Design Revolution Full Movie
Design Revolution Full Movie
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Well, IDDS is us.
00:03We come from 18 different countries around the world.
00:12We are students. We are teachers.
00:15We are doctors. We are economists.
00:17We are farmers. We are machinists.
00:19And this is a wonderful opportunity for us to work together
00:23to challenge some of the great problems in the world today.
00:28So the chance to bring people to MIT to sort of create solutions together
00:33I think is really important in the way that development should be happening.
00:37And so the idea is help me, but let me help you.
00:47My name is Samantha Dwyer and I work for Global Alliance for Africa.
00:52It's centered around bicycle mechanics.
00:54And Bernard Kiwias, who we're waiting for here, he is our head mechanic
00:58and he instructs all of the bicycle training, the technical part of it.
01:02And he's never left his village, Arusha.
01:05So this is definitely going to be a big event for him.
01:13Welcome. This is Boston.
01:14Okay, thank you.
01:15This is nice. Very nice.
01:17How was the flight?
01:18I thought it was okay.
01:19Long?
01:20Yeah.
01:21They asked me if anyone in our program would be a candidate for this program
01:26and hands down it would be Bernard.
01:28He is one of the most talented mechanics I've ever come across.
01:32He's definitely very skilled and has done wonders for our program
01:37and we're really excited for him to kind of be able to share his ideas with other people
01:42and learn from people from all over the world and from the people at MIT.
01:47Tanzania has a lack of electricity and even the fuel is expensive.
01:53The people who are living at the village, they can't afford to buy those things
01:58like to pay for the electricity bill or the fuel.
02:02We are trying to sit down and see maybe we have water problem.
02:06We need the water pump.
02:08How could we make it without electricity?
02:12Because those people are living at the villages.
02:15The villagers, they don't have electricity.
02:18So I sort of spent a bunch of time learning as much engineering as I could
02:22and then at the same time I really wanted to do development work while I was at MIT
02:27and there wasn't a program to do it so I just sort of created
02:30sort of bigger and bigger programs along the way.
02:33And it's interesting because I had envisioned that I would go back
02:37and actually live in Southern Africa doing this type of work
02:41and I haven't done that yet but I feel like I sort of in the position that I'm in
02:46I'm wondering whether it does more good to be here sort of training lots of people
02:49to do that as opposed to just being one person myself working in the field
02:53and so I still have this debate as to whether or not I do more good here than there.
02:58This is where we'll be able to tell who's from which country
03:03because Americans will be like, oh, that's really hot.
03:06And then when you get to Africans they'll be like, oh, let me pick this one up.
03:10And then if you go...
03:13You can see how hot it is?
03:17We're not hot!
03:22Technology designed to address problems in developing countries
03:27but it has a broader scope than I think most people realize.
03:37I guess what everyone's battling against is the idea that
03:42we're all going to die one day.
03:47I guess what everyone's battling against in this community of people working on appropriate technology
03:54is the view that it's inferior technology.
04:05Okay, it's a rural village in Tanzania.
04:08Did you have in mind a specific village?
04:13Because this is common, not in one village.
04:16So most of the Tanzanians...
04:18What's the name of this village?
04:20I think it would be useful if we focused on one village.
04:23If you're saying that they're all very similar,
04:26then if we focused on one, then a solution...
04:28Like my village maybe?
04:30Yeah, so what's your village called?
04:32Sinon.
04:34Do you want to find it on the map?
04:36I'm trying.
04:38I don't think you can find it here.
04:40So how do you spell the name of your village?
04:42Or the nearest city?
04:47Sinon?
04:48Simon.
04:51You can't find the village on the map.
04:57Find Haiti.
04:58It's difficult.
04:59You should know where it is, you don't have to look.
05:05Come on, I can close my eyes and tell you where Pakistan is.
05:07Yeah, Pakistan's huge.
05:09And so is Egypt.
05:10And the UK.
05:12And the US.
05:13St. Norbert, Tanzania.
05:15It's probably much worse than that.
05:18And this also says that the diseases caused by unsafe drinking water
05:24are things like diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid.
05:28Guinea worm, intestinal worms, schistosomiasis and trachoma.
05:34What do you call schistosomiasis?
05:37I think that's the sleeping sickness.
05:41I know it in Swahili.
05:47Even if in the beginning, the way you told us what the problem is,
05:50that people walk this many hours to the river,
05:55and the river water is not that clean.
05:58Even if you give that picture, I think it gives you a whole picture of everything.
06:02So if you want to do something about poverty,
06:04you go to where poor people are,
06:06you talk to them in their life space,
06:09you learn everything you can about what their constraints are,
06:12what kind of soils they have, what's the climate.
06:15And out of that, you come up with major design strategies
06:21that make a big impact on their lives.
