Design Revolution
Design Revolution
Transcript
00:00 Well, IDDS is us.
00:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:06 We come from 18 different countries around the world.
00:12 We are students.
00:13 We are teachers.
00:14 We are doctors.
00:15 We are economists.
00:16 We are farmers.
00:17 We are machinists.
00:19 And this is a wonderful opportunity
00:21 for us to work together to challenge
00:23 some of the great problems in the world today.
00:27 So the chance to bring people to MIT to sort of create
00:30 solutions together, I think, is really
00:32 important in the way that development
00:34 should be happening.
00:36 And so the idea is, help me, but let me help you.
00:38 My name is Samantha Dwyer, and I work
00:48 for Global Alliance for Africa.
00:50 It's centered around bicycle mechanics.
00:52 And Bernard Kiewias, who we're waiting for here,
00:55 he is our head mechanic, and he instructs
00:57 all of the bicycle training, the technical part of it.
01:01 And he's never left his village, Arusha.
01:04 So this is definitely going to be a big event for him.
01:07 But welcome.
01:12 This is Boston.
01:13 OK, thank you.
01:14 OK, thank you.
01:15 This is nice, very nice.
01:16 How was the flight?
01:17 I thought it was OK.
01:18 Long?
01:19 Yeah.
01:20 They asked me if anyone in our program
01:22 would be a candidate for this program,
01:24 and I definitely-- hands down, it would be Bernard.
01:26 He is one of the most talented mechanics
01:29 I've ever come across.
01:30 He's definitely very skilled and has
01:32 done wonders for our program.
01:35 And we're really excited for him to kind of be
01:37 able to share his ideas with other people
01:40 and learn from people from all over the world
01:42 and from the people at MIT.
01:45 Tanzania has a lack of electricity,
01:49 and even the fuel is expensive.
01:51 The people who are living at the village,
01:53 they can't afford to buy those things,
01:56 like to pay for the electricity bill or the fuel.
02:00 And we are trying to sit down and see maybe
02:03 we have water problem, we need water,
02:05 we need the water pump.
02:07 How could we make it without electricity?
02:10 Because those people are living at the villages.
02:13 The villagers, they don't have electricity.
02:16 So I sort of spent a bunch of time
02:18 learning as much engineering as I could,
02:20 and then at the same time, I really wanted
02:23 to do development work while I was at MIT,
02:25 and there wasn't a program to do it.
02:27 So I just sort of created sort of bigger
02:29 and bigger programs along the way.
02:31 And it's interesting because I had envisioned
02:34 that I would go back and actually live
02:36 in southern Africa doing this type of work.
02:39 And I mean, I haven't done that yet,
02:41 but I feel like I sort of--
02:43 in the position that I'm in, I'm wondering
02:45 whether it does more good to be here,
02:47 sort of training lots of people to do that
02:49 as opposed to just being one person,
02:51 myself, working in the field.
02:53 And so I still have this debate as to whether or not
02:56 I do more good here than there.
02:58 [chatter]
03:00 Yeah, it's hot.
03:02 [chatter]
03:04 This is where we'll be able to tell who's from which country
03:08 because Americans will be like, oh, that's really hot.
03:11 And then when you get to Africans,
03:13 they'll be like, oh, let me put this one on.
03:16 And then if you go...
03:19 you can see how hot it is.
03:22 [chatter]
03:24 [laughter]
03:27 [chatter]
03:30 Technology designed to address problems
03:33 in developing countries,
03:36 but it has a broader scope than I think most people realize.
03:41 [music]
03:45 I guess what everyone's battling against
03:49 in this community of people working on appropriate technology
03:53 is the view that it's inferior technology.
03:57 [music]
04:00 [chatter]
04:02 Uh...okay.
04:04 It's a rural village in Tanzania.
04:07 Did you have in mind a specific village or...?
04:10 Mm-mm.
04:12 This is common, not in one village.
04:14 So most of the Tanzanians...
04:16 What's the name of this village?
04:18 I think it would be useful if we focused on one village.
04:21 If you're saying that they're all very similar,
04:24 then if we focused on one, then a solution...
04:27 Like my village, maybe?
04:29 Yeah, so what's your village called?
04:31 Sinon.
04:33 Do you want to find it on the map?
04:35 I'm trying.
04:37 I don't think you can find it here.
04:39 Okay, how do you spell the name of your village?
04:41 Near a city.
04:43 Sinon?
04:46 Simon.
04:47 Okay.
04:48 You can find the village on the map.
04:52 Okay.
04:53 Find Haiti?
04:56 It's difficult.
04:57 Well, you should know where it is. You don't have to look.
05:00 Yeah, see?
05:02 It's so horrible.
05:03 Come on. I can close my eyes and tell you where Pakistan is.
05:05 Yeah, Pakistan's huge.
05:07 Yeah, true.
