Global Village Project

Agricultural entrepreneurs

Indian music brings aid

Fall 2010 | Issue 4

an MIT International Development Publication

Table of Contents

4 On the wings of song A fl utist’s melody carries aid halfway around the world.

5 Seeing Eye to Eye Inspired to learn and to become involved

6 Spaghetti and Rice Journal entry from a summer testing charcoal stoves in Nicaragua

8 iHouse A look at the living-learning community focused on international development

10 Entrepreneurs for Development Two Legatum fellows focus on improving agriculture in two different ways

14 The Global Village Project Sustainability is the key to success

Cover: Shayna Harris (left) and Gustavo Setrini (middle) meeting

with family farmers in Paraguay. Photo credit: Shayna Harris.

5: A Unite for Sight clinic in Ghana.

6: The charcoal stove resting on top of a traditional adobe stove

used for burning wood.

10: MIT Sloan students visit produce growers who sell to large

supermarkets in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as a part of the student run

course Agriculture and Innovation.

14: Dhaval Adjodah working on a new rickshaw prototype in

Guwahati, India.

Letter from the Editor

The presence of international development at MIT is growing bigger and bigger! The staff of Komaza has constantly found that we hear about more projects than there is room to feature in our pages. Our readers have told us over and over that you want more stories. It’s exciting for us to bring you two issues for the fi rst time this semester! You hold one in your hands; the other will be printed in December, and it will have a focus on education.

In this issue, we’re featuring a story of how a student became involved in international development due to the stories from another student. Graduating undergraduates may be interested the article about Legatum fellows for next year. And for a fun cultural fi x, read about and listen to the beautiful sounds of the Indian bansuri.

Sincerely,

Bina

staff

Editor in ChiefBina Choi ’11

Staff Rebecca Gianotti GHannah Gramling ‘13Sudha Guttikonda ‘13Brianna Jones ‘14Emily Suter ‘11

Contributing AuthorAmelia Servi G

Art DirectorChristina Yung

PublisherMass Web Printing Co., Inc.

Advisory BoardGeoff Groesbeck - MIT

International Development

Initiative

John Essigmann - Professor;

Faculty participant of THAIROP

Jed Wartman - Assistant Dean

for Student Activities

Ali Wyne ’08

Special thanks to:MIT Energy InitiativeCai GoGwilt

6

5

10

14

Photo: Amrita Karambelkar

Photo: Amelia Servi

Photo: Shayna Harris

Photo: Gwyndaf Jones

komaza | fall 2010

On September 18th, 2010, a crowd in MIT’s Kresge auditorium was carried

away by the song of one of the great maestros of contemporary India, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, on the bansuri, or bamboo fl ute.

The Pandit is well known for perform-ing carnatic music, the oldest genre of Indian classical music, but he has also rede-fi ned the bansuri to the meet the needs of a changing modern era. In fact, he has toured the world playing a fusion of Indo-Western jazz pieces along with classical carnatic, bridging the past with the present and erasing the barrier between time and music.

Born in 1938 in Allahabad, India, Hari Prasad Chaurasia was originally destined to become a wrestler, like his father. But by a twist of fate, at the age of fi fteen, he discovered classical music from his neigh-bor and began taking secret lessons. Now, almost fi fty-seven years later, the bansuri is an instrument that not only inspired him, but is also a vehicle through which he has inspired thousands around the world.

The rare chance to listen to the Pandit perform at Kresge was sponsored as a fundraiser for the Boston-MIT Chapter of AID, the Association for India’s Develop-ment. AID’s mission is to raise awareness of developmental issues and to support service efforts in India. Originally started at the University of Maryland in 1991, AID has expanded to thirty-six chapters across the United States, with over a thousand volunteers and a hundred current projects. Projects have ranged from rural food devel-

In a small room off of a village church, Amrita Karambelkar ’11 handed a

Ghanaian woman her fi rst pair of glasses. After testing her visual acuity on an “E” chart, the woman had been screened and diagnosed for prescription glasses. When Amrita saw the excitement on the woman’s face, she once again became glad that she had stumbled upon this opportunity through a stroke of luck.

