Amy B. Smith

Hi!

Welcome to my home page. This is pretty out of date. I think I last wrote in 1999. Much has happened since then, I'm now an instructor at the Edgerton Center and I teach a class called D-Lab .

My Life At MIT

I am a graduate student at MIT in the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Technology and Policy Program. My research is in the field of Engineering Design for Developing Countries. For my master's thesis I designed an improved grain mill for use in rural villages in Africa. I took the mill to Senegal to do field testing. I am currently trying to set up a program which uses other small-scale engineering projects from developing countries to enhance the undergraduate design curriculum. Some of the projects we are working on are a sunflower seed oil press, an animal driven pump, and a low cost rick-shaw. I also help teach a design seminar which deals with redesigning medical laboratory equipment so that it can be used in remote medical facilities.

My Life Before MIT

I was born and raised in Lexington, Mass. where I went to Lexington High School. I did a lot of musical stuff there (band, orchestra, stage band, chorus, concert choir, madrigals) and also worked at my church, the Follen Community Church, Unitarian-Universalist. I went to MIT as an undergraduate, where I did a lot of sports stuff (volleyball, water polo, basketball). Before I came back to grad school I was in the Peace Corps and worked in Botswana for 4 years. For my first two years I was teaching Math, English and Science at Itekeng Community Junior Secondary School in Ghanzi. After that I transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and was stationed in Maun as the Regional Beekeeping Officer for the Ngamiland District and soon thereafter became a member of The Maun Rejects.

My Life Outside of MIT

I still do a lot of things at my church-- I work with the youth group, I am in charge of a couple programs which help provide meals at some feeding programs in Boston, I am in charge of the exchange program with a high school on the Hopi/Navajo reservation and I sometimes teach Sunday School for the 3 and 4 year olds. I have also started to do more musical things-- I bought a Navajo flute while I was out in Arizona and have been busy playing and composing music for that. I also play the penny whistle and guitar and I recently picked up my tenor saxophone and am playing with the Lexington Bicentennial Band. I am still playing sports, volleyball the most seriously and others just for fun. I love to work in my garden and I have a cat named Thibi.