05:08 So is Egypt, and the UK, and the US.
05:11 St. Norbert, Tanzania.
05:13 It's really... It's probably much worse than that.
05:17 And this also says that the diseases caused by unsafe drinking water
05:23 are things like diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid.
05:27 Guinea worm, intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma.
05:32 What do you call schistosomiasis?
05:35 I think that's the sleeping sickness.
05:38 I know it in Swahili.
05:41 Swahili?
05:42 Homam malali.
05:43 Homam malali?
05:44 Yeah.
05:45 You know, even if in the beginning, the way you told us what the problem is,
05:49 that people go walk this many hours to the river,
05:54 and the river water is not that clean.
05:56 Even if you give that picture, I think it gives you a whole picture of everything.
06:01 So if you want to do something about poverty, you go to where poor people are,
06:05 you talk to them in their life space,
06:08 you learn everything you can about what their constraints are,
06:11 what kind of soils they have, what's the climate.
06:14 And out of that, you come up with major design strategies
06:20 that make a big impact on their lives.
06:22 The one thing that we were trying to push here was, you know,
06:25 figure out who's going to use this, how they're going to use it,
06:28 what their problem is, and that's kind of what Paul was talking about.
06:31 He said, "What sucks."
06:33 Address what sucks.
06:34 If it sucks bad enough, and the thing that you come up with
06:37 is going to lower that pain enough,
06:41 at a point people can afford it, then it'll move.
06:44 So you leave the capital, and you're on the road for about five hours,
06:49 and then the pavement stops, and then you're on the road for about 20 more hours.
06:53 If you're lucky, you're in the back of an open truck
06:56 and you don't hit your head on the ceiling as it bounces over these things.
06:59 If you're not lucky, you're in the back of a closed truck,
07:02 and you just feel like you're getting thrashed around a lot.
07:05 And anywhere between 16 and 20 hours later,
07:08 you show up in this very small village.
07:12 You'll see people all the time walking around with water on their head in buckets
07:17 because very few people have water taps near their homes,
07:21 so getting water into the households is always challenging.
07:25 [singing]
07:33 He expressed that there was an opportunity here
07:37 to enhance what he was doing back home,
07:40 to come and meet people, to learn new things, etc.,
07:42 to create technologies that could solve problems in his villages.
07:45 And so that type of thing was, of course, very compelling.
07:50 Because this is African Tanzania,
07:53 and the color is flag for Tanzania,
07:56 but the drawing is Africa.
08:00 So this means from Africa, Tanzania.
08:03 For me, everything is new.
08:06 And also I was trying to use those sticks, like Chinese.
08:10 [chatter]
08:19 It's my first time, so...
08:22 So I didn't know anything about the visa or the passport.
08:26 Because in Tanzania, you don't need the passport
08:29 if you don't want to go out in the country.
08:32 So normally, you don't have a passport.
08:36 [singing]
08:41 So my name is Mohamed.
08:44 Mohamed Mashal, from the UK.
08:48 And I just graduated from Cambridge University
08:51 in Mechanical Engineering.
08:53 So I was born in Cairo, in Egypt, in 1984.
08:56 Then I moved to the UK when I was 1.
08:59 [singing]
09:06 I realized that I wanted to do something
09:08 that had an element of science in it,
09:10 but also some mathematics and some kind of practical side to it.
09:14 I didn't want to be kind of just theoretical science.
09:16 My name is Klao Eljeewam.
09:19 So I come from Haiti,
09:22 and this small village, its name is Fondablan.
09:26 So that's where I'm from.
09:31 My name is Ismat. I'm from Pakistan.
09:35 I've been working with a public health non-profit
09:40 for a year in Pakistan.
09:42 So I'm a carpenter.
09:45 So I was working about 9 or 10 years in carpentry.
09:50 I'm 24. I'm not married. I don't have any kids.
09:54 I'm not married. I have children.
09:57 I have 4 children.
09:59 I guess growing up in a third-world country
10:02 and being in touch with extreme poverty
10:07 and knowing that if you can do something about it,
10:10 then you should. So I'm trying.
10:14 My language is Creole.
10:17 I speak Creole, so I speak English a little bit.
10:20 Not very well.
10:21 I live in this small village.
10:25 It's a very poor people's.
10:27 So to learn more about water and energy
10:31 and earth and transportation,
10:34 that's the reason why I'm here.
10:36 That's where most of the work is in development.
10:38 There's no point in working in development
10:40 if you're going to live in North America, I think.
10:43 So it's a little difficult for me to understand when they speak.
10:47 So I ask them to speak more slowly for me.
10:52 Who is the consumer?
10:54 Consumer?
10:55 In my country?
10:56 No, no.
10:57 For the bags?
10:59 For the products.
11:00 Hi, I was just wondering if you guys have chosen your final direction.
11:05 Yeah, I think we have.
