radio Frequency Identification, and

•    Improved cook stove to reduce smoke production, built with locally available materials [3].

The IIJD congratulates MIT on a successful conference, and commends its dedication and ingenuity in addressing the problem of poverty in developing countries. As an organization working to alleviate conditions of poverty in Africa, we wish to encourage work that incorporates the ideas and contributions of individuals living in countries under such conditions.

For more information on the summit, please go to www.iddsummit.org.