Design
that Matters
Summary:
February 20, 2001
Guest this
week: Amy Smith
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Week 2. Feb 20 |
Real World Projects: how it happens? (Tuesday) |
Review NGO and project
case studies. Brainstorm on design concepts. |
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Lecture |
Amy Smith |
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Assessment |
Write-ups on Interests and
Problem Domains |
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Readings |
Baygen case study, water
drum case study, malnutrition band case study. |
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Amy Smith has been a grad student at MIT for 10 years and
spent 4 years working with the Peace Corps. She did beekeeping work at the
ministry of agriculture. She has always focused on engineering design for
developing countries. She has developed connections with many non-governmental
organizations during this period.
Amy says this is a good time at be working with such
development-related technologies, for two reasons: MIT is now much more
supportive of what has been perceived as “low-tech” research as it wants to
expand to global problems. Also as communication access has improved everywhere
it is far easier to make contact and have interactions with NGO groups and
communities abroad. Hence she now teaches a undergrad class for the last 3
years, where student teams work on such problems with local and remote
communities.
She has been working on several projects including
developing medical equipment for diagnosis in remote areas. Contagious diseases
like TB and Cholera requires empowering local clinics to prevent the spread
more easily. She has been developing simple TB Testing kits and small labs.
Amy says going form ideas to prototypes is only part of the
challenge, the greater challenge is going to products. She emphasized that there are many prototypes,
but very few make it to successful products. This requires much more than just
innovation. So there is a real tension between innovative or appropriate
research vs. providing affordable products.
She defined ”Appropriate Technology” as one that makes good
use of local resources an works effectively in local regions. If it is not
produced locally, then one must understand the supply chain in distributing it
effectively there. For example it must be robust enough to be transported there
safely.
Appropriate tech does not necessarily mean “low-tech” … it
can have the same functionality as high-tech products, in fact in some cases
high-tech solutions are necessary to leap-frog a certain long-standing problem
domain, however new designs are needed to fill the right niche appropriately.
What does high-tech mean – high performing, complex? This
can be misleading in developing design solutions.
Why is it that certain simple innovations don’t arise
sooner? People are not always looking at particular problems in the right
manner. They don’t always draw parallels between other fields that may help.
Developing new technologies for a specialized locale. Have to remember that
information/communications are much more fragmented in remote areas of the
world and it takes a long time to spread new form of technology, even if the
design is a good one. In some ways,
this is a good feedback mechanism: if your design survives the diffusion
process in remote areas, it is a good one.
Why certain practices are adopted in some areas and not in
others. Biogas as an example:
generation of methane from cow manure, able to use it for cooking stoves. Successfully adopted in India, no one will use
it in Africa. And not a resistance to
touching the manure; it is used to build houses in Africa too. Interesting questions of culture,
attitudes. Also noted, technologies
which succeed in Asia, but not in Africa.
Different levels of population pressure, land availability, trends
towards urbanization.
Two types of processes in appropriate technology design: a)
see a problem, find a solution; b) have a solution, look for a problem that it
can address. Consider frame of mind -
connecting things that you see, fragments of information which can become an
integrated solution. Example of water
filtration mechanism which used a mile of string. Tedious to wind this up.
Then find that Buddhist monks use cloth, so move to five layers of cloth
and no string. Then learn that iron
filings remove arsenic from water; add these in and have a nice water
filtration device. Strong encouragement
for interdisciplinary - survey as many fields as possible. How to capture it all, catalogue it? Mentioned NASA tech briefs on non flammable
plastics. But how to make so much
knowledge easy to access? Libraries,
archives, info retrieval mechanisms.
Discussion of the incubator for water quality testing in
Nepal. Know that samples needed to be
held at 37 degrees Celsius for 24 hours. The key innovation was finding a suitable
chemical, which melts at this temperature.
When considering chemicals prescreened - this is not harmful, toxic,
mutagenic or teratogenic. May be a mild
irritant, but can be disposed of safely.
[Amy has requested not reveal the name of the chemical used at this
point, as she is in the process of making this a commercial product]. For the
device, one heats it up on a stove in Tupperware container, interior which hold
test tubes is aluminum. Maintains 37
degrees C for the specified time.
Approximate cost (material components only) under $50. Looking at ways to reduce costs still
further. Question of margin of error
+/- 1 degree C? How to be sure of
accuracy of test? Also question of
reuses - crystalline structure of the frozen chemical; cannot freeze and melt
repeatedly without some deterioration.
Possible use of thremochromic inks to gauge lifespan of device. Still an improvement over more expensive,
heavier incubators that are prone to malfunction in field over time as
well. Always an issue with failure
modes - example of plows in Zimbabwe - how to make bolts break before the blade
bends.
Turn to discussion of community involvement - how to make
the technology relevant and integrated in local context. Example of grain mill in Senegal. Very popular item, especially among women’s
groups, who spend up to four hours a day pounding grain. Makes this tedious task easier; possibility
of engaging in other endeavors with time saved using technology. Three varieties of grain mills: a) roller
mills - problem - hard to maintain tolerances, surface finish must be precise;
b) plate, or burr, mill - problem - abrasive surfaces get worn down over time,
expensive to replace and orders take months to arrive at village; c) hammer
mill - problem -screen mesh sifts flour, if damaged by a stone, or other
foreign object, the mill is useless.
Same issue as plate mill - expensive imported parts that take months to
get there. Chose to work on the hammer
mill. Looked at flow, pressures inside
the mill, found proper geometry for the outlet, and switched to a lawn mower
style blade which did not require pillow block bearings and ran with a smaller
motor. Worked closely with local
blacksmith, an excellent engineer in his own right, to build the revised hammer
mill and generated excitement in community (his family in particular) for this
new device. At the end realized a 25%
reduction in cost to build relative to traditional hammer mill and it now takes
½ as much time to grind the same amount of grain.
Issue raised of traditional life ways - it is good that
women are moving away from traditional methods of handling grain (mortar and
pestle) ? Example of a woman who would
not sell all her tomatoes to one person, because then she would have nothing
left to sell. How to read people’s
desires and help them develop appropriate technology to solve for those
needs. Also, what is appropriate
documentation for appropriate technology?
How to explain to future builder that the placement of the hole was
important. Problem of confusing
mechanical failure with technical failure, if plans are not clear. Some people prefer to learn by show and
tell, others by reading. In any case,
good to leave room for future improvements.
It is indeed hard to design appropriate solutions sitting at MIT in
Cambridge without exposure on the field. The best way to learn in our context
at MIT is to listen to people who have been in the field and done it
before. Without practitioners in the
classroom, who would imagine that paper wasps build nests in computers in
Malawi!
Notes by Barbara Mac and Nitin Sawhney, Feb 20