11:07 We've chosen which of the three.
11:09 You're going to choose, right?
11:10 What are purification?
11:12 Purification?
11:13 Clean drinking water.
11:14 Okay.
11:15 And have you chosen what level?
11:17 Village level, home level, city level?
11:20 Or you're still deciding?
11:21 That's what we are doing now.
11:23 Some of us maybe from the university,
11:32 so they know more than me.
11:34 Yeah.
11:35 So I heard, someone told me that you have expertise
11:41 in, you do bikes, you fix bikes?
11:45 So you have workshop expertise, so you have experience in that?
11:50 So that's definitely something we can use.
11:52 So what can I put like, how can I put like, maybe,
12:00 yeah, because I know about the bike, how to work the machines.
12:03 No, I'm not from there.
12:05 I don't know things about the medicines or the combination of things.
12:11 I only know how to make things.
12:13 Yeah.
12:14 So they try to help me about, maybe about the quality of water,
12:24 supposed to be how much maybe the bacteria.
12:27 I don't know about the bacteria.
12:29 I know how to make buckets, things like that.
12:33 [Bell ringing]
12:40 Do you think we can start it?
12:41 You want to do it?
12:42 No, you do it.
12:43 I want you to do it, because I always do it.
12:45 You do it.
12:46 It's easy for me to do it.
12:48 I want you to practice doing it.
12:49 Come, stand up, stand up.
12:50 I'll help you.
12:51 So there is, village won't accept it,
13:02 and the potential way of mitigation risk is
13:10 consultation with the villagers, work together.
13:16 So another risk is no electricity.
13:20 Design way that doesn't need electricity.
13:26 So another risk one will be energy for pumping.
13:31 The potential way is energy sources.
13:38 Lack of education, to educate them and make them easier to understand their solutions.
13:45 Village won't expect it.
13:47 Find way of education them in benefit of product.
13:52 Village can't afford thinking of how to borrow them money
14:00 from the government or NGOs.
14:03 How do...
14:08 Cost of...
14:10 I don't know, this is what?
14:12 Existing.
14:13 Lots of existing technology.
14:15 Yeah.
14:16 So the solution will be research current method to evaluate...
14:22 I don't know what this is.
14:24 Merits.
14:25 Merits.
14:26 And the last one is maintenance.
14:29 Design for long life and simple things.
14:35 Maybe you can add something I think.
14:39 A lot of the students who come from universities or come from the United States,
14:47 the way the design is taught is you sort of invent a need and then create a solution to it.
14:52 But a lot of people who are coming from developing regions,
14:56 they don't have to invent the need.
14:57 They know the needs.
14:58 They know exactly what they are.
15:00 Belts are loose.
15:01 So we normally use the normal tools like hammer, punch, hand saw.
15:07 Sometimes those type of grinders, we call hand grinders,
15:11 those are small so you can buy one or you can borrow from friends.
15:16 But to afford to buy, to use the big machine like this, never.
15:22 If you are actually motivated for something, I think that's when you learn the best.
15:27 I guess my childhood was...
15:37 Well, a lot of people think their childhoods were fairly normal.
15:40 I think mine was too except for when I was six years old,
15:43 my family moved to India for a year.
15:46 My dad was working with the Ford Foundation on a project
15:49 to help start an institute of technology in the Rajasthani desert.
15:53 And so we went there as a family of five.
15:57 My poor parents dragging three little kids around the world
16:00 and we spent a year in the desert there.
16:02 And I think in many ways that influenced what I'm doing now.
16:05 So I think seeing that was something that affected me quite a bit.
16:09 And I guess I always just grew up knowing that I would do something like Peace Corps
16:14 and get involved in this type of work.
16:15 So it wasn't really a question of something that flashed as to making it happen.
16:21 But I think that that early experience probably affected me a lot.
16:25 But the problem is I'm not actually faculty, right?
16:36 So I'm just sort of, you know...
16:37 Up until November I had the same status as the person who teaches you how to use a drill press.
16:41 No, I had to be in chemical engineering.
16:44 I'm a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering.
16:48 That's a very recent turn on events.
16:51 Well, congratulations.
16:52 Well, thank you very much.
16:54 Yeah, so I was just an instructor, but an instructor with huge delusions of grandeur.
17:00 And so I could just, "Oh, we need to do a lab. Oh, we do do it."
17:03 And get all these things going.
17:05 And I think that MIT is a great place because there are many places
17:09 where some punky grad student couldn't actually change the way that education was happening at their institution.
17:14 I really believe MIT is doing a lot more.
17:17 The amount of hands-on global stuff is amazing.
17:21 Of course, coming from someone who won half a million dollars in the MacArthur Genius Award,
17:27 she's very generous with that money that she got.
17:30 So she's putting it to good use.
17:33 She also won the Lemelson Award, the only woman at MIT to win that.
