Thursday, April 9, 2009
Water Wand
I came across this nifty invention in Popular Science online (www.popsci.com). Its called the SteriPEN and it really does sound like a dream companion for those who fear the purity of the water they drink. Dip the 'pen' in your glass of water and let it take care of the bacteria and protozoa floating around. It uses ultra-violet rays to do the trick. Check their website out for details on their products: http://www.steripen.com/emergency/index.html.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Kick Start, Practical Action
Hello hello...
Time to talk about a couple of other organizations that do interesting stuff.
Lets 'kick off' with KickStart - this non-profit organization focuses on developing products that can help pull poor families out of poverty. They have developed water pumps, presses for soil and cooking oil keeping in mind the following requirements for every product that they come up with:
Part of a highly profitable business model
Affordable
Safe and efficient
Portable and storable
Easily installed and repaired
Useable without training
Strong and durable
Made from common materials
Culturally appropriate
Environmentally sustainable
You can find out more about them by following this link: http://www.kickstart.org/what-we-do/
Another organization that caught my eye is Practical Action. Their projects and programs are in a variety of areas: energy, shelter, transport, water & sanitation, food & agriculture, disaster mitigation, climate change etc. Again, it concentrates on using technology in these areas to raise people out of poverty. Their website: http://practicalaction.org/?id=home.
Thats some new info - opinions later.
Time to talk about a couple of other organizations that do interesting stuff.
Lets 'kick off' with KickStart - this non-profit organization focuses on developing products that can help pull poor families out of poverty. They have developed water pumps, presses for soil and cooking oil keeping in mind the following requirements for every product that they come up with:
Part of a highly profitable business model
Affordable
Safe and efficient
Portable and storable
Easily installed and repaired
Useable without training
Strong and durable
Made from common materials
Culturally appropriate
Environmentally sustainable
You can find out more about them by following this link: http://www.kickstart.org/what-we-do/
Another organization that caught my eye is Practical Action. Their projects and programs are in a variety of areas: energy, shelter, transport, water & sanitation, food & agriculture, disaster mitigation, climate change etc. Again, it concentrates on using technology in these areas to raise people out of poverty. Their website: http://practicalaction.org/?id=home.
Thats some new info - opinions later.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Low tech solutions for developing countries
I will make up for the lost blog posts - I promise.
Upon looking for examples of low tech solutions that have been developed for those surviving on a few dollars (if at all) a day, I came across Amy Smith, a lecturer at MIT.
She is actively involved in developing simple solutions for those in the third world. She is a co-founder of the IDEAS competition at MIT, where students are encouraged to come with a technological innovation to address the issues of our day. She founded the D-Lab at MIT presents the technological, social and economic problems that people who live below the poverty line face. She is also an organizer of the International Development Design Summit, which brings together people from around the world to come up with technological solutions to address these problems.
Some of the inventions that have come out of her efforts are a screenless hammermill, solar water disinfectant, low-cost water tester, phase-change incubator and sugarcane charcoal. I encourage you to take a look at the D-Lab project portfolio, which describes these solutions in more detail.
More later. Guaranteed :-).
Upon looking for examples of low tech solutions that have been developed for those surviving on a few dollars (if at all) a day, I came across Amy Smith, a lecturer at MIT.
She is actively involved in developing simple solutions for those in the third world. She is a co-founder of the IDEAS competition at MIT, where students are encouraged to come with a technological innovation to address the issues of our day. She founded the D-Lab at MIT presents the technological, social and economic problems that people who live below the poverty line face. She is also an organizer of the International Development Design Summit, which brings together people from around the world to come up with technological solutions to address these problems.
Some of the inventions that have come out of her efforts are a screenless hammermill, solar water disinfectant, low-cost water tester, phase-change incubator and sugarcane charcoal. I encourage you to take a look at the D-Lab project portfolio, which describes these solutions in more detail.
More later. Guaranteed :-).
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