visiting practitioners program
IDI offers opportunities for community partners to visit MIT to participate in a variety of activities, including guest lecturs in classes, consultations with students, time in labs, dinners at iHouse and the IDI Annex. Visits are generally for a period of 1-2 weeks. Practitioners are encouraged to use the resources at MIT to their advantage, as well as form collaborations with faculty and laboratories so that they can conduct their own research while on campus. For more information about this program, contact Laura Sampath, lsampath@mit.edu
Meet the Practitioners
2012
Kelvin Doe, aka DJ Focus
Year: October 2012
Description: Kelvin Doe is a 15-year-old innovator from Sierra Leone who was invited to the US in 2012 to engage
with other makers, present his inventions, and learn how to translate those ideas and products into solutions for his
community. Kelvin was selected to travel to the US based on his participation in one of 8 winning teams in an innovation
challenge in Sierra Leone organized by Global Minimum. He served as a representative
of his peers during this opportunity to enjoy New York City, Boston, and Cambridge. Kelvin's trip to the US included
a week at the 2012 Maker Faire in New York, where he was invited to
speak on the “Meet the Young Makers” panel, where he discussed the fabrication of his local RM radio station, his homemade batteries, and generator.
He also discussed the motivation behind his inventions with the other young American makers. Kelvin spent two weeks at MIT where he presented his inventions
to students in two D-Lab classes, engaged with community members at MIT and participated in handson research at the MIT Media Lab.
Click here to watch the THINKR YouTube ideo about his stay.
2011
Benard Kiwia
Year: April 2011
Description: Bernard is an inventor from Tanzania, who currently leads technology innovation at Global Cycle Solutions in his home country. Bernard
started as a bicycle mechanic with 3 years of experience when he participated in the first edition of the International Development Design Summit (IDDS) at MIT over the summer
of 2007. After connecting there with other craftsmen, technicians and hackers of all sorts, he came back home to start making things, as he likes to describe his current
activities. Benard spent nearly three weeks at MIT working alongside students in the D-lab Design course, as well as presenting his inventions in the “Lunch
in the Lab series” (including a cell phone charger for bicycles, a wheel truing stand, several daily objects made out of bicycle spare parts - a can opener made from a
bike brake, a picture frame made from a front sprocket wheel, chairs made from bike wheel rims, etc -, a bicycle-powered water pump, a solar water heater, and a pedal-powered
drill press to name a few). His input as a user is of great value to the students with whom he works.
George Nez
Year: April 2011
Description: George Nez, founder of Thin Shell Concrete (TSC -Global) and MIT class of '50, has developed low-cost construction techniques utilizing common materials - salvage
in many cases - for building durable roofs and wall panel systems. This spring George spent a week at MIT working with Sanergy to further their low-cost sanitation
unit for the slums of Nairobi. Less concrete will reduce both production and transportation costs. George's techniques directly informed Sanergy's next generation of
sanitation units to be built during 2011, as the organization expands its pilot from 2 to 60 sanitation units. George's visit was also supported by in the department of
Architecture where he lectured on his low-cost Hypar roof. Additionally, he spoke in the D-lab Schools class.
2010
Fatuma Acan
Year: April 2010
Description: Fatuma Acan is the Director of MADE (Mobility Appliances for Disabled Women Entrepreneurs)
and is from Uganda. She is also the Director of the Pan-African Wheelchair Association, wheelchair rider from childhood polio and the first woman in Africa to be
trained as a wheelchair technologist. Fatuma also spent close to two weeks on campus working closely with students from the Wheelchair Design class.
She was also a speaker at the Innovators Night.
Sarah Bird
Year: May 2012
Description: Sarah Bird, co-founder of Coho Solar and SaafWater enjoys being at the intersection of many disciplines. She has designed ejection seats; made charcoal from sugar-cane
waste in Haiti; analyzed internet bandwidth management in African universities; and implmented mobile-phone based data-collection for a tuberculosis transmission study
in Peru. SaafWater hired women from the densely-packed urban neighborhoods of Karachi to go door-to-door educating and motivating their friends and neighbours to buy water
purification tablets, and earn an income through the sales. Her new company Coho Solar, with fellow D-Lab alum Shawn Frayne, is making low-cost energy solutions for
communities in developing countries.
Jock Brandis
Year: November 2010
Description: Full Belly Project designs labor saving devices to improve the lives of people in developing
communities. His Universal Nut Sheller, currently in 17 countries, helps to process vital cash crops in developing countries by cutting down on labor hours and
keeping more money with farmers. Village incomes are up 20 percent, according to some studies. On this visit to MIT, Jock introduced a new technology he is working on -
the “rocker pump” is his latest invention, pumping water at the same rate as the treadle pump with minimal physical exertion on the part of the user.
Suprio Das
Year: April - May 2010
Description: Suprio Das, from India, is the Senior Adviser to Aqua Welfare Society and an independent inventor of water treatment and power generation devices. He has been
involved with MIT's International Development Design Summit for the past three years. In the spring of 2010 Suprio spent 2 months at MIT as a D-lab “Designer in Residence.”
During this time he mentored a student team on a chlorinator project, further developed a pedal-powered cell-phone charger (in collaboration with Benard Kiwia, below),
spoke at the inaugural IDI-sponsored Innovators Night, and spent countless hours in the lab working elbow to elbow with students on their projects.
Dr. Pradip Sarmah
Year: October 2010
Description: Eminent social entrepreneur from Assam, India, Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah, founder of Rickshaw Bank, the Centre for
Rural Development (CRD), and an Ashoka Fellow, visited MIT last fall. Over 90% of rickshaw drivers in India have to rent their rickshaws daily. Rickshaw Bank has made it
possible for thousands of drivers to own their rickshaws through an asset-based micro-credit program. Dr. Sarmah is also involved in other types of vehicle-based businesses,
such as vegetable and fish sales, ready-to-eat food vending, and hand-cycle-based postal kiosks to be used by disabled people to sell stamps and other services.
While an IDI Visiting Practitioner, Dr. Sarmah shared and discussed the challenges he faces in trying to scale up to reach the 8 million Indian rickshaws in service.
The Rickshaw Bank is currently working with the D-lab Cycle Ventures class on a redesign of the rickshaw, and Dr Sarmah spoke to several classes while he was on campus.
For more information on the IDI Visiting Practitioner's Program, please contact the International Development Initiative.