Amrita’s journey to Ghana began in her sophomore year when she opened the spring 2009 issue of Komaza. Her interest was caught by an article by Yuri Hanada about Unite for Sight, a program that runs community outreach clinics in India, Ghana, and Honduras to screen patients for eye diseases, but after reading it, Amrita placed the idea in the back of her mind. That is, until, by sheer chance, she ended up work-ing with Yuri during a summer internship. She knew she wanted to do something healthcare-related over the next IAP, but wanted more patient interaction than she thought she would fi nd through an MGH internship. Upon hearing fi rsthand about Yuri’s unique experiences, Amrita applied to the Unite for Sight program and was accepted.

After extensive fundraising under Yuri’s guidance, Amrita raised enough money to travel to Ghana for the program. There, she worked with native optometrists and opthomologists to hold eye clinics for villages all over the country. Because undergraduates were not qualifi ed to actu-ally screen and diagnose patients, they were placed in charge of the actual system operations of the clinic, which meant taking forms, conducting preliminary eye tests, and dispensing eyeglasses. Each day, the Unite for Sight team traveled for up to 2 hours from their home base in Accra to rural villages with limited healthcare access. Once there, they would set up the clinic in whatever room was available, whether it was in a community center, a church, or even a home, and treated up to 150

opment to education of underprivileged children, as well as disaster response such as fl ood relief. The proceeds from Septem-ber’s concert will be used to fund many of these exciting projects.

The central goal of AID is to develop a long term, sustainable relationship with its partner organizations in India, such as SAATHI. Volunteers of AID follow-up with past projects as much as possible, regularly

patients each day. Though the team had to work effi -

ciently to cycle through a high volume of patients, they still had a chance to experience the Ghanaian culture. They felt extremely welcomed wherever they trav-eled, and women in the villages often made them traditional meals as a thank you. “I loved the simple way of life I lived there,” Amrita says with a sigh. “The people were incredibly friendly and genuinely happy despite having little by Western standards.” Taking breaks, she says, is not seen as lazy but simply as part of the lifestyle, and she was impressed by the level of family support present. Patients rarely visited the clinic without an accompanying family mem-ber, and even strangers really helped each other a lot, she recalls.

However, the most powerful part of the trip was defi nitely accomplishing the mission of the program by providing eye care to those who needed it. In many cases, the Unite for Sight team was able to remove cataracts to completely restore the sight of their patients. “It was unbelievable,” Amrita says, still awed months later. “People had eyes completely clogged up for years and

visiting past project sites to check progress. This past summer, seven volunteers from the AID-Boston chapter have spent all or part of their summer working with partners in India. If you are interested in volunteer-ing with AID-Boston, or simply want to fi nd out more information, visit http://www.aid-boston.org/ or e-mail info@aidboston.org.

yet they were clearable… It was amazing to see them see again.”

Unfortunately, there is much more that can be done as far as eye care in this region. Many patients that came into the clinics had already lost the majority of their vision, which could have been saved by earlier intervention.

Furthermore, couching (i.e., a patient’s use of a needle to try to get a cataract out themselves) often led to more damage to the patient’s vision, and these patients generally could not be helped by the clinic. Some patients also were also wary of the program because they believed their eyes would be replaced with cat eyes during sur-gery, a myth that Amrita frequently had to dispel. Therefore, in addition to expanding scope of villages the program reaches, she explains that expanding eye care education is equally important in these communities.

Along with promoting this expansion, Amrita hopes to help improve the Unite for Sight program by contributing her feedback and helping to recruit future volunteers and members to the MIT chapter. “This was a really amazing experience,” she states. “It taught me all about how health care works in foreign places and about how important it is that the system caters to the people there.” Through her experience catering to the optical needs to patients across Ghana, Amrita is helping to create the program’s vision for the future.

On the wings of songA fl utist’s melody carries aid halfwayaround the worldby sudha guttikonda

Some call it the voice of a bird. Others simply listen, mesmerized by the light fl itters and delicate arpeggios of the instrument, slowly falling in love with Indian classical music. To me, the speedy fl ourishes and undulating melody emulate fl ying.