17:38 And I think she also won the Inventor of the Year Award.
17:41 But in any event, she's won every award that you can win.
17:46 All the water wouldn't touch the charcoal.
17:49 So the water goes in?
17:52 That's where--Carlo said that there's no holes up there because the sand wouldn't allow it.
17:57 The sand would come out.
17:59 Right.
18:00 But that's what the rope is for.
18:02 Yeah, the rope is around the holes.
18:04 So that the water seeps in at the top through the holes into the sand.
18:10 But the sand is prevented from falling out because the gravel is there.
18:14 And then what passes through is clean water that's been through rope,
18:18 it's been through sand, it's been through gravel, and then it goes--
18:20 At the bottom right here, there's some sand as well and some rope at the end.
18:24 Okay.
18:25 To catch other things or something.
18:27 Okay.
18:28 All right.
18:29 But there are some times where they get stuck, you know, going down a path,
18:32 and they just need something there, and sometimes I feel like I can give them guidance on either
18:36 that they really need to back down that path or something to help them jump over that hurdle and keep going.
18:41 We can test Charles River water and see how good it tastes afterwards.
18:45 You know, the simpler the technology, the more likely it is to sort of survive the harshness of the environment where it's going to be used.
18:53 Because it's not very expensive.
18:55 This one.
18:56 Yeah.
18:57 Depends, right?
18:59 If people are earning less than a dollar a day, then--
19:02 It's simple, but some people can afford it, some people can't afford it still, you know?
19:08 What did you do this weekend, Bernard?
19:10 I was sleeping.
19:11 Are you sleeping at the right time or are you on Tanzania time?
19:15 Tanzania time.
19:16 But for the weekend, because I don't know where to go, I was sleeping.
19:21 Do you work in this country?
19:23 I'm working everywhere.
19:24 I don't know where to go, and I don't have money, so it's better to stay.
19:28 True.
19:29 That's what I did as well.
19:31 You did as well?
19:32 I stayed home.
19:35 Last night I went to a bar with somebody.
19:39 How much should you spend for one bottle of beer?
19:43 Beer?
19:44 Beer is how much?
19:45 It's five dollars.
19:47 Five dollars?
19:48 Yeah.
19:49 It's very expensive here.
19:50 Very expensive.
19:52 In Tanzania, one dollar for one bottle of beer.
19:56 If you buy a pitcher, if you buy a whole jug of beer and you share it, it's cheaper that way, but then you need people to share.
20:05 That would be a problem for me because we don't have those jugs in Tanzania, so we don't share.
20:11 No, I mean here. If you want to go out here, then you can do that.
20:15 So you don't have to stay home.
20:17 Maybe next time.
20:19 Yeah, next time.
20:20 If Mohammed ever comes back...
20:22 Yeah, he's...
20:26 What did you just say?
20:28 Nothing, I didn't say anything.
20:29 I thought I heard you say, "Is he ever going to come back?"
20:31 No, I didn't say that. You heard wrong.
20:33 From what Bernard tells us, a lot of villagers now understand that there is a link between dirty water and disease,
20:41 but they don't always have the means to mitigate against that,
20:45 and sometimes because they don't have the means to purify the water, they just take the risk and just carry on,
20:53 because you've got to drink water, otherwise you die.
20:58 Our previous plan was that we were going to go to the workshop this afternoon to make it,
21:04 so it seems like now that we've seen Dr. Murkot and you've seen the stuff that she's got,
21:10 even though we haven't actually managed to play around with it at all,
21:14 that seems to have been enough for you guys to think, "Okay, that's it, forget...
21:18 We're not going to go to the workshop now, we'll leave that till later.
21:21 Now we're going to go back and do some research on sedimentation and proclamation."
21:26 Just a different approach, because I'm beginning to think that there's enough work being done on filtration and...
21:35 Like...
21:37 I understand...
21:39 There's always enough work done.
21:41 Yeah, but we didn't realize how...
21:43 At least I didn't realize how much it was and how difficult it would be to come up with something new in like a week.
21:49 It's the same for everyone.
21:52 It's always going to be difficult to come up with something new in any of these fields,
21:55 because people have been working on this for 20 years.
21:57 We have things that haven't been done before.
22:00 There's still been people working on it.
22:02 Not the biolysis. That idea has not been done before.
22:04 You think Dr. Peter Gergis hasn't been working on that for a long time?
22:08 We specifically made a lantern. You know what I mean?
22:11 Like, okay, what's different is that we don't have a new use.
22:15 They have a new use, at least, that they've developed, from which you can make a different product.
22:20 Using the same technology, we're making a different product.
22:22 But it's the same use that we're looking at.
22:25 And it's not a different product. It's the same product.
22:27 But it's a different way of implementation.
