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00:01Well, IDDS is us.
00:08We come from 18 different countries around the world.
00:12We are students, we are teachers, we are doctors, we are economists, we are farmers, we are machinists.
00:19And this is a wonderful opportunity for us to work together to challenge some of the great problems in the world today.
00:26So the chance to bring people to MIT to sort of create solutions together I 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.
00:51It's centered around bicycle mechanics.
00:54And Bernard Kiwias, who we are waiting for here, he is our head mechanic and he instructs all of the bicycle training, the technical part of it.
01:03And he's never left his village, Arusha.
01:06So this is definitely going to be a big event for him.
01:13But welcome. This is Boston.
01:14Okay, thank you. This is nice, very nice.
01:16How was the flight?
01:18I told you okay.
01:19Long?
01:20Yeah, long.
01:21They asked me if anyone in our program would be a candidate for this program and I definitely, hands down, it would be Bernard.
01:28He's one of the most talented mechanics I've ever come across.
01:32He's definitely very skilled and has done wonders for our program and we're really excited for him to kind of be able to share his ideas with other people
01:41and 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.
01:54The people who are living at the village, they can't afford to buy those things like to pay for the electricity bill or the fuel.
02:02We are trying to sit down and see maybe we have water problem, we need water, we need the water pump.
02:09How could we make it without electricity?
02:12Because those people are living at the villages, the villages they don't have electricity.
02:18So I sort of spent a bunch of time learning as much engineering as I could and 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 sort of bigger and bigger programs along the way.
02:33And it's interesting because I had envisioned that I would go back and actually live in southern Africa doing this type of work.
02:41I mean I haven't done that yet but I feel like in the position that I'm in I'm wondering whether it does more good to be here,
02:49sort of training lots of people to 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.
03:06This is where we'll be able to tell who's from which country because Americans will be like, oh that's really hot.
03:13And then when you get to Africans they'll be like, oh let me pick this one up.
03:18And then if you go, you can see how hot it is.
03:22You can see how hot it is.
03:24Singaporean.
03:26Oh, we're not.
03:28Singaporean.
03:30Singaporean.
03:32Technology designed to address problems in developing countries.
03:37But it has a broader scope than I think most people realize.
03:48I guess what everyone's battling against in this community of people working on appropriate technology is the view that it's inferior technology.
03:58Okay, it's a rural village in Tanzania.
04:08Did you have in mind the specific village?
04:11Or?
04:13Because this is common, not in one village.
04:16So most of the Tanzania.
04:18I mean, what's the nearest 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, then if you focused on one, then a solution.
04:29Like my village maybe?
04:30Yeah, so what's your village called?
04:32Sinon.
04:35Do you want to find it on the map?
04:37I don't think you can find it here.
04:39Okay, how do you spell the name of your village?
04:42Or the nearest city?
04:47Simon?
04:48Simon.
04:50You can't find the village in the map.
04:57Find Haiti.
04:59You should know where it is, you don't have to look.
05:01I can't see.
05:03It's so horrible.
05:04Come on.
05:05I can close my eyes and tell you.
05:07Yeah, Pakistan is huge.
05:09Yeah, true.
05:10And so is Egypt.
05:11And the UK.
05:12And the US.
05:14Northern Tanzania.
05:16It's probably much worse than that.
05:18And this also says that the diseases caused by unsafe drinking water are things like diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, guinea worm, intestinal worms, schistosomiasis and trachoma.
05:34What do you call schistosomiasis?
05:35I think that's the sleeping sickness.
05:41I know in Swahidi.
05:42Swahidi?
05:43Homa Malali.
05:44Homa Malali.
05:45Yeah.
05:47You know, even if like in the beginning the way you told us what the problem is that, you know, people go walk this many hours to the river.
05:56And 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, you go to where poor people are, you talk to them in their life space, you learn everything you can about what their constraints are, what kind of soils they have, what's the climate.
06:16And out of that you come up with major design strategies that make a big impact on their lives.
06:23The one thing that we were trying to push here was, you know, figure out who's going to use this, how 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.
06:34Address what sucks.
