Public Service Fellowships: Summer 2010

The Americas

Boston, Massachusetts
Ann Woods (G, Architecture)

The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti cause massive destruction across Port au Prince and has devastated the country in social, political, economic and infrastructural ways. Architects have a unique opportunity to design new infrastructures for the Haitian community that can promote rebuilding and growth in the country. Ann Woods will be teamed with Yves Francois of Ecofra, a Haitian developer working on community oriented projects in Haiti, and Hansy Better, AIA, principal at Studio Luz Architects in Boston, a firm that has engaged in several projects in Haiti. The team will embark on an intensive research project to develop low cost sustainable housing prototypes for Haiti, which can serve as a model for other NGOs assisting in rebuilding.

New Orleans, Louisiana
Laura Manville (G, DUSP)

NONDC builds high-quality affordable homes in Central City, New Orleans to make the dream of homeownership available to low-income residents. Laura Manville will be helping NONDC to put in place a framework to evaluate their impact in Central City and begin to form a strategy for the organization's future investments. Her work will also help inform the plan for disbursing Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding recently granted to a coalition of community groups and city agencies working in Central City.

Mexico City, Mexico
Manvi Goel (2010, Economics)

Manvi Goel and another MIT student, Sarina Siddhanti, will work on extending the traditional concept of microfinance to "micro-equity" by enabling investors around the world to take part in the growth of small to medium enterprises in developing countries. To this end Manvi and Sarina will be traveling to Mexico City and setting up a pilot (the first in a Latin American country) for the Inventure Fund. The Inventure Fund uses an online platform to connect investors to high-potential entrepreneurs through a novel equity (as opposed to debt) model.

Sarina Siddhanti (2010, Economics and Mathematics)

Sarina Siddhanti and another MIT student, Manvi Goel, will work on extending the traditional concept of microfinance to "micro-equity" by enabling investors around the world to take part in the growth of small to medium enterprises in developing countries. To this end Sarina and Manvi will be traveling to Mexico City and setting up a pilot (the first in a Latin American country) for the Inventure Fund. The Inventure Fund uses an online platform to connect investors to high-potential entrepreneurs through a novel equity (as opposed to debt) model.

Guanajuato, Mexico

Anjali Thakkar (2012, Materials Engineering and Biology
Anjali Thakkar developed a mentoring program for girls to introduce them to entrepreneurial opportunities and the benefit of mentoring. The program will match the girls with local businesses so the girls can learn about the industry from experienced mentors.

Antigua, Guatemala
Danielle Hicks (2012, Mechanical Engineering)

Danielle Hicks will be working on at team that is designing implementation and the beginning stages of the manufacturing of the Leveraged Freedom Chair. The LFC utilizes human power through the use of levers and is especially suited for the rough terrain of developing countries.

Nydia Ruleman (2012, Mechanical Engineering)

Nydia Ruleman will partner with Transitions Foundation to build several prototypes of the Leveraged Freedom Chair and distributing the wheelchairs for testing and feedback. She will be working on a team that is further developing a mobility aid that utilizes human power through the use of levers and is especially suited for the rough terrain of developing countries.

Santa Ana, Ecuador
Lily Xu (2012, Chemical-Biological Engineering)

Lily Xu and fellow MIT student Saba Mohsin are traveling to four communities in Ecuador (primarily Santa Ana) to continue a rainwater filtration tank project that MIT alum Kendra Johnson started in 2006. The goal is to conduct a study to isolate the discrepancy in water quality between the water tanks. Some water is still contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria, which is the source of widespread diarrhea and water borne diseases. Lily and Saba will be using this study to improve upon other water tanks and help expand these tanks to other communities in the area.

Saba Mohsin (2011, Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics)

Saba Mohsin and fellow MIT student Lily Xu are traveling to four communities in Ecuador (primarily Santa Ana) to continue a rainwater filtration tank project that MIT alum Kendra Johnson started in 2006. The goal is to conduct a study to isolate the discrepancy in water quality between the water tanks. Some water is still contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria, which is the source of widespread diarrhea and water borne diseases. Saba and Lily will be using this study to improve upon other water tanks and help expand these tanks to other communities in the area.

Tena, Ecuador and Southern Peru (Ica, Chincha, Pisco)
Adam Talsma (2010, Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Adam Talsma and another MIT student, Brooke Jarrett, will blaze the trails for the MIT Alumni Association's service trip to the Napo Region near the Amazon Rainforest.  Alongside the Kallari Cacao Cooperative, they will be working alongside MIT alums to assess and further progress towards constructing an environmentally-friendly chocolate factory.  Afterward Adam and Brooke will be working in Southern Peru to finish a participatory documentary about post disaster reconstruction from summer 2009.