In the true spirit of Komaza, an article inspires one MIT student to take action.

Seeing Eye to Eyeby emily suter

Crash Course on Carnatic Music

Carnatic music is the oldest genre of music in India, dating back to the seventh cen-tury. Having strong religious origins, it is believed to be descended from the Devas and Devis (Hindu Gods). Today, Carnatic music represents human efforts to simulate the sounds of animals and nature through keen observation and perception.

In the past, learning the art of carnatic music was an intensive feat, in which a stu-dent had to live with the teacher in order to master the music. In fact, until the 17th or 18th centuries, carnatic music was not even written down, but passed down orally from teacher to disciple. Nowadays, it is notated in the Indic solfège system, which is strikingly similar to the Western solfège. But instead of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti, in India, it is sa-re-ga-ma-pa-da-ni.

The soul of carnatic music is in improvisation and vocal interpretation. Carnatic music is usually performed with a small ensemble, with the principle musician being a vocalist. Accompanying instruments commonly include the violin, mridangam (Indian drum), and tambura (Indian string instrument). The bansuri is only seen in a select few ensembles. Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, a soloist on the bansuri, has truly revolutionized its standing within carnatic music.

Photo: Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Photo: Amrita KarambelkarSpring 2009 | Premiere Issue

an MIT International Development Publication

¡Vámanos a Peru!

Microfi nancing 101

Learn Swahili

“Amrita’s journey to Ghana began in her sophomore year when she opened the spring 2009 issue of Komaza.”

4 komaza | fall 2010 5komaza | fall 2010

Spaghetti and Riceby amelia servi

Spring 2010 welcomed the new D-Lab: Energy class to the cohort of MIT opportunities in international development. Sixteen students partnered with students at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi to understand and address applications of alternative energy technology in developing countries.

After surveying various technologies, the class traveled to Nicaragua over spring break to identify potential projects with community partners. Numerous teams noticed an interest among local community members and NGO leaders in D-Lab’s own Fuel from the Fields charcoal program that generates charcoal from agricultural waste, but noted a lack of widespread infrastructure to cook with this sustainable and cleaner-burning fuel.

Charged with the mission of equipping newfound Nicaraguan friends with the ability to cook with charcoal, a team of students developed a low-cost charcoal stove that integrates into existing wood stoves. By the end of the class, the team had developed multiple working prototypes. To further test and disseminate their design, team member Amelia Servi ’10 spent part of her summer in rural Nicaragua.

— Steve Ray, low-cost charcoal stove mentor

Standing in Elia’s kitchen, I ner-vously watched a pot, hoping that

the water would boil. It had taken me more than a week to convince Elia, my hostess in the small rural town of Sabana Grande, to try cooking with the charcoal stove. As I kept taking off the lid to see if the water was boiling, Elia continued going about the rest of the dinner preparation on her wood stove. Of course, the water boiled eventually. Elia gave a little look as if she were pleasantly surprised, then without delay, put in some spaghetti and soon it was ready to eat.

When I fi rst arrived in Sabana Grande, I had assumed that the women would not hesitate to test the stove. They had expressed a great interest in charcoal cooking when D-lab last vis-ited during spring break, being aware

that charcoal produces less smoke than wood, making it better for their health. They were also excited at the prospect of being able to make their

own charcoal so that they could spend less money and time gathering and buying wood.

However, interest in the abstract, and interest in inconvenient and uncer-tain experimenting, are two different things. So when I fi rst enthusiastically suggested to Elia that we try cooking with one of the charcoal stoves, I was met with skepticism. “Later,” Elia sug-gested.

So, having no other choice, I asked if I could watch her regular cook-ing instead. She was much happier with that option. Over the next few days, I would periodically ask if we could cook a dish with the charcoal stove, only to be met with a smile and a promise of later. Part of the chal-lenge, I soon discovered, was that the charcoal stove was designed to be placed on top of the existing wood stoves, a choice we had made to help

integrate it into the existing kitchen. However, the wood stove is in almost constant use during a normal day, so testing the charcoal stove would cause a major disturbance to the regular rhythm of cooking.