06:35If it sucks bad enough and the thing that you come up with is going to lower that pain enough, at 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.
06:50And 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 so that you don't hit your head on the ceiling as it bounces over these things.
07:00If you're not lucky, you're in the back of a closed truck and you just feel like, you know, you're getting thrashed around a lot.
07:05And, you know, anywhere between 16 and 20 hours later, you show up in this very small village.
07:11People, you know, you'll see people all the time walking around with water on their head in buckets because very few people have water taps near their homes.
07:21So getting water into the households is always challenging.
07:25He expressed that there was an opportunity here to enhance what he was doing back home.
07:40You know, to come and meet people, to learn new things, et cetera, to create technologies that could solve problems in his villages.
07:46And so those are, um, that type of thing was, of course, very compelling.
07:51Because this is African Tanzania. And the color is flag for Tanzania. But the drawing is Africa. So this means from Africa, Tanzania.
08:04For me, everything is, like, new. And also I was trying to use those sticks for, like, Chinese.
08:12It's my first time. So I didn't know anything about the visa or the passport.
08:27Because in Tanzania, you don't need the passport if you don't want to go out of the country.
08:33So normally, you don't have a passport.
08:43So my name is Mohamed. Mohamed Mashaal.
08:48From the UK. And I just graduated from Cambridge University in Mechanical Engineering.
08:54So I was born in Cairo, in Egypt, in 1984. Then I moved to the UK when I was one.
09:07I realized that I wanted to do something that had an element of science in it, but 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 Klaou El-Jewam. So I come from Haiti. And this small village, his name is Funderblanc. So that's where I'm from.
09:32My name's Ismat. I'm from Pakistan. I've been working with a public health non-profit for a year in Pakistan.
09:44So I'm a carpenter. So I was working about nine or ten years in carpenter.
09:52I'm 24. I'm not married. I don't have any kids.
09:56I'm not married. I have children.
09:58How many?
09:59I have four children.
10:01I guess growing up in a third world country and being in touch with extreme poverty and knowing that if you can do something about it, then you should. So I'm trying.
10:15My language is Creole. I speak Creole, so I speak English a little bit. Not very well.
10:22I live in a small village with very poor people. So to learn more about water and energy and earth and transportation. That's the reason I'm here.
10:37That's where most of the work is in development. There's no point in working in development if you're going to live in North America, I think.
10:44So it's a little difficult for me to understand when they speak. So I ask them to speak more slowly for me.
10:53Who is the consumer?
10:56Consumer?
10:57In my country?
10:58No, no, no.
10:59For the bags?
11:00For the bags.
11:04Hi, I was just wondering if you guys have chosen your final direction.
11:07Yeah, I think we have. We've chosen which of the three you're going to choose, right?
11:11Water, purification.
11:13Water, purification?
11:14Clean drinking water.
11:15Water, purification.
11:16Okay.
11:17And have you chosen what level? Village level, home level, city level, or you're still...
11:22This is what we are doing now.
11:24Okay.
11:25Village level.
11:26Some of us may be from the university, so they know more than me.
11:35Yeah.
11:36So I heard someone told me that you have expertise in... you do bikes, you fix bikes.
11:46Yeah.
11:47So you have like workshop expertise, so you have experience in that.
11:51So that's definitely something we can use.
11:53So what can I put like... how can I put like... maybe...
11:59Yeah, because I know about the bike or how to make the machines.
12:04You know, I'm not from there.
12:06I don't know things about the medicine or the combination of things.
12:12I all know how to make things.
12:14Yeah.
12:15So they try to help me about... maybe about the quality of water.
12:25It's supposed to be how much maybe the bacteria.
12:28I don't know about the bacteria.
12:30I know how to make buckets.
12:32And things like that.
12:42You want to do it?
12:43No, you do it.
12:44I want you to do it, because I always do it.
12:46You do it.
12:47It'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.
12:52Don't worry.
12:53So the risks are...
12:58... the village won't accept it.
13:03And the potential way of...
13:05... mitigation...
13:07... mitigation risk is...
13:11... consultation with the villagers work together.
13:17So the... another risk is no electricity.