06:23The one thing that we were trying to push here was,
06:25you know, figure out who's going to use this,
06:28how they're going to use it, what their problem is.
06:30And that's kind of what Paul was talking about.
06:32He said, what sucks. Address what sucks.
06:35If it sucks bad enough, and the thing that you come up with
06:38is going to lower that pain enough,
06:41at a point people can afford it, then it'll move.
06:45So you leave the capital, and you're on the road for about five hours,
06:49and then the pavement stops,
06:51and then you're on the road for about 20 more hours.
06:53If you're lucky, you're in the back of an open truck
06:56so that you don't hit your head on the ceiling
06:58as it bounces over these things.
07:00If you're not lucky, you're in the back of a closed truck,
07:02and you just feel like you're getting thrashed around a lot.
07:05And anywhere between 16 and 20 hours later,
07:09you show up in this very small village.
07:11You'll see people all the time walking around
07:16with water on their head in buckets
07:18because very few people have water taps near their homes,
07:22so getting water into the households is always challenging.
07:26Mungu i bariki Afrika
07:30Wa bariki biyo boziwake
07:34He expressed that there was an opportunity here
07:38to enhance what he was doing back home,
07:40to come and meet people, to learn new things, etc.,
07:43to create technologies that could solve problems in his villages.
07:46And so that type of thing was, of course, very compelling.
07:51Because this is the African and Tanzanian.
07:55And the color is flag for Tanzania,
07:57but the drawing is Africa.
08:01So this means from Africa, Tanzania.
08:04For me, everything is new.
08:07And also, I was trying to use those sticks from China.
08:20It's my first time, so...
08:24So I didn't know anything about the visa or the passport.
08:28Because in Tanzania, you don't need the passport
08:31if you don't go out in the country.
08:34So normally, we don't have a passport.
08:43So my name is Mohamed.
08:46Mohamed Mashal, from the UK.
08:50And I just graduated from Cambridge University
08:53in Mechanical Engineering.
08:55So I was born in Cairo, in Egypt, in 1984.
08:58Then I moved to the UK when I was one.
09:07I realized that I wanted to do something
09:09that had an element of science in it,
09:11but also some mathematics and some kind of practical side to it.
09:15I didn't want to be kind of just theoretical science.
09:18My name is Claude.
09:20So I come from Haiti.
09:23And this small village, its name is Fond de Blanc.
09:27So that's where I'm from.
09:32My name is Ismat. I'm from Pakistan.
09:36I've been working with a public health non-profit
09:41for a year in Pakistan.
09:44So I'm a carpenter.
09:47So I was working about 9 or 10 years in carpentry.
09:52I'm 24. I'm not married. I don't have any kids.
09:56I'm not married. I have children.
09:59I have four children.
10:01I guess growing up in a third world country
10:04and being in touch with extreme poverty
10:09and knowing that if you can do something about it,
10:12then you should. So I'm trying.
10:15My language is Creole.
10:18I speak Creole, so I speak English a little bit.
10:21Not very well.
10:23I live in this small village.
10:26It's a very poor people's.
10:28So to learn more about water and energy
10:32and health and transportation,
10:35that's the reason why I'm here.
10:37That's where most of the work is in development.
10:39There's no point in working in development
10:41if you're going to live in North America, I think.
10:44So it's a little difficult for me
10:46to understand when they speak.
10:49So I ask them to speak more slowly for me.
10:53Who is the consumer?
10:56In my country?
10:58For the bags?
11:04I was just wondering if you guys have chosen your final direction.
11:07Yeah, I think we have.
11:09We've chosen which of the three you're going to choose, right?
11:13Purification?
11:15Clean drinking water.
11:17And have you chosen what level?
11:19Village level, home level, city level?
11:22That's what we are doing now.
11:30Some of us maybe from the university,
11:33so they know more than me.
11:36Yeah.
11:38I heard someone told me that you have expertise.
11:44You do bikes, you fix bikes.
11:47So you have workshop expertise,
11:49so you have experience in that.
11:51So that's definitely something we can use.
11:54So what can I put like...
11:57How can I put like...
11:59Maybe...
12:01Yeah, because I know about the bike,
12:03how to work the machines.
12:05No, I'm not from there.
12:07I know things about the medicines,
12:10all the combination of things.
12:13I only know how to make things, yeah.
12:16So they try to help me about...
12:20Maybe about...
12:24The quality of water,
12:26it's supposed to be, how much maybe the bacterias.
12:29I don't know about the bacterias.
12:31I know how to make buckets.
12:33Things like that.
12:38PHONE RINGS
12:40Do you want to do it?
12:42No, you do it.
12:44I want you to do it, because I always do it.
12:46You do it.