22:29 Although people feel that time is very short, and it is,
22:33 we really, according to the schedule which was in the back of our minds,
22:39 they're really right where they should be.
22:41 They're now about to begin a week where they do some really intensive building and stuff.
22:46 But we weren't expecting them to have prototypes done by this stage.
22:50 We were expecting them to be just about where they are,
22:53 where they've got an approach nailed down,
22:55 where they've done some experiments that show that it's a reasonable idea.
22:58 They're pretty sure the direction they're going,
23:01 and now they're going to start putting things together.
23:04 So although they feel a time crunch, and they should, because there is one,
23:10 it's about where we expected them to be.
23:12 So we want to try something new.
23:15 So we're not keeping on with those filters,
23:18 because we realize that it's the idea from someone else,
23:23 and we need to create our own ideas to make something.
23:29 SODIS, which stands for Solar Water Disinfection.
23:33 This effective solar water disinfection that's been pioneered by SONDEC in Switzerland,
23:39 they proved all the science behind this idea, which works,
23:43 that you don't need to get water up to boiling temperature
23:46 or even up to pasteurization temperature to disinfect the water.
23:51 What's traditionally done is you take a one or two liter bottle,
23:56 fill it up with the contaminated water, it has to be pretty clear,
23:59 fill it up, and then set it on your roof for six to eight hours.
24:04 What happens is the water gets up to between 30 and 50 degrees Celsius during that time,
24:11 which wouldn't be enough alone to do anything.
24:14 But the UV light coming down in the sun works with the temperature that you reach
24:20 to have a synergy, and what that leads to is virtually complete disinfection,
24:28 99.9% disinfection of that water.
24:31 When you're going over a day or two's worth trip over the worst roads in the world,
24:38 that becomes a logistical and economic problem.
24:41 So that's one of the reasons it hasn't expanded.
24:43 There's marketing reasons, and there's convincing people that this actually works
24:48 and it's worth doing, because really you're putting something in a container,
24:51 almost any container, and it gets disinfected.
24:54 It's mind-blowing that it actually works, but it does.
24:57 We are thinking of maybe to clean water during--by the time they transport it
25:05 before they get to their home, because the place they get the water is far from their home,
25:12 maybe four kilometers or five.
25:15 So we are trying maybe to think of, if possible,
25:20 maybe for someone to clean the water while he's working.
25:24 Maybe we can do that.
25:30 The target customer was the people charged with bringing water.
25:37 We first thought we could replace the jerrycan, the 20-liter jerrycan on their heads,
25:43 with a bag, just a very large bag.
25:47 Maybe we put something like--maybe this side should be flat.
25:53 So it's like a table, then this side maybe not that.
26:04 I wish we had a bigger bag.
26:06 That's what Mohamed wants, maybe we can try.
26:09 What?
26:10 This is the idea from Mohamed.
26:11 To do what? Put it on his head?
26:13 Yeah, maybe you can put it.
26:15 I'm not putting it on my head.
26:18 It's still leaking some?
26:19 Yeah, it's leaking from elsewhere.
26:21 Actually, seeing as they use that water for washing and cleaning,
26:27 so it's not actually that vital that that water is purified.
26:35 So we thought, okay, we'll leave that as it is.
26:38 The jerrycan is a very good design.
26:41 Let's do it.
26:49 Bernard, it was really valuable that they had Bernard on the team.
26:53 He's from Tanzania.
26:55 He has lots of, I think, family in the villages and such,
26:58 and so he can really--he had a lot of cultural context to it.
27:01 So the bucket, the small bucket between 5 and 10 liters,
27:04 that's what they use to actually scoop water from the river
27:06 and then fill up the jerrycan, and then they fill that up.
27:10 Once the jerrycan is full, they fill that small bucket up with water
27:13 and then carry that back, and it's often that water which they drink.
27:16 Well, there's two big advantages of a bag over a bottle.
27:20 It stores flat, so you can ship 100 of them in the space.
27:22 You can ship one bottle or two bottles.
27:25 But you also--the water gets disinfected in a quarter of the time
27:31 because you have so much--it's so much shallower.
27:33 But we're just concentrating on the handheld bucket,
27:36 and if we can replace that with some kind of comfortable bag,
27:41 either a backpack or a satchel or pouches to go in pockets on their clothing,
27:47 that, we think, could really make a difference.
27:52 [man speaking in foreign language]
27:56 Bernard highlighted a specific problem that he knows about in Tanzania,
28:01 whereby the villages are high up on hills,
28:04 and the rivers, which are the conventional source of water,
28:07 is in low-lying land, so it's difficult to get--
28:11 Firstly, the water is carried--where's our diagram?
28:14 It's carried like this, where people's heads are in wagons, uphill,
28:19 and then it's contaminated, so there's no purification,
28:22 and there's no quick and sustainable method of transporting the water.
28:29 They didn't spend all this money and bring all these people out here
28:32 because these were easy problems to solve, right?