13:20it design way that doesn't need electricity so the another risk one will
13:29be energy for pumping the so the risk the potential way of is energy sources
13:38lack of education to educate them and make them easier to understand the
13:44solutions village won't expect it find a way of education them in benefit of
13:51product village can't afford thinking of how to grow to borrow them money from
14:01the government or NGOs how do cost of existing lots of existing technology
14:16so the solution will be research current method to evaluate merits merits and the
14:27last one is maintenance design for long life and simple things maybe you can
14:36maybe you can add something a lot of the students who come from universities are
14:45come from the United States and they the way that design is taught is you sort of
14:50invent a need and then create a solution to it but a lot of people who are coming
14:54from developing regions they don't have to invent the need they know the needs
14:59they know exactly what they are
15:00built loose so you normally use the normal tools like hammer punchy and so
15:07sometimes those type of grinders we call hand grinders those are small so you can
15:13buy one or you can borrow from friends that but to afford to buy to use the big
15:20machine like this when you're actually motivated for something that I think
15:25that's when you learn the best
15:35I mean I I guess my childhood was well a lot of people think their childhoods
15:39were fairly normal I think mine was too except for when I was six years old my
15:44family moved to India for a year my dad was working with the Ford Foundation on a
15:49project to help start a Institute of Technology in the Rajasthani Desert and
15:54so we went there as you know family of five my poor parents dragging three little
15:59kids around the world and we spent a year in the desert there and I think in
16:03many ways that influenced what I'm doing now so I think seeing that was
16:07something that affected me quite a bit and I guess I always just grew up knowing
16:12that I would do something like Peace Corps and get involved in this type of work so
16:16it wasn't really a question of you know something that flashed as to making it
16:21happens but just I think that that early experience probably affected me a lot
16:26but the problem is I'm not actually faculty right so I'm just sort of you
16:37know up until November I had the same status as the person who teaches you how
16:41to use a drill press yeah so I was you know just an instructor but an
16:58instructor with huge delusions of grandeur and so oh we need to do a lab oh we do it
17:04and get all these things going and I think that MIT is a great place because there are
17:10many places where some punky grad student couldn't actually change the way that
17:13education is happening at their institution and I really believe MIT is doing a lot
17:17more you know the amount of hands-on global stuff is amazing of course coming from someone
17:24who won half a million dollars in the MacArthur Genius Award and she's very generous with that
17:30money that she got so she's putting it to good use she also won the Lemelson Award the only woman
17:36at MIT to win that and I think she also won the inventor of the year award but in any event I mean
17:43she's won like every award that you can you can win yeah all the water wouldn't touch the chocolate so
17:50the water goes in that's where Carlos said that there's no holes up there because the sand wouldn't
17:56allow it but that's what the rope is around the holes the rope covers the holes so that the water
18:06seeps in at the top through the holes into the sand but the sand is prevented from falling out because
18:14the gravel is there and then what passes through is clean water that's been through rope it's been
18:19through sand it's been through gravel and then at the bottom right here there's some sand as well
18:23and some rope at the end okay to catch other things or something okay all right but there are
18:30some times where they get stuck you know going down a path and they just need something there and
18:35sometimes I feel like I can give them guidance on how either that they really need to back down
18:38that path or something to help them jump over that hurdle and keep going we can test Charles
18:44River water and see how good it tastes afterwards you know the simpler the technology the more
18:49likely it is to sort of survive the the harshness of the environment where it's going to be used
18:53because it's not very expensive this one yeah depends right if people are earning less than a dollar a day
19:03then it's simple but some people can afford it some people can't afford it still you know what did
19:09you do this weekend Bernard well I was sleeping are you sleeping at the right time are you on Tanzania
19:15time doesn't matter huh but for the weekend because I don't know where to go I was sleeping to work in this
19:23country I stayed home I as night I went to bar with somebody how much you should spend for one
19:42bottle of beer beer beer it's five five dollars yeah it's very expensive yeah very expensive in Tanzania one thousand is one dollar for one bottle beer
19:56it's like 80 if you buy 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 you know share it you have a good beer that will be a problem for me because we don't have those jugs in Tanzania so we don't share it