12:48It's easy for me to do it.
12:49I want you to practice doing it.
12:50Come, stand up, stand up.
12:51I'll help you.
12:55So there is...
13:00Village won't accept it.
13:03And the potential way of...
13:06Mitigation.
13:08Mitigation risk is...
13:11Consultation with the villagers,
13:14work together.
13:17So another risk is no electricity.
13:20Design...
13:23Way that doesn't need electricity.
13:27So another risk one will be energy for pumping.
13:32So there is the potential way of...
13:36Is energy sources.
13:39Lack of education.
13:41To educate them and make them easier to understand their solutions.
13:46Village won't expect it.
13:48Find a way of education them in benefit of product.
13:53Village can't afford thinking of how to borrow them money.
14:00From the government or NGOs.
14:03How do...
14:08Cost of...
14:10I don't know, this is what?
14:12Existing.
14:14Lots of existing technology.
14:16Yeah.
14:17So the solution will be research current method to evaluate...
14:22I don't know what this is.
14:24Merits.
14:25Merits.
14:26And the last one is maintenance.
14:30Design for long life and simple things.
14:36Maybe you can...
14:37Maybe you can add something I think.
14:43A lot of the students who come from universities or come from the United States,
14:47the way the design is taught is you sort of invent a need and then create a solution to it.
14:53But a lot of people who are coming from developing regions,
14:57they don't have to invent the need.
14:58They know the needs.
14:59They know exactly what they are.
15:01Belts are loose.
15:02So we normally use the normal tools like hammer, punch, hand saw.
15:08Sometimes those type of grinders we call hand grinders,
15:12those are small so you can buy one or you can borrow from friends.
15:18But to afford to buy, to use the big machine like this, never.
15:23When you're actually motivated for something, I think that's when you learn the best.
15:36I guess my childhood was...
15:38Well, a lot of people think their childhoods were fairly normal.
15:41I think mine was too except for when I was six years old,
15:44my family moved to India for a year.
15:47My dad was working with the Ford Foundation on a project
15:50to help start an institute of technology in the Rajasthani desert.
15:54And so we went there as a family of five,
15:58my poor parents dragging three little kids around the world
16:01and we spent a year in the desert there.
16:03And I think in many ways that influenced what I'm doing now.
16:06So I think seeing that was something that affected me quite a bit.
16:10And I guess I always just grew up knowing that I would do something like Peace Corps
16:15and get involved in this type of work.
16:16So it wasn't really a question of something that flashed as to making it happen.
16:22But just I think that that early experience probably affected me a lot.
16:34But the problem is I'm not actually faculty, right?
16:36So I'm just sort of, you know...
16:38Up until November I had the same status as the person who teaches you how to use a drill press.
16:42No, I had to be in mechanical engineering for nothing.
16:46I'm a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering,
16:49but that's a very recent turn on events.
16:52Well, congratulations.
16:53Well, thank you very much.
16:55Yeah, so I was just an instructor,
16:58but an instructor with huge delusions of grandeur.
17:01And so I could just, oh, we need to do a lab.
17:04Oh, we need to get all these things going.
17:06And I think that MIT is a great place
17:09because there are many places where some punky grad student
17:12couldn't actually change the way that education was happening at their institution.
17:15Whereas I really believe MIT is doing a lot more,
17:18you know, the amount of hands-on global stuff is amazing.
17:22Of course, coming from someone who won half a million dollars in the MacArthur Genius Award,
17:28she's very generous with that money that she got.
17:31So she's putting it to good use.
17:34She also won the Lemelson Award,
17:36the only woman at MIT to win that.
17:39And I think she also won the Inventor of the Year Award.
17:42But in any event, she's won, like, every award that you can win, yeah.
17:48All the water wouldn't touch the chalkboard.
17:50Right, so the water goes in.
17:53That's where Carlo said that there's no holes up there because the sand wouldn't allow it.
17:58The sand would come out.
18:00Right.
18:01But that's what the rope is for.
18:03Yeah, the rope is around the holes.
18:05It covers the holes so that the water seeps in at the top through the holes into the sand.
18:12But the sand is prevented from falling out because the gravel is there.
18:15And then what passes through is clean water that's been through rope,
18:19it's been through sand, it's been through gravel.
18:21But at the bottom right here, there's some sand as well and some rope at the end.
18:25Okay.
18:26To catch other things or something.
18:28Okay.
18:29All right.
18:30But there are some times where they get stuck, you know, going down a path
18:34and they just need something there and sometimes I feel like I can give them guidance on either
18:38that they really need to back down that path
18:40or something to help them jump over that hurdle and keep going.
18:43We can test Charles River water and see how good it tastes afterwards.
18:47You know, the simpler the technology, the more likely it is to sort of survive
18:51the harshness of the environment where it's going to be used.