28:34 These are really hard problems.
28:36 [music]
28:50 What do you think?
28:52 But this is also--this could be available in other areas that have--
28:55 This is made from cotton.
28:57 [music]
28:59 It's almost here, I think.
29:01 [music]
29:03 [man speaking in foreign language]
29:06 [music]
29:25 Let's divide up and see--so everyone take a different row
29:28 and see what we can find.
29:30 [music]
29:35 It's difficult to find that in Tanzania.
29:37 [music]
29:44 So, Bernard, I know what you need, and I think we need to just go to a different shop
29:48 to buy them because these will--they're just not quite the right thing,
29:54 and so the other place is a little farther away.
29:58 We can go tomorrow maybe to collect it.
30:01 Does that sound okay?
30:03 Yeah.
30:04 Okay.
30:05 Are we ready?
30:07 So, we could plan on doing that.
30:10 We can divide.
30:12 Yeah.
30:13 By the time you cut it--
30:14 Yes, yes, yes.
30:16 Much water will be somewhere, so the weight will go this side.
30:21 So this will not--
30:22 If you balance it so that the weight that's here is equal to the weight that's here.
30:25 I can cut here.
30:27 I think you can say no.
30:30 Next.
30:31 Do you want the juice or do you want it--
30:33 You think the quantity of water will find here?
30:37 No, we don't have a lot of water here because we're going to cut it here.
30:41 Then you put it here.
30:43 Yeah.
30:44 The water will go on.
30:46 The water will come here.
30:47 No, it can't go here.
30:48 Some here and some--
30:49 Yeah.
30:50 No, more will hang here because this will be longer.
30:53 Yeah.
30:54 Thanks, Doug.
30:59 I think in the future, prototype this.
31:02 This would be quite useful.
31:04 What do you think?
31:05 Cement?
31:06 This would be quite nice.
31:07 Yeah, but what would happen is--
31:08 And the thing is--
31:09 What would happen--
31:10 The dress is always concentrated at the corners.
31:11 Exactly.
31:12 But is it better to have a corner than a circle?
31:13 No.
31:14 Circle, right?
31:15 It's always going to have a curve.
31:16 That's where the leaves are going.
31:18 That makes sense.
31:19 Yeah.
31:20 So--
31:21 I really need to go upstairs before they close.
31:28 It's coming too much.
31:33 It's not going to--
31:36 How is it?
31:40 So this one doesn't leak, though.
31:44 How come this side doesn't leak?
31:46 What did you do differently here?
31:47 It's random, you think?
31:50 Or it's just--
31:51 Sometimes it's something.
31:52 Once we get it, it was nice.
31:54 We tried to cut it.
32:04 Do you need help?
32:05 So basically, I said that this was a good idea in concept, but there were some issues.
32:11 We were hoping that while you're walking back, the sun would be shining on you and killing some of the bacteria.
32:18 But with the jerry can on your head, that would cast a shadow, so you could never be sure that the sun would be acting during your journey back home.
32:30 So we thought, well, actually, why don't we just concentrate on just the transport aspect of it?
32:33 And then once you reach home, whatever it is you're wearing, you can just take it off and lay it flat on the ground or on your roof, and then leave it for five, six hours for the sun to do its work.
32:45 Actually, MIT was the only place I got in.
32:47 There's sort of a history of that, but I only applied to two other schools, small liberal arts colleges, and I didn't really do that well in English and social studies.
32:56 So I got into MIT, and I went there.
32:59 And I spent four years.
33:03 I did mechanical engineering because I really liked building things and fixing things and knowing how things worked, but I wasn't especially motivated as a student.
33:11 But I really wanted to be a sheep farmer for much of my MIT career, and sometimes I wonder whether things happen for a good reason, because MIT is very much the right place for me.
33:23 I really enjoyed creating solutions to problems, and the types of solutions I created tend to be very simple.
33:30 I always felt sort of like a goofball because everyone would have these complex microprocessor-controlled things, and I would have something with a handle.
33:37 And it did the same thing, but it was just like I always felt like, oh, I don't know.
33:42 So I was at one point just sort of sitting in my house looking out over the Kalahari Desert thinking, wow, I really like doing this, but I like engineering too.
33:51 And then all of a sudden I realized I could do both.
33:53 I could continue working in Africa and do engineering stuff.
33:57 But then I realized that all my sheep farming fantasy had meant that I hadn't studied as much engineering as I needed to know.
34:04 So I came back to grad school.
34:06 I was, again, applying to more than one place, but I was applying to MIT as well.
34:11 And my cat--this was when I was in Botswana in the Peace Corps--my cat had kittens on the other applications, so they were covered with blood stains, and I couldn't mail them in.
34:20 So once again, you know, fate intervened, and I ended up at MIT again.
34:24 So do you want to take one of these with you?