20:09no I mean here if you want if you want to go out here yeah then you can do that so you don't have to stay home
20:18yeah maybe next time yeah next time if Mohammed ever comes back
20:30I thought I heard you say is he ever gonna come back no I didn't say that you've heard it wrong
20:34from what Bernard tells us a lot of villages now understand that there is a link between dirty water and disease but they don't always have the means to mitigate against that and sometimes because they don't have the means to purify the water they just take the risk and just carry on because you gotta drink water otherwise you die
20:59yeah
21:01our previous plan was that we were going to go to the workshop this afternoon to make it so it seems like now that we've seen Dr. Murkot and you've seen the stuff that she's got even though we haven't actually managed to play around with it at all that seems to have been enough for you guys to think okay that's it forget we're not going to go to the workshop now we'll leave that till later now we're going to go back and do some research
21:24research
21:25yeah
21:26on sedimentation and corroboration
21:27just on a different approach
21:29because I'm beginning to think that there's enough work being done on filtration and like I understand
21:39there was always enough work done
21:41yeah but we didn't realize how 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
21:49it's the same for everyone
21:52always going to be difficult to come up with something new in any of these fields because people have been working on this for 20 years
21:57I have things that haven't been done before
21:59you know
22:00there's still been people working on it
22:01not a prior life but that idea has not been done before
22:04you think Dr. Peter Gerges hasn't been working on that for a long time
22:08he hasn't specifically made Atlanta you know what I mean
22:11like okay what's different is that we don't have a new use they have a new use at least that they've developed
22:18from which you can make a different product
22:20using the same technology we're making a different product
22:22but we it's the same use that we're looking at
22:25and it's not a different product it's the same product
22:27it's a different web implementation
22:29although people feel that time is very short and it is
22:32we really according to sort of 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
22:46but we weren't expecting them to have prototypes done by this stage right
22:50we were expecting them to be just about where they are
22:53where they've got an approach nailed down where they've done some experiments that show that it's a reasonable idea
22:58they've you know they're pretty sure the direction they're going and now they're going to start putting things together
23:05so although they feel a time crunch and they should because there is one
23:11it's about where we expected them to be
23:13so we are going to try something new
23:16so we'll not keep 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
23:29SODIS which stands for Solar Water Disinfection
23:33this effective solar water disinfection that's been pioneered by Sondec in Switzerland
23:39they proved all the science behind this idea which works that you don't need to get water up to boiling temperature
23:46or even up to pasteurization temperature to disinfect the water
23:52what's traditionally done is you take a one or two liter bottle
23:56fill it up with the contaminated water
23:58it has to be pretty clear
24:00fill it up and then set it on your roof for six to eight hours
24:04what happens is the water gets up to between 30 and 50 degrees Celsius during that time
24:11which 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
24:20to have a synergy and what that leads to is virtually complete disinfection
24:2899.9% disinfection of that water
24:31and when you're going over a day or two's worth trip over the worst roads in the world
24:38that 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 and it's worth doing
24:50because really you're putting something in a container
24:52almost any container and it gets disinfected
24:54it's mind-blowing that it actually works but it does
24:57yeah we are thinking of maybe to clean water during
25:03by the time they transport it before they get to their home
25:07because the place they get the water is far from the home
25:12maybe four kilometers or five
25:14so we are trying maybe to think of
25:17if possible to
25:20maybe for someone to clean the water while he is working
25:24maybe can
25:26can do that
25:28The target customer was the people charged with bringing water
25:35we first thought we could replace the jerry can
25:41the 20 liter jerry can on their heads with a bag
25:45just a very large bag
25:47do you think it would be easier if it's bigger?
25:48unless maybe we could put something like
25:49maybe
25:50this side should be flat
25:52yeah
25:53so it's like a table then
25:55this side
25:56maybe not there
25:58this side
26:00I can do it
26:01I wish we had a bigger bag
26:05that's what Mohamed wants
26:08maybe you can try
26:09what?
26:10because this idea from Mohamed
26:12to do what? put it on his head?
26:13oh yeah
26:14maybe he can put it in
26:15I'm not putting it in my head
26:17Yeah, it's leaking from elsewhere.
