i/s Back Issues

Volume 17

No. 3  January/February 2002

ThinkCycle: Reaching Out to Solve Real-World Problems

Lee Ridgway

The World Wide Web has some powerful attributes. It's a way to share information across the globe, easily and openly, at very little cost. It can also enable collaboration among far-flung people who might otherwise never meet or know of each other.

These attributes are behind an idea put forth in March 2000 by a group of graduate students in the Media Lab. The initial group included Ravi Pappu, Saul Griffith, Nitin Sawhney, Yael Maguire, Wendy Plesniak, and Ben Vigoda. Their idea, simply stated, was to create a database, accessible over the Web, that would enable "open source" problem solving among university students and communities in the developing world.

They envisioned the database and the Web combining into a system that documents submitted problems and the evolving design solutions to those problems. The database would serve as the repository for all the iterative design concepts, technical notes, working files, and images around a problem and its solution. This repository would be searchable, cross-referenced, free, and open to the public.

Out of this concept grew ThinkCycle. Built on open source tools such as Linux and the ArsDigita Community System, ThinkCycle resides at http://www.thinkcycle.org/

Its name comes from the notion of harnessing the creative minds, or "think cycles," of people everywhere to work on global design challenges.

With over a year of activity behind them, the MIT students who run this academic, nonprofit initiative are starting to realize some of their ideas.

Motivations
Several motivations are behind the ThinkCycle concept. One has to do with changing the way engineering design is taught in schools. In traditional design courses, students are given projects for problems that have already been solved -- in effect, reinventing the wheel. ThinkCycle focuses on real-world problems and moves beyond the local classroom model, involving students and faculty at MIT and other schools in industrialized and developing countries.

Another motivation behind ThinkCycle is to work on problems in communities not being well served by new technologies. To get at these problems, ThinkCycle asks
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders related to underserved communities to submit worthwhile challenges.

How It Works
The ThinkCycle process can be summed up as follows:

1. An NGO or other stakeholder submits a problem to ThinkCycle. The problem is given a peer review by domain experts and made accessible in the ThinkCycle database.
2. Design faculty in a participating school can select problems for a design course and present these to the students in the course.
3. The students, working in teams, investigate the state of the art around technology related to the challenge, establish design constraints, brainstorm design concepts, then design and manufacture prototypes.
4. During the design and prototyping, experts in the domain of the problem review the work of the students and provide advice as well as resources.
5. As with any design course, at the end students give a final report and project presentation, which may include recommendations for future work.

Within the ThinkCycle database, the challenges are organized into topics; one topic may include several related challenges. These topics serve as the file cabinet and shared "ThinkSpace" for those working on the challenges and for others interested in their progress. Through an online discussion board, shared file space, and notes, a detailed record is built up which is open to all.

Those who pose the challenges post notes with resources, links, and relevant images. Design teams use the system to get postings, as well as to publish work in progress. Other participants can review the ongoing design and can even post their own contributions. There is no formal moderation mechanism in place, although the ThinkCycle coordinators who create the topics serve as initial editors to set up the domain and make suggestions to contributors as needed.

Design That Matters
The ThinkCycle concept was put to the test last spring in an independent study, special projects course in the Media Lab, Design that Matters. About five projects were completed.

One of the challenges undertaken dealt with cholera treatment devices. In an outbreak of cholera, medical specialists usually train local community members to implement the IV treatment needed to treat severe cases. The design challenge was to develop a compact kit for the medical teams that could be used to clearly and quickly instruct the local people in the use of IV drip-set equipment. Part of the challenge was that the trainees may be illiterate, and that the IV treatment involved calibrating equipment settings.

Working with a prototype ThinkCycle database, the interdisciplinary design team used the system as envisioned by its creators. Starting with nine design concepts, the team eventually developed two prototypes and a third detailed design description which showed the most potential for addressing the challenge of rapid IV deployment. Documents were shared through the ThinkCycle file space and archived in the database, including discussions with two cholera treatment specialists at MGH who consulted with the team and gave critical feedback. A peer-reviewed paper concluded the work for the course. This trial run was proof enough of the ThinkCycle concept and system, which encouraged the ThinkCycle team to expand its horizons.

This spring, Design that Matters will be offered again. It will be run in conjunction with a collaborative network of design courses at universities in Kenya, Brazil, Costa Rica, Portugal, and India. Instructors for the course include Timothy Prestero and Leo Burd, joined by original ThinkCycle team members Griffith, Sawhney, Maguire, and Vigoda. The faculty supervisor for the project is Professor Mitchel Resnick.

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