34:28 No, I don't think so.
34:30 Oh, yes.
34:33 That's good.
34:36 It's good?
34:39 Yes.
34:41 How would you take it off? Is it easy to take off?
34:44 Yes.
34:45 And also it wasn't actually sealed. From here it was open, and that's how I filled it up with water.
34:52 And if you stood up and wore it, it would shut because it's flush against the back of your neck.
35:00 But as soon as you started moving around, the water would kind of start shuffling around, and that's when the problem started.
35:09 Today, Flarel came up with this kind of belt apron.
35:15 You can see the back there.
35:18 You can carry a water--you can carry a fair bit of water, maybe five liters.
35:23 And then once you arrive home, you can just lay it out flat.
35:27 When you give something away, it's not equitable.
35:31 So when we're introducing a product, we insist that people pay for it because if somebody bellies up to the bar to buy something, they're going to use it.
35:41 And you have to design it in such a way that they are willing and motivated to buy it, or nobody will buy it.
35:49 That's a much more real interaction, and it's much more effective in the end.
35:55 [Laughter]
35:57 That's great.
36:04 You like it?
36:05 I guess.
36:06 Take on the catwalks of London.
36:11 This is the soda's dress.
36:16 [Music]
36:19 It's no longer about perfect technology.
36:34 It's about entertaining technology.
36:37 What do the dresses look like?
36:40 Can you draw us a typical dress?
36:45 They wear the--from America.
36:49 Do they wear pants or dresses?
36:52 Do they wear pants or dresses?
36:54 Trousers.
36:55 Ah, they don't wear trousers.
36:57 They wear dresses, right?
36:58 So just like that.
37:00 So like a big dress?
37:02 Mm-hmm.
37:03 Does it have pockets in it?
37:04 Sometimes two pockets, sometimes three pockets.
37:07 So they already have pockets.
37:09 What if you design something that can fit like a big pocket?
37:14 Right here.
37:16 You can slide in a hole like this size bag.
37:19 This is one of the options, Mohamed.
37:24 People can have a choice to use it or not.
37:26 And the one thing that I like to do is do a lot of prototypes.
37:29 So I like to build a lot of something.
37:32 You build one, and you don't have to build the whole thing.
37:34 You build the part that you think this was a problem part, and you look at it.
37:37 And then you even do a design review and have people talk about it and critique it.
37:41 So we can get some insight into what will people use and what will they not use.
37:45 What are things that you can count on people to do, and what are things that they just won't?
37:49 There's a lot of cultural issues with trying to come up with design that's acceptable to the local people.
37:55 And then there's the issue of cleaning it.
37:59 How is it going to be cleaned?
38:00 Is it going to get wet?
38:01 Is it going to be comfortable?
38:03 So it's quite complicated.
38:04 And I don't think any of us are fashion designers or experts with clothes.
38:09 Every technology has some technology transfer issues with it.
38:13 And basically if people don't want it, then it's not an appropriate technology.
38:20 So one hopes that you've developed something that meets a need,
38:23 and that it does it in a way that people will embrace.
38:26 And so if that's the case, then it's usually a question of some education to train people in the use of it.
38:34 If you've designed a technology that solves a problem in a way that people won't use,
38:39 that's a problem because it's really hard to get significant behavioral changes.
38:43 And there's even a debate as to whether or not one should be doing that.
38:47 [music]
38:54 I'm going to add another one at the back.
38:56 [music]
39:00 You look like a Scotsman.
39:01 Like a what?
39:02 Like a Scotsman with your--
39:03 Scotsman.
39:04 With the kilts.
39:05 With that plate that has the kilts.
39:06 Oh, yeah, yeah.
39:07 I don't know what it's called.
39:08 [music]
39:10 Now you know why we've got the moth.
39:12 [music]
39:16 Yeah, see?
39:17 We need to find a way so that when we seal these seams, that we don't weaken the plastic,
39:25 because that's where it's most likely to leak.
39:29 You know, they say the devil's in the details, so if you're going to come up with some new ideas,
39:33 I think the details are really the important part.
39:35 While some technologies can be easily transferred from one country to another,
39:42 often some solutions are very, very particular to a particular market and a particular country.
39:48 I mean, as I said, this particular target community has no electricity and no fuel and very bad roads.
39:56 And it's only for that reason, only because of those constraints, are we looking at this bag.
40:01 There's sort of this different aspect of appropriate technology,
40:05 which means that technology itself can be understood by the people using it
40:10 so that they can invent and innovate and evolve the technology themselves.
40:14 Because nothing you design is perfect, and so if you make it so that people who are using it
40:21 can really see how they could improve upon it, then that helps a lot.
40:25 I'm tired because every time I make something, people say, "This here has a problem."
40:31 Are you tired now?
40:32 Maybe I'm trying this for the last time.
