Welcome to a new year at D-Lab!

Greetings and welcome to another new year at D-Lab. It's always an exciting time on campus as students return, invigorated by their summer adventures and experiences. The D-Lab staff has also had a busy summer, running design summits on three continents (in Colombia, India and Botswana) and working on research projects around the world. At MIT we have been busy building the Practical Impact Alliance (PIA) and preparing for the upcoming PIA co-design summit in Ghana. We are looking forward to an exciting semester, offering 10 classes, being part of Mechanical Engineering's  SuperUROP pilot program, and continuing to expand our research portfolio. As always, please feel free to visit us, either on campus or online!

           - Amy Smith, Founder and Co-Director

D-Lab Academics
 

Instructor Matt McCambridge talks about D-Lab: Mobility 

D-Lab instructor Matt McCambridge will be teaching D-Lab: Mobility this fall. He says:

"We’ll be getting dirty riding wheelchairs on rough ground and making noise and sparks in the welding shop, while contributing to the research and development of a product used all day, every day by tens of millions of people in the developing world."

Read Matt's blog about D-Lab: Mobility!
 

D-Lab: Prosthetics is back!

D-Lab: Prosthetics for the Developing World is back, taught by Bryan Ranger and Katerina Montzavinou. This year, students will be given challenges based on needs defined by Refugee Open Ware. Mentors from both MIT and partner organizations will work with the students on projects that can directly help some of the millions in need of more effective and low-cost rehabilitative equipment in the developing world.  

Read Bryan's blog about D-Lab: Prosthetics!

D-Lab Workshop 
 

Make what you couldn't when you walked in

Love to build things by hand? Welcome to the D-Lab shop! 

Never hammered a nail before? Welcome to the D-Lab shop! 

The D-Lab workshop -- equipped with hand tools, power tools, a welding room and more -- is a place where D-Lab students, fellows, visiting inventors, and other associates bring technologies for the developing world to life. Register with D-Lab workshop manager Jack Whipple (pictured right with visiting inventor Rober Shimaingo) for a safety training - first Tuesday of each month at 5 pm.

Scale-Ups Fellow Blog
 

Scale-Ups Fellow Sid Kamath discusses GreenPath Food

D-Lab Scale-Ups fellow and general manager of GreenPath Food Sid Kamath writes:

"Two weeks ago we hit a major milestone, harvesting 2.7 tons of organic Hass avocados for a pilot export to Europe. We worked with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and two other partner organizations to harvest, clean, pack, and ship these avocados, successfully conducting the first ever export of avocados grown by Ethiopian smallholder farmers. These GreenPath partner farmers were able to sell their avocados at a price that is 60 percent better than the average local market price." 

Read Sid's blog!

International Development Innovation Network (IDIN)

IDDS D'Kar: Video!

IDDS D'Kar, a two-week design summit that just wrapped up, brought together 20 participants from Botswana and 10 from around the globe, for a collaborative design process training and to co-create prototypes and ventures intended to make work and life a bit easier in the tough desert environment of the Botswana San communities. Watch this video about the summit!

Healthcare innovation from four-week design summit in Chennai, India

During the course of a month at IDDS Aarogyam, a health-themed design summit organized by IDIN and HIVE InnoSpace, 47 participants from 18 countries developed eight prototypes addressing local healthcare challenges identified:

• Sukh â€” A home-based medication & diagnosis delivery system.
• ELAI â€” A multifunctional child safety harness.
• Helping Babies Breathe — A low-cost resuscitation device for newborns.
• Baby TempIt â€” A thermometer designed specifically for newborn care.
• PAGIR â€” Decision-making tools for birth spacing.
• The SMART Box â€” Reducing risk of infection and contamination at health centers.
• Stay Pink â€” Introducing iron in drinking water to prevent anemia.
• Thalir â€” A growth measuring and recording system to combat malnutrition.

Practical Impact Alliance
 

PIA Working Groups

The Practical Impact Alliance’s working groups allow for deep dives into particular subject areas, giving members the opportunity to learn from each other. D-Lab works to harvest the knowledge and learning of these groups to create practical tools - such as sets of best practices, or decision making frameworks - that can benefit the broader community.

• Leveraging Mobile Technology for Behavior Change
• Food Loss and Food Waste
• Distribution Models at the Base of the Pyramid 
• Fostering Local Innovation and Co-Creation

Read more about PIA Working Groups!