26:22Actually, seeing as they use that water for washing and cleaning, so it's not actually
26:29that vital that that water is purified.
26:36So we thought, okay, we'll leave that as it is.
26:39The jerrycan is a very good design.
26:41It's still wet, right?
26:46It was really valuable that they had Bernard on the team.
26:54He's from Tanzania.
26:56He has lots of, I think, family in the villages and such.
26:59And so he can really, he had a lot of cultural context to it.
27:02So the bucket, the small bucket between 5 and 10 liters, that's what they use to actually
27:06scoop water from the river and then fill up the jerrycan.
27:09And then they fill that up.
27:11Once the jerrycan is full, they fill that small bucket up with water and then carry that back.
27:15That's often that water which they drink.
27:16Well, there's two big advantages of a bag over a bottle.
27:21It stores flat, so you can chip 100 of them.
27:22In the space, you can chip one bottle or two bottles.
27:26But you also, the water gets disinfected in a quarter of the time because it's so much shallower.
27:33But we're just concentrating on the handheld bucket.
27:37And if we can replace that with some kind of comfortable bag, either a backpack or a satchel
27:45or pouches to go in pockets on their clothing, that we think could really make a difference.
27:57Bernard highlighted a specific problem that he knows about in Tanzania, whereby the villages are high up on hills and rivers, which are the conventional source of water, is in low-lying land.
28:09So it's difficult to get, firstly, the water is carried, where's our diagram, it's carried like this, where people's heads are in wagons, uphill, and then it's contaminated.
28:22So there's no purification and 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 because these were easy problems to solve, right?
28:35These are really hard problems.
28:51What do you think?
28:52So this, but this is also, this could be built in other areas that have, this is made from cotton.
28:57So it's places that don't grow cotton.
28:59This one is here, I think.
29:01So getting critical?
29:02Is that in the background?
29:03You've got cotton?
29:04What?
29:05It's 50 feet.
29:06Yeah, this room.
29:07Oh, and there's this here.
29:10100 feet.
29:11This piece as well.
29:13Yeah.
29:14Okay.
29:15What else is on the list?
29:17We've got a river, and now we have a river.
29:20Tapers.
29:21Tapers.
29:22Tapers.
29:23Oh, for the tap.
29:24Yes.
29:25Yeah.
29:26Let's divide up and see what, so everyone take a different row and see what we can find.
29:31Do you have an idea for something like this?
29:33You don't want to use it to be difficult to get.
29:36It's difficult to find that in Tanzania?
29:38Okay.
29:39Or not even somewhere else.
29:41In the village.
29:42Someone should go to the shop.
29:43Yeah.
29:44So Bernard, I know what you need, and I think we need to just go to a different shop
29:49and do this.
29:50These will, they're just not quite the right thing, and so the other place is a little
29:56farther away, but we can go tomorrow maybe to collect it.
30:01Does that sound okay?
30:02Yeah.
30:03Okay.
30:04Are we ready?
30:06So, you could play around with that.
30:07I can cut it.
30:08Yeah.
30:09By the time you cut it, too.
30:10Yes.
30:11Yes.
30:12Yes.
30:13Yes.
30:14Yes.
30:15Yes.
30:16Yes.
30:17Much water will be somewhere, so the weight will go this side.
30:21No, it's very good.
30:22If you balance it so that the weight that's here is equal to the weight that's here.
30:25Yeah.
30:26I'll cut it here.
30:27It can stay now.
30:28Next.
30:29Do you want the juice, or do you want it?
30:30There we go.
30:31Like, we think the quantity of water we find here.
30:32No, we don't have a lot of water here, because we want to cut it here.
30:33Then you put it here.
30:34Yeah.
30:35The water will go on.
30:36The water will come here.
30:37No, it will hang here.
30:38Some here and some here.
30:39Yeah.
30:40But a lot.
30:41No, more will hang here, because this will be longer.
30:42Yeah.
30:45I think in the future, prototypes, this would be quite useful.
30:48You're going to cement?
30:49This would be quite nice.
30:50Yeah, but what would happen is?