40:35 Because, yeah, I think this maybe can work.
40:40 I want to make this like this, and then I'll put the bag in.
40:46 We'll put it also in the back, but you can put it in the sun, and the sun can go through this.
40:52 So this will get the plastic bag inside.
40:55 Because the first one I made, they say it's not comfortable, so people can't carry it.
41:01 So maybe this will be narrow, because 4 liters is about somewhere here.
41:08 So maybe 6 liters, but I want to make it like this.
41:12 Yeah, because I've tried many times and it's not working.
41:18 Sometimes you become tired because you are thinking of something and it's not working.
41:24 It's difficult.
41:25 Maybe this will be the last one.
41:27 Did you see that backpack design that had this chicken wire and there was a bag you slid into it?
41:32 Somebody was out of it, yelling at us.
41:35 One person liked it because from an industrial design point, it was really cool.
41:39 But it rips the bag every time you put it in there.
41:42 You know what I mean?
41:44 So I thought it was kind of funny.
41:47 That's actually an interesting technology, because that's one that would have to be capitalized, well capitalized.
41:54 I don't think that people are going to make those bags in villages with a little press,
41:59 because the quality has to be pretty high with those things.
42:02 I mean, they have to be well sealed.
42:04 You know, I'm really curious to see what Bernard and the plastic bags, what people are going to say.
42:09 That's one where we just can't even guess.
42:11 Will people think they're wonderful or will they think these guys are nuts?
42:14 But that's also a product that I think has to go in the field to be tested until you know very much.
42:19 So we can hope.
42:23 Try it.
42:25 Is it difficult?
42:27 No, you have to learn how to put it.
42:30 You must be able to do this.
42:32 Have you seen it?
42:34 Accurately putting it.
42:36 Because that's the one that you can grab with.
42:40 Eating is not a science.
42:42 It's just a matter of...
42:44 You just play. Get them and eat.
42:46 You're not supposed to measure or anything.
42:48 You're just supposed to eat.
42:51 After I came out of the lecture hall and was looking down on this mass of people
42:56 and there was such a buzz in the room.
42:58 It was great. There was such excitement about everything that was happening.
43:01 And it was just wonderful to see.
43:03 Just to get that initial push is very, very difficult and challenging.
43:09 But once you've got that done, then and only then are the local people given a breath of fresh air
43:16 and a new hope that they can actually get themselves out of the problems that they are in with their own hands.
43:23 I hope it's a big privilege for me to work on this program with this group
43:32 because my country needs it.
43:37 I think it's nice when they take the technology back home.
43:45 I think people will like it.
43:47 I feel OK to be here and what I did, everything.
43:51 And people I met here, they are OK.
43:54 So I like it here in America.
43:56 And also I like IDDS.
43:58 You know, as we are now, I've got friends here.
44:02 And maybe the day after today we are going to finish.
44:06 And I lost them.
44:08 Maybe I'll find them on the internet.
44:10 But as we are here now, we can talk and we can go to different places.
44:15 And that is the problem.
44:18 Ready?
44:20 One, two, three.
44:23 IDDS
44:26 And me?
44:45 Yeah.
44:47 I would say, IDDS, goodbye.
44:52 We are on the sea.
44:54 What is when you are on the sea?
44:56 Waves.
44:58 Wave is taking us away.
45:00 That is the meaning of this one.
45:03 Amazing.
45:13 We are sad.
45:15 We are leaving.
45:17 Quietly.
45:41 And so, it's not accomplished because it's just beginning.
45:46 But to me, that's one of the things that is remarkable about the month.
45:52 I wasn't really expecting that as much.
45:55 But by the end of it, there really was this commitment of the group to be a group working on this.
46:00 To be a group sort of moving it forward.
46:03 I think Amy understands and has shown me that the path of better products and better inventions isn't towards more complexity.
46:13 It's actually you're striving for simplicity.
46:17 And a lot of people recognize that, but very few put it into practice.
46:22 I think really maybe it was the beginning of a little bit of the revolution.
46:29 So, I'm going to teach you some simple Swahili words that will be very important when you come to Tanzania.
46:37 So, you say after me.
46:39 So, Katibu.
46:42 Katibu.
46:44 Kata.
46:46 Kata.
46:48 Wakata.
46:50 Wakata.
46:52 Wakata.
46:54 So, Katibu.
46:56 Katibu.
46:58 Kata.
47:00 Wakata.
47:02 Wakata.
47:04 Yakata.
47:06 Yakati.
47:08 Kakata.
47:10 Kakata.
47:12 Kakata.
47:14 Kakata.
47:16 Katali.
47:18 Katika.
47:20 Kata.
47:22 Katika.
47:24 Katika.
47:26 Kata.
47:28 Katika.
47:30 Katika.
47:32 Katika.
47:34 Katika.
47:36 Katika.
47:38 Katika.