Simple designs that could save millions of lives
Fumes from indoor cooking fires kill more than 2 million children a year in the developing world. MIT engineer Amy Smith details an exciting but simple solution: a tool for turning farm waste into clean-burning charcoal.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1586848844467352161
About Amy Smith:
Mechanical engineer Amy Smith’s approach to problem-solving in developing nations is refreshingly common-sense: Invent cheap, low-tech devices that use local resources, so communities can reproduce her efforts and ultimately help themselves. Smith, working with her students at MIT, has come up with several useful tools, including an incubator that stays warm without electricity, a simple grain mill, and a tool that converts farm waste into cleaner-burning charcoal.
The inventions have earned Smith three prestigious prizes: the B.F. Goodrich Collegiate Inventors Award, the MIT-Lemelson Prize, and a MacArthur “genius” grant. Her course, “Design for Developing Countries,” is a pioneer in bringing humanitarian design into the curriculum of major institutions. Going forward, the former Peace Corps volunteer strives to do much more, bringing her inventiveness and boundless energy to bear on some of the world’s most persistent problems.
Tags: Amy Smith, B F Goodrich, Business, Collegiate Inventors, Design, electricity, Energy, genius, Goodrich, Innovation, Innovation, Invent, Lemelson Prize, Local Resources, Macarthur Genius, Mechanical Engineer, MIT, Peace Corps Volunteer, Persistent Problems, Prestigious Prizes, Simple, Simple Solution, Useful ToolsRelated posts
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