30:51And the thing is, stress is always concentrated at the corner.
30:54You've got to put it here.
30:55And then you put it here.
30:56Yeah.
30:57The water will go on.
30:58The water will come here.
30:59No.
31:00Hang here.
31:01Some here and some here.
31:02Yeah.
31:03But a lot.
31:04No, more will hang here, because this will be longer.
31:05Yeah.
31:07I think in the future, prototypes, this would be quite useful.
31:08You're going to cement?
31:09Cement?
31:10This would be quite nice.
31:11Yeah, but what would happen is?
31:12The corner.
31:13But is it better to have a corner than a circle?
31:14No.
31:15Circle, right?
31:16It's always better to have a curve.
31:17That's where the lace is gone.
31:18That makes sense.
31:19That makes sense.
31:20So...
31:21I really need to go upstairs before they close.
31:32It's coming too much.
31:33It's not going to...
31:35How is it...
31:40It's okay.
31:41It's okay.
31:42Hmm...
31:43So how...
31:44This one doesn't leak, huh?
31:45How come this side doesn't leak?
31:47What did you do differently here?
31:48Well, it's happening.
31:49It's random.
31:50It's random, you think?
31:51Or it's just...
31:52Sometimes it's happening.
31:53It was nice.
31:55We're going to try to get it.
31:57Do you need help?
31:58Yeah.
31:59So...
32:00Basically, I said that this was a good idea and concept, but there were some issues.
32:12We were hoping that while you're walking back, the sun would be shining on you and killing
32:17some of the bacteria, but with the jerry can on your head, that would cast a shadow.
32:24So you could never be sure that the sun would be acting during your journey back home.
32:29So we thought, well, actually, why don't we just concentrate on just the transport aspect
32:34of it, and then once you reach home, whatever it is you're wearing, you can just take it
32:38off and lay it flat on the ground or on your roof, and then leave it for five, six hours
32:44for the sun to do its work.
32:46Actually, MIT was the only place I got in.
32:48There's sort of a history of that, but I only applied to two other schools, small liberal
32:53arts colleges, and I didn't really do that well in English and Social Studies.
32:58So I got into MIT, and I went there, and I spent four years.
33:04I did mechanical engineering because I really liked building things and fixing things and
33:07knowing how things worked, but I wasn't especially motivated as a student.
33:12But I really wanted to be a sheep farmer for much of my MIT career, and sometimes I wonder
33:17whether things happened for a good reason, because MIT is very much the right place for
33:23me.
33:24I really enjoyed creating solutions to problems, and the types of solutions I created tend
33:29to be very simple.
33:30You know, I always felt sort of like a goofball, because everyone would have these complex microposter
33:35controlled things, and I would have something with a handle.
33:38And it did the same thing, but it was just like, I always felt like, oh, I don't know.
33:42And so I was at one point just sort of sitting in my house, looking out over the Kalahari
33:47desert, thinking, wow, I really like doing this, but I like engineering too.
33:51And then all of a sudden realized, I could do both.
33:53I could, you know, continue working in Africa and do engineering stuff.
33:57But then I realized that all my sheep farming fantasies had meant that I hadn't studied
34:02as much engineering as I needed to know.
34:04So I came back to grad school.
34:06I was, again, applying to more than one place, but I was applying to MIT as well.
34:11And then my cat, this is when I was in Botswana in the Peace Corps, my cat had kittens
34:15on the other applications, so they were covered with blood stains, and I couldn't mail them in.
34:19So once again, you know, fate intervened, and I ended up at MIT again.
34:23So do you want to take one of these with you?
34:27No, I don't think so.
34:29Oh, yes.
34:32That's good.
34:35It's good.
34:37Yes.
34:38It's good?
34:39Yes.
34:40That's good.
34:41How would you take it off?
34:43Is it easy to take off?
34:45Yes.
34:46Nice.
34:47And also, it wasn't actually sealed.
34:50From here, it was open.
34:51And that's how I filled it up with water.
34:53And if you stood up and wore it, it would make, it would shut because it's flush against
34:59the back of your neck.
35:01But as soon as you start moving around, the 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 apron design.
35:16You can see what's at the back there.