18:55Because it's not very expensive.
18:57This one.
18:58Yeah.
18:59Depends, right?
19:01If you're earning less than a dollar a day, then...
19:04It's simple, but some people can afford it, some people can't afford it still, you know.
19:09What did you do this weekend, Bernard?
19:11I was sleeping.
19:12Are you sleeping at the right time or on Tanzania time?
19:16Tanzania time.
19:18But for the weekend, because I don't know where to go, I was sleeping.
19:22Do you work in this country?
19:24I don't know where to go and I don't have money, so it's better to sleep.
19:29True.
19:30That's what I did as well.
19:32You did as well?
19:33I stayed home, I...
19:36Last night I went to a bar with somebody.
19:40How much should you spend for one bottle of beer?
19:44Beer?
19:45Beer is how much?
19:46It's five dollars.
19:48Five dollars?
19:49Yeah.
19:50It's very expensive here, yeah.
19:51Very expensive.
19:52In Tanzania, one dollar for one bottle of beer.
19:58If you buy a pitcher, if you buy a whole jug of beer and you share it, it's cheaper that way.
20:04But then you need people to, you know, share it.
20:07That would be a problem for me because we don't have those jugs in Tanzania, so we don't share.
20:12No, I mean here. If you want to go out here, then you can do that.
20:16So you don't have to stay home.
20:18Maybe next time.
20:20Yeah, next time.
20:21If Mohammed ever comes back...
20:28What did you just say?
20:29Nothing, I didn't say anything.
20:31I thought I heard you say, is he ever going to come back?
20:33No, I didn't say that, you heard wrong.
20:35From what Bernard tells us, a lot of villagers now understand that there is a link between dirty water and disease.
20:42But they don't always have the means to mitigate against that.
20:46And sometimes, because they don't have the means to purify the water,
20:52they just take the risk and just carry on.
20:55Because you've got to drink water, otherwise you die.
21:01Our previous plan was that we were going to go to the workshop this afternoon to make it.
21:05So it seems like now that we've seen Dr. Murcott and you've seen the stuff that she's got,
21:11even though we haven't actually managed to play around with it at all,
21:15that seems to have been enough for you guys to think,
21:18OK, that's it, forget it, we're not going to go to the workshop now, we'll leave that till later.
21:22Now we're going to go back and do some research on sedimentation and coagulation.
21:27Just a different approach.
21:30Because I'm beginning to think that there's enough work being done on flotation.
21:39I understand.
21:40There was always enough work done on that.
21:42Yeah, but I didn't realize how much it was,
21:45and how difficult it would be to come up with something new in a week.
21:50It's the same for everyone.
21:52It's always going to be difficult to come up with something new in any of these fields,
21:56because people have been working on this for 20 years.
21:58We have things that haven't been done before.
22:00There's still been people working on it.
22:02That idea has not been done before.
22:05You think Dr. Peter Girgis hasn't been working on that for a long time?
22:09We haven't specifically made a lantern, you know what I mean?
22:12OK, what's different is that we don't have a new use.
22:16They have a new use, at least, that they've developed,
22:19from which you can make a different product.
22:21Using the same technology, we're making a different product.
22:23But it's the same use that we're looking at.
22:26And it's not a different product, it's the same product.
22:28It's a different way of implementation.
22:30Although people feel that time is very short, and it is,
22:34we really, according to the schedule which was in the back of our minds,
22:40they're really right where they should be.
22:42They're now about to begin a week where they do some really intensive building and stuff.
22:47But we weren't expecting them to have prototypes done by this stage.
22:51We were expecting them to be just about where they are,
22:54where they've got an approach nailed down,
22:56where they've done some experiments that show that it's a reasonable idea.
22:59They're pretty sure the direction they're going,
23:02and now they're going to start putting things together.
23:05So although they feel a time crunch, and they should, because there is one,
23:10it's about where we expected them to be.
23:13So we want to try something new.
23:16So we're not keeping on with those filters,
23:19because we realize that it's the idea from someone else,
23:24and we need to create our own ideas to make something.
23:30SODIS, which stands for Solar Water Disinfection.
23:34This effective solar water disinfection that's been pioneered by SONDEC in Switzerland,
23:40they proved all the science behind this idea, which works,
23:44that you don't need to get water up to boiling temperature
23:47or even up to pasteurization temperature to disinfect the water.
23:52What's traditionally done is you take a one or two liter bottle,
23:57fill it up with the contaminated water, it has to be pretty clear,
24:00fill it up, and then set it on your roof for six to eight hours.
24:05What happens is the water gets up to between 30 and 50 degrees Celsius during that time,
24:12which wouldn't be enough alone to do anything.