Brooke Jarrett (2010, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sustainable International Design (1A))

Brooke Jarrett and another MIT student, Adam Talsma, will blaze the trails for the MIT Alumni Association's service trip to the Napo Region near the Amazon Rainforest.  Alongside the Kallari Cacao Cooperative, they will be working alongside MIT alums to assess and further progress towards constructing an environmentally-friendly chocolate factory.  Afterward Brooke and Adam will be working in Southern Peru to finish a participatory documentary about post disaster reconstruction from summer 2009.

Africa

Takoradi, Ghana
Edward Burnell (2013, undecided)

Edward Burnell and fellow MIT student Anna Waldman-Brown are working with the MIT Fabrication Lab to help design and implement a lab-oriented science education program at the Takoradi Technical Institute in Ghana. They are collaborating with D-Lab to develop a high school curriculum with a focus on technological solutions to rural problems.

Anna Waldman-Brown (2011, Physics, Writing and Humanistic Studies)

Anna Waldman-Brown and fellow MIT student Edward Burnell are working with the MIT Fabrication Lab to help design and implement a lab-oriented science education program at the Takoradi Technical Institute in Ghana. They are collaborating with D-Lab to develop a high school curriculum with a focus on technological solutions to rural problems.

Kibera, Kenya
Kenfield Griffith (G, Architecture)

Kenfield Griffith is piloting mSurvey, a cell phone-based platform for aggregating survey data from Kibera communities served by NGOs in Kenya. The system will enable the community to enumerate data through SMS protocol, to be used to design and develop projects within the community. The mobile platform will be used to collect data within the immediate communities and in rural areas.

Nairobi, Kenya
Wesley McDougal (2012, Mechanical Engineering)

Wesley McDougal will be working with APDK to help improve mobility for the disabled people of Kenya. He will be focused on developing and exploring options for modifying mobility aid trikes and mopeds and producing prototypes and testing an existing version of the Powertrike at APDK’s Nairobi facility.

Ddegeya, Uganda
Theresa Saxton-Fox (2012, Mechanical Engineering)

Theresa Saxton-Fox is setting up a solar panel system for the Engeye health clinic,which is an American-run NGO, but is managed by members of the Ddegeya community. The electricity from the solar panels will allow the health clinic to have a refrigerator, a centrifuge, microscopes, and lights, allowing the clinic to provide vaccines and antibiotics, accurately diagnose patients, and provide overnight care for the people of the region. Theresa will also help her fellow team members dig clean wells so that the Ddegeya villagers can have clean drinking water.

Europe

Istanbul, Turkey
Christie Lin (2011, Nuclear Engineering)

Carbon monoxide poisoning is a major hazard in Turkey and access to CO detectors is very limited. To address this problem, Christie Lin is developing a workshop for local Istanbul students at Robert College to redesign the carbon monoxide detector to be a much more affordable life-saving tool for the Turkish community

Asia

Bangalore, India
Russell Ryan (2010, Computer Science)

Russell Ryan will be working on implementing Sana, an open-source, Google Android-based telemedicine platform in rural hospitals and clinics surrounding the Bangalore area for identifying risk factors for cardiovascular health. Using Sana, nurses and volunteer health workers in clinics will be able to capture electrocardiograms (ECG) and other medical data and send it to an electronic medical record hosted in an urban hospital using OpenMRS. Doctors at the urban hospital will assess the data and respond with their diagnosis. Additionally, Russell will visit local partner universities to give seminars and hands-on technical introductions to the Sana platform so that local students can maintain the system after he leaves.

Shamirpet, Andhra Pradesh, India
Mahesh Vidula (2011, Biological Engineering)

Mahesh developed a culturally-sensitive cardiovascular health education curriculum for the Mediciti Hospital targeted at underserved, lower income community members that would not seek out health advice on their own. He is also going to work on developing surveys so that he can provide the best information to patients of the hospital as well as getting hospital interns and residents involved in his project.

Davis Projects for Peace Fellowship

Mindanao, Philippines
Chris Moses (’10, Brain & Cognitive Sciences)

Chris Moses is traveling to Manila to launch a new collaboration between universities in Metro Manila and provincial health offices in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, Philippines. He will work with local software engineers in Manila to customize the Sana (previously Moca) telemedicine system to deliver primary care with a focus on child and maternal health, and will train health workers to carry out initial pilot studies in Mindanao. Evaluation studies will follow the small-scale pilot implementation.