35:19You can carry a 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, they're going to use it.
35:42And you have to design it in such a way that they are willing and motivated to buy it.
35:49Or nobody will buy it.
35:50That's a much more real interaction.
35:53And it's much more effective in the end.
35:55That's great.
36:00You like it?
36:05I do.
36:06My eyes are catching fire right here.
36:08It's like on the catwalks of London.
36:11I want it to go on the catwalks.
36:12I want to do the catwalks.
36:13Yes?
36:14I want to do the catwalks.
36:15I want to do the catwalks and the catwalks.
36:16I want to do the catwalks.
36:17I want to do the catwalks.
36:18It's no longer about appropriate technology.
36:20Although, maybe a baby does this not entertaining technology.
36:26What does the dressing look like?
36:37What do the dresses look like?
36:41He draws a typical dress.
36:45They were from America.
36:49Do they wear pants or dresses?
36:53Do they wear pants or dresses? Trousers.
36:57They wear dresses, right? Just like that.
37:01So like a big dress? Does it have pockets in it?
37:05Sometimes two pockets.
37:07So they already have pockets.
37:09No, but you can design something that
37:13can fit like a big pocket here.
37:15Right here.
37:17You can slide in a hole like this size bag.
37:23It's one of the options.
37:25People can have a choice to use it or not.
37:27The one thing that I like to do is do a lot of prototypes.
37:30So I like to build a lot of something.
37:32You build one and you don't have to build the whole thing.
37:34You build the part that you think is the problem part
37:36and you look at it.
37:38And then you even do a design review and have people talk about it
37:40and critique it.
37:42We can get some insight into what will people use
37:44and what will they not use.
37:46What 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 with trying to come up with design
37:52that's acceptable to the local people.
37:56And then there's the issue of cleaning it.
37:59How is it going to be cleaned?
38:00Is it going to get wet?
38:02Is it going to be comfortable?
38:04So it's quite complicated and I don't think any of us
38:06are kind of fashion designers or experts with clothes.
38:10Every technology has some technology transfer issues with it.
38:14And basically if people don't want it then it's not an appropriate technology.
38:20And so one hopes that you've developed something that meets a need
38:24and that it does it in a way that people will embrace.
38:27And so if that's the case then it's usually a question of some education
38:33to train people in the use of it.
38:35If you've designed a technology that solves a problem in a way that people won't use
38:40that's a problem because it's really hard to get significant behavioural changes
38:44and there's even a debate as to whether or not one should be doing that.
38:49Can you switch out?
38:51No.
38:54If I had another one at the back.
39:00You look like a Scotsman.
39:01Like a what?
39:02I don't know what it's called.
39:03You know why we've got the moth.
39:04Yeah, see?
39:05We need to find a way so that when we see all these seams
39:23that we don't weaken the plastic because that's where it's most likely to leak.
39:29You 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.
39:36While some technologies can be easily transferred from one country to another,
39:41often some solutions are very, very particular to a particular market
39:47and a particular country.
39:48I mean, as I said, this particular target community has no electricity
39:54and no fuel and very bad roads.
39:56And only, it's only for that reason, only because of those constraints
40:00are we looking at this bag.
40:01There's sort of this different aspect of appropriate technology,
40:05which means that technology itself can be understood by the people using it
40:10so that they can invent and innovate and evolve the technology themselves
40:14because nothing you design is perfect.
40:17And so if you make it so that people who are using it can really see
40:22how they could improve upon it, then that helps a lot.
40:25I'm tired because every time I make something, people say, this is a problem.
40:32Maybe I'm trying this for the last time.
40:36Because, yeah.
40:38I think this maybe can work, because I want to put this like this.
40:44And then I'll put the bag in.
40:46We'll put it also in the bag.
40:48But you can put it in the sand, and the sand can go through this.
40:52Yeah, so this will get the plastic bag inside.
40:55Because the first one I made, they say it's not comfortable,
40:59so people, they can't carry them.
41:01That is why maybe this will be narrow.
41:03So, because four liters is about somewhere here.
41:07So maybe six liters, but I want to put, to make it like this.