24:15But the UV light coming down in the sun works with the temperature that you reach
24:21to have a synergy, and what that leads to is virtually complete disinfection,
24:2999.9% disinfection of that water.
24:32And when you're going over a day or two's worth trip over the worst roads in the world,
24:39that becomes a logistical and economic problem.
24:42So that's one of the reasons it hasn't expanded.
24:44There's marketing reasons, and there's convincing people that this actually works
24:49and it's worth doing, because really you're putting something in a container,
24:52almost any container, and it gets disinfected.
24:55It's mind-blowing that it actually works, but it does.
24:58Yeah, we are thinking of maybe to clean water by the time they transport it
25:06before they get to their home, because the place they get the water is far from their home,
25:13maybe four kilometers or five.
25:16So we are trying maybe to think of, if possible,
25:21maybe for someone to clean the water while he's working.
25:25Maybe we can do that.
25:31The target customer was the people charged with bringing water.
25:38We first thought we could replace the jerry can, the 20-liter jerry can on their heads,
25:44with a bag, just a very large bag.
25:48Unless maybe we put something, like maybe this side should be flat.
25:54So it's like a table, then this side maybe not there.
26:01I wish we had a bigger bag.
26:04That's what Mohamed does, maybe you can try.
26:07What?
26:08It was his idea from Mohamed.
26:10To do what, put it on his head?
26:12Yeah, maybe you can put it.
26:14I'm not putting it on my head.
26:17It's still leaking?
26:18Yeah, it's leaking from elsewhere.
26:20Actually, seeing as they use that water for washing and cleaning,
26:27so it's not actually that vital that that water is purified.
26:34So we thought, okay, we'll leave that as it is.
26:37The jerry can is a very good design.
26:49Bernard, it was really valuable that they had Bernard on the team.
26:52He's from Tanzania.
26:54He's from Tanzania.
26:56He has lots of, I think, family in the villages and such,
26:59and so he had a lot of cultural context to it.
27:02So the bucket, the small bucket between 5 and 10 liters,
27:05that's what they use to actually scoop water from the river
27:08and then fill up the jerry can, and then they fill that up.
27:11Once the jerry can is full, they fill that small bucket up with water
27:14and then carry that back, and it's often that water which they drink.
27:17Well, there's two big advantages of a bag over a bottle.
27:21The store's flat, so you can ship 100 of them in the space.
27:24You can ship one bottle or two bottles.
27:27But you also, the water gets disinfected in a quarter of the time
27:32because it's so much shallower.
27:35But we're just concentrating on the handheld bucket,
27:38and if we can replace that with some kind of comfortable bag,
27:43either a backpack or a satchel or pouches to go in pockets on their clothing,
27:49we think could really make a difference.
27:58Bernard highlighted a specific problem that he knows about in Tanzania
28:02whereby the villages are high up on hills,
28:06and the rivers, which are the conventional source of water,
28:09is in low-lying land.
28:11So it's difficult to get.
28:13Firstly, the water is carried.
28:15Where's our diagram?
28:18People's heads are in wagons uphill, and then it's contaminated.
28:22So there's no purification,
28:24and there's no quick and sustainable method of transporting the water.
28:30They didn't spend all this money and bring all these people out here
28:33because these were easy problems to solve, right?
28:35These are really hard problems.
28:48What do you think of this?
28:50But this is also, this could be available in other areas that have...
28:53This is made from cotton.
28:55Places that don't grow cotton.
28:57It's almost here, I think.
28:59Again, it's difficult. Is that enough?
29:01You've got cotton?
29:03It's 50 feet.
29:04Yeah, that's good.
29:06Oh, and there's this.
29:08It's got 100 feet.
29:13What else is on the list?
29:15Adapters.
29:17Adapters for the tap.
29:21Let's divide up and see.
29:23So everyone take a different row and see what we can find.
29:26Do you have an idea?
29:30It's difficult to get.
29:32Difficult to find that in Tanzania?
29:34Not in Tanzania, but somewhere else.
29:36In the village?
29:38Someone should go to the shore.
29:40So...
29:43Yeah.
29:45So, Bernard, I know what you need,
29:47and I think we need to just go to the shore to collect it,
29:50because these will...
29:53They're just not quite the right thing,
29:55and so the other place is a little farther away.
29:59We can go tomorrow maybe to collect it.
30:02Does that sound okay?
30:04Yeah.
30:05Okay.
30:06Are we ready?
30:08So, good plan for that.
30:11I think it's fine.
30:13By the time you cut it...
30:15Yes, yes, yes.
30:17Much water will be somewhere.
30:19So the weight will go this side.
30:22So this will not...
30:23If you balance it so that the weight that's here
30:25is equal to the weight that's here.
30:27I can cut here.
30:32Do you want the juice, or do you want...
30:34We think the quantity of water we'll find here.
30:38No, we don't have a lot of water here,
30:40because we're going to cut it here.
30:43Then you put it here.
30:45The water will go on.
30:47The water will come here.
30:49Some here and some here.
30:51But a lot...
30:52No, more will hang here, because this will be longer.
30:54Yeah.
31:00I think in the future prototypes,
31:03this will be quite useful.
31:05You're going to cement?
31:07This will be quite nice.
31:08Yeah, but what will happen is...
31:09And the thing is, stress is always concentrated at the corners.
31:12Like that.
31:13But if I don't have a corner, then it's not a circle, right?
31:15No.
31:17That makes sense.
31:19That makes sense.
31:20So...
31:24I really need to upstairs before they close.
31:32It's coming too much.
31:34It's not going to...
31:39How is it?
31:43So this one doesn't leak, right?
31:45How come this side doesn't leak?
31:47What did you do differently here?
31:49It's random, you think?
31:51Or it's just...
31:52Sometimes it's something.
31:54It was nice.
31:58We tried to carry it.
32:05Do you need help?
32:07So...
32:08Basically, I said that this was a good idea in concept,
32:11but there were some issues.
32:13We were hoping that while you're walking back,
32:16the sun would be shining on you and killing some of the bacteria.
32:20But with the jerrycan on your head,
32:23that would cast a shadow,
32:25so you could never be sure that the sun would be acting
32:28during your journey back home.
32:32So we thought, well, actually,
32:33why don't we just concentrate on just the transport aspect of it,
32:35and then once you reach home, whatever it is you're wearing,
32:38you can just take it off and lay it flat on the ground or on your roof,
32:42and then leave it for five, six hours for the sun to do its work.
32:47Actually, MIT was the only place I got in.
32:49There's sort of a history of that,
32:51but I only applied to two other schools,
32:53small liberal arts colleges,
32:55and I didn't really do that well in English and social studies,
32:58so I got into MIT and I went there,
33:01and I spent four years...
33:04I did mechanical engineering because I really liked building things
33:07and fixing things and knowing how things worked,
33:09but I wasn't especially motivated as a student,
33:12but I really wanted to be a sheep farmer for much of my MIT career,
33:16and sometimes I wonder whether things happen for a good reason
33:21because MIT is very much the right place for me.
33:24I really enjoyed creating solutions to problems,
33:27and the types of solutions I created tend to be very simple.
33:31I always felt sort of like a goofball
33:33because everyone would have these complex microprocessor-controlled things,
33:37and I would have something with a handle,
33:39and it did the same thing, but I always felt like,
33:42oh, I don't know, and so I was at one point just sort of sitting in my house
33:46looking out over the Kalahari Desert thinking,
33:49wow, I really like doing this, but I like engineering too,
33:52and then all of a sudden I realized I could do both.
33:54I could continue working in Africa and do engineering stuff,
33:58but then I realized that all my sheep farming fantasy
34:01had meant that I hadn't studied as much engineering as I needed to know,
34:05so I came back to grad school.
34:07I was again applying to more than one place,
34:09but I was applying to MIT as well,
34:11and then my cat, this was when I was in Botswana in the Peace Corps,
34:15my cat had kittens on the other applications,
34:17so they were covered with bloodstains, and I couldn't mail them in,
34:21so once again, you know, fate intervened, and I ended up at MIT again.
34:25So do you want to take one of these with you?
34:27No, I don't think so.
34:31Oh, yes.
34:34That's good.
34:38It's good?
34:39Yes.
34:42How would you take it off?
34:44Is it easy to take off?
34:45Yes.
34:48And also it wasn't actually sealed.
34:50From here it was open, and that's how I filled it up with water.
34:53And if you stood up and wore it, it would make, it would shut,
34:58because it's flush against the back of your neck.
35:01But as soon as you started moving around,
35:03the water would kind of start shuffling around,
35:06and that's when the problem started.
35:10Today, Clarell came up with this kind of belt,
35:15apron, kind of seals the back there,
35:19to carry your water.
35:21You can carry a fair bit of water, maybe five liters,
35:24and then once you arrive home, you can just lay it out flat.
35:29When you give something away, it's not equitable.
35:32So when we're introducing a product, we insist that people pay for it,
35:36because if somebody bellies up to the bar to buy something,
35:40they're going to use it.
35:42And you have to design it in such a way that they are willing
35:47and motivated to buy it, or nobody will buy it.
35:50That's a much more real interaction,
35:53and it's much more effective in the end.
36:04That's great.
36:05You like it?
36:06I guess.
36:10Take on the catwalks of London.
36:15This is the soda's dress.
36:21Thank you.
36:33It's no longer about appropriate technology.