41:11Yeah, because I've tried many times and it's not working.
41:16Sometimes you become tired because you are thinking of something and it's not working.
41:24It's difficult.
41:25Maybe this will be the last one.
41:27Did you see that backpack design that had sort of like this chicken wire,
41:30and then there was a bag you slid into it?
41:32And somebody was out of it, yelling at this.
41:35One person liked it because it was like industrial,
41:37from an industrial design point, it was really cool.
41:39And it was like, but it rips the bag every time you put it in there.
41:42You know what I mean?
41:44And so I thought it was kind of funny.
41:46And that's actually an interesting technology
41:49because that's one that would have to be capitalized, well capitalized.
41:54I don't think that people are going to make those bags in villages with a little press
42:00because the quality has to be pretty high with those things.
42:03I mean, they have to be well sealed.
42:05You know, I'm really curious to see what Bernard and the plastic bags,
42:08what people are going to say.
42:09You know, that's one where we just can't even guess,
42:11will people think they're wonderful or will they think these guys are nuts?
42:15But that's also a product that I think it has to go in the field to be tested
42:18until you know very much.
42:20So we can hope.
42:22Try it.
42:24There we go.
42:26No, you have to learn how to put it.
42:29You must be able to do this.
42:32Accurately putting it here.
42:36Because that's the one that you can grab with.
42:40Eating is not just science.
42:42Eating is about to eat.
42:43You just pray.
42:45Get them and eat.
42:46Yeah.
42:47It's about to measure or whatever.
42:49It's about to eat.
42:51After I came out of the lecture hall and was looking down on this mass of people
42:56and there was such a buzz in the room.
42:57It was great.
42:58There was such excitement about everything that was happening.
43:01And it was, you know, it's just wonderful to see.
43:03Just to get that initial push is very, very difficult and challenging.
43:09But once you've got that done, then and only then are the local people given kind of a breath of fresh air
43:16and a new hope that they can actually get themselves out of the problems that they are in with their own hands.
43:24I hope it's a big privilege for me to work on this program with this group because my country needs it.
43:41I think it's nice and I'll take the technology back home.
43:45I think people will like it.
43:47I feel okay to be here and what I did, everything and people I met them here, they are okay.
43:54So I like here in America and also I like IDDS.
43:58You know, as we are now, I've got friends here and maybe the day after today we are going to finish.
44:06And I lost them, maybe I'll find them in the internet.
44:11But it's not, as we are here now, we can talk and we can go to different places.
44:15And that is the problem.
44:25IDDS
44:27Goodbye.
44:50We are on the sea.
44:55What is when you want to see that?
44:57Waves.
44:58Waves is taking us away.
45:01That is the meaning of the song.
45:03Amazing.
45:05Woo!
45:07Good morning.
45:09Good morning.
45:11We are sad, eh?
45:15We are leaving.
45:17I sum up what's been accomplished.
45:19You know, it's hard to say because I think,
45:21I mentioned this yesterday,
45:23that originally I thought what we would be producing is hardware.
45:27And, you know, there was certainly some of that.
45:29But I think what we produced more is an ethos,
45:34a commitment to work together,
45:36a beginning of something big, I think.
45:39Quiet, quiet, quiet.
45:41And so, it's not accomplished because it's just beginning.
45:46But it's, to me, that's one of the things that is remarkable about the month.
45:52I wasn't really expecting that as much, but by the end of it,
45:56there really was this commitment of the group to be a group working on this,
46:00to be a group sort of moving it forward.
46:03I think Amy understands and has shown me that the path is not,
46:09the path of better products and better inventions isn't towards more complexity.
46:13It's actually, you're striving for simplicity.
46:18And a lot of people have recognized that, but very few put it into practice, so.
46:23I think really maybe it was the beginning of a little bit of the revolution.
46:29So, I'm going to teach you some simple Swahili words.
46:47That will be very important when you come to Tanzania.
46:50So, you will say after me.
46:52Okay.
46:53So,
46:54So I want you to say like,
47:14Who want to try?
47:26Kata, kata, kata, kata, kata.
47:28Kati bukata akati akati kati kati bukata akati kati kati akati
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