36:35It's about entertaining technology.
36:40What do the dressers look like?
36:42He draws a typical dress.
36:45They wear the...
36:48from America.
36:50Do they wear pants or dresses?
36:52What?
36:53Do they wear pants or dresses?
36:55Trousers.
36:56Ah, they don't wear trousers.
36:57They wear dresses, right?
36:58Yeah.
36:59So just like that.
37:01So like a big dress?
37:02Mm-hmm.
37:03Does it have pockets in it?
37:04Sometimes two pockets.
37:07So they already have pockets.
37:09No, but if you design something that can fit,
37:12like a big pocket here, right here.
37:15You can slide in a hole like this size bag.
37:21This is one of the options, Mohammad,
37:23and people can have a choice to use it or not.
37:25And the one thing that I like to do is do a lot of prototypes.
37:28So I like to build a lot of something.
37:30You know, you build one,
37:31and you don't have to build the whole thing.
37:33You build the part that you think this was a problem part,
37:36and you look at it,
37:37and then you even do a design review
37:39and have people talk about it and critique it.
37:41So we can get some insight into what will people use
37:44and what will they not use,
37:45what are things that you can count on people to do,
37:48and what are things that they just won't.
37:50There's a lot of cultural issues
37:51with trying to come up with design
37:53that's acceptable to the local people.
37:56And then there's the issue of cleaning it.
37:59How is it going to be cleaned?
38:01Is it going to get wet?
38:02Is it going to be comfortable?
38:04So it's quite complicated,
38:05and I don't think any of us are kind of fashion designers
38:08or experts with clothes.
38:10Every technology has some technology transfer issues with it.
38:14And, you know, basically if people don't want it,
38:17then it's not an appropriate technology, right?
38:20And so one hopes that you've developed something
38:23that meets a need,
38:24and that it does it in a way that people will embrace.
38:27And so if that's the case,
38:30then it's usually a question of some education
38:33to train people in the use of it.
38:35If you've designed a technology
38:37that solves a problem in a way that people won't use,
38:40that's a problem, because it's really hard
38:42to get significant behavioral changes,
38:44and there's even a debate as to whether or not
38:47one should be doing that.
38:49Can you switch out?
38:51No.
38:54If I had another one at the back.
38:56I don't know.
38:59Wow.
39:00You look like a Scotsman.
39:02Like a what?
39:03Like a Scotsman.
39:04A Scotsman.
39:05With a kilt.
39:06With a plate that has a kilt.
39:07Oh, yeah, yeah.
39:08I don't know what it's called.
39:11Now you know why we've got the mop.
39:17Yeah, see?
39:18We need to find a way so that when we seal these...
39:23seams,
39:25that we don't weaken the plastic,
39:27because that's where it's most likely to leak.
39:30You know, they say the devil's in the details,
39:32so if you're going to come up with some new ideas,
39:34I think the details are really the important part.
39:37While some technologies can be easily transferred
39:40from one country to another,
39:43often some solutions are very, very particular
39:46to a particular market and a particular country.
39:49I mean, as I said, this particular target community
39:53has no electricity and no fuel,
39:55very bad roads,
39:57and it's only for that reason,
39:59only because of those constraints,
40:01I'll be looking at this bag.
40:02There's sort of this different aspect
40:04of appropriate technology,
40:06which means that the technology itself
40:08can be understood by the people using it
40:11so that they can invent and innovate
40:13and evolve the technology themselves,
40:15because nothing you design is perfect,
40:18and so if you make it so that people who are using it
40:22can really see how they could improve upon it,
40:25then that helps a lot.
40:53Yeah, so this will get the plastic bag inside.
40:56Because the first one I made,
40:58they say it's not comfortable,
41:00so people, they can't carry them.
41:02That is why. Maybe this will be narrow.
41:04So, because 4 litres is about somewhere here,
41:08so maybe 6 litres,
41:10but I want to put it, make it like this.
41:13Yeah, because I've tried many times,
41:16and it's not working.
41:19Sometimes you become tired
41:21because you are thinking of something
41:23and it's not working.
41:24It's difficult.
41:26Maybe this will be the last one.
41:28Did you see that backpack design
41:29that had sort of like this chicken wire
41:31and then there was a bag you slid into it,
41:33and somebody was out of it, yelling at us.
41:36One person liked it because it was like industrial,
41:38from an industrial design point it was really cool,
41:40and it was like, but it rips the bag
41:42every time you put it in there,
41:43you know what I mean?
41:45And so I thought it was kind of funny.
41:48And that's actually an interesting technology
41:50because that's one that would have to be capitalized,
41:54well capitalized.
41:56I don't think that people are going to make those bags
41:58in villages with a little press,
42:01because the quality has to be pretty high
42:03with those things.
42:04I mean, they have to be well sealed.
42:06You know, I'm really curious to see what Bernard
42:08and the plastic bags, what people are going to say.
42:10You know, that's one where we just can't even guess.
42:12Will people think they're wonderful,
42:14or will they think these guys are nuts?
42:16But that's also a product that I think
42:18has to go in the field to be tested
42:20until you know very much.
42:22So we can hope.
42:24Try it.
42:26There we go.
42:28No, you have to learn how to put it.
42:30You must be able to do this.
42:32How do you say it?
42:34Like this.
42:36Yeah, accurately putting it.
42:38That's the one that you can grab with.
42:40It is not a science.
42:42It's just a practice.
42:44You just play.
42:47Yeah.
42:52After I came out of the lecture hall
42:54and was looking down on this mass of people,
42:56and there was such a buzz in the room,
42:58it was great.
43:00There was such excitement about everything
43:02that was happening, and it was, you know,
43:04it was just wonderful to see.
43:06Just to get that initial push
43:08is very, very difficult and challenging.
43:10But once you've got that done,
43:12then, and only then,
43:14can you see local people
43:16given kind of a breath of fresh air
43:18and a new hope
43:20that they can actually get themselves
43:22out of the problems that they are in
43:24with their own hands.
43:26I hope it's a big privilege
43:28for me
43:30to work on this program
43:32with this group
43:34because
43:36my country needs it.
43:38I think it's nice
43:40that they have taken
43:42the technology back home.
43:44I think people will like it.
43:46I feel OK to be here
43:48and what I did, everything,
43:50and people I met here,
43:52they are OK.
43:54So I like it here in America,
43:56and also I like IDDS.
43:58You know, as we are now,
44:00I've got friends here,
44:02and maybe the day after today
44:04we are going to finish,
44:06and I lost them.
44:08Maybe I'll find them
44:10on the Internet,
44:12but as we are here now,
44:14we can talk and we can go
44:16to different places,
44:18and that is the problem.
44:36...
44:38...
44:40...
44:42...
44:44...
44:46...
44:48...
44:50...
44:52...
44:54...
44:56...
44:58...
45:00...
45:02...
45:04It's amazing.
45:14We are sad, eh?
45:16We are leaving.
45:18Can I sum up what's been accomplished?
45:20It's hard to say because
45:22I think... I mentioned this yesterday
45:24that originally I thought what we would
45:26be producing is hardware.
45:28There was certainly some of that,
45:30but I think what we
45:32more is an ethos, a commitment to work together, a beginning of something big, I think.
45:42And so it's not accomplished because it's just beginning, but to me that's one of the
45:49things that is remarkable about the month, is I wasn't really expecting that as much,
45:56but by the end of it there really was this commitment of the group to be a group working
46:01on this, to be a group sort of moving it forward.
46:04I think Amy understands and has shown me that the path is not, the path of better products
46:11and better inventions isn't towards more complexity, it's actually you're striving for simplicity.
46:20And a lot of people recognize that, but very few put it into practice, so.
46:25I think really maybe it was the beginning of a little bit of the revolution.
46:31So I'm going to teach you some simple Swahili words that will be very important when you
46:49come to Tanzania.
46:50So you say after me.
46:51So, katimu?
46:52Katimu.
46:53Kata?
46:54Kata.
46:55Wakata?
46:56Wakata.
46:57Wakata.
46:58Wakata.
46:59Wakata.
47:00Wakata.
47:01Wakata.
47:02Wakata.
47:03Wakata.
47:04Wakata.
47:05Wakata.
47:06Wakata.
47:07Wakata.
47:08Wakata.
47:09Wakata.
47:10Wakata.
47:11Wakata.
47:12Wakata.
47:13Wakata.
47:14Wakata.
47:15Wakata.
47:16Wakata.
47:17Wakata.
47:18Wakata.
47:19Wakata.
47:20Wakata.
47:21Wakata.
47:22Wakata.
47:23Wakata.
47:24Wakata.
47:25Wakata.
47:26Wakata.
47:27Wakata.
47:28Wakata.
47:29Wakata.
47:30Wakata.
47:31Wakata.
47:32Wakata.
47:33Wakata.
47:34Wakata.
47:35Wakata.
47:36Wakata.
47:37Wakata.
47:38Wakata.
47:39Wakata.
47:40Wakata.
47:41Wakata.
47:42Wakata.
47:43Wakata.
47:44Wakata.
47:45Wakata.
47:46Wakata.
47:47Wakata.
47:48Wakata.
47:49Wakata.
47:50Wakata.
47:51Wakata.
47:52Wakata.
47:53Wakata.
47:54Wakata.
47:55Wakata.
47:56Wakata.