Realizing this, I gained Elia’s permission to bring three adobe bricks into the kitchen. I arranged them so that they resembled the top of the wood stove and placed the charcoal stove on top to test it there. Elia seemed happy with this and suggested that for dinner that day we could cook spaghetti using the charcoal while she continued cooking the other dishes using wood.

After the spaghetti success, Elia was much more interested in cooking

with the charcoal. The next day she decided that we should make rice and coffee with the stove, and again it went well. Each day for the next week, we cooked one or two dishes with the

charcoal stove, eventually moving the

charcoal stove to sit on the wood stove as it had been designed.

Elia is a member of a women’s group, Las Mujeres Solares de Tota-

galpa, and at the next women’s meeting, Elia chatted with some of the other women about the stove. She mentioned that it did a very good job making spaghetti and rice. A few of the women were interested and they asked me if they could have stoves.

Over the next two weeks, more and more women made stoves and started cooking with them. I was happy to see that the women were quite adept at making the stoves, a four-hour process that involved cutting, bending, and securing a piece of sheet metal into a basket that could then be fi lled with charcoal over which a pot could sit. The new women also talked enthusiastically about the stove and soon, all of the women in the group wanted one.

Standing in Elia’s kitchen, I nervously watched a pot, hoping that the water would boil. It had taken me more than a week to convince Elia, my hostess in the small rural town of Sabana Grande, to try cooking with the charcoal stove.

After several more weeks, fi fteen of the women had made stoves

and had taken them home with a bag of charcoal to try them out. It was nice seeing them warm up to this new way of cooking, and I collected their many ideas for improving the stove.

I think some of the initial hesi-tance to experiment was due to the incorrect assumption of the women that a charcoal fi re was not strong enough to cook all of their normal dishes. This made them hesitant, despite knowing the health, economic and ecological benefi ts of using Fuel from the Fields charcoal.

Throughout my time in Sabana Grande, it was a challenge to experi-ment and learn from failed attempts while also trying to convince the women that the stove was good for use. In the end, my most signifi cant contribution was not delivering a fi nal product to the community members of Sabana Grande, but instead introduc-ing a prototype that could be further developed in the future.

6 komaza | fall 2010 7komaza | fall 2010

Inside iHouseby sudha guttikonda

SAN-OHsteve white, mary masterman, claudia espinoza

In Spring 2010, iHouse pursued the Yunus “Clean Hands” Chal-

lenge in the IDEAS Competition. Led by Claudia Espinoza ‘10,

Steve White ‘11, and Mary Masterman ‘10, iHouse entered “SAN-

OH,” the idea of creating homemade hand sanitizer from excess

alcohol and natural aloe gel. iHouse received a Public Service Cen-

ter grant for the work, which sponsored Steve White ‘11 and Mary

Masterman ‘10 to travel to La Vaquita, Mexico over the summer of

2010 to test out the project. Current iHouse freshmen are building

upon the project and will travel to La Vaquita again over IAP or

the summer of the coming year.

EWB-MITmarisa simmons

Marisa Simmons ‘13 worked with the EWB-MIT (Engineers Without

Borders) team this past summer in Ddegeya, Uganda on water

treatment options. She experimented with several water fi ltration

systems, including sand fi ltration and SODIS, a solar-powered

disinfection system. Marisa also looked into harnessing the

antibacterial properties of a local plant, Moringa seeds, for water

sanitation. In addition, Marisa and the EWB team built a rainwater

harvesting catchment that had the capacity to hold 10,000 liters!

Before they left, they also installed solar panels onto a local

health clinic to provide electricity for basic diagnostic equipment

and good lighting to support longer operating hours.

Medic Kitshelen dcouto

Helen DCouto ‘12 spent this past IAP in Quito, Ecaudor, working

with Jose Gomez-Marquez (D-Lab Health at MIT) to build medical

kits that foster the innovation of health care in remote settings.

The kits included a “puzzle” piece diagnostic tool which aided

doctors and nurses in piecing together blood glucose and urine

analyses. Helen also worked on a drug delivery kit, building a

low-cost bike pump and rubber band nebulizer. Her team pre-

sented the toolkits and fi ndings at a local university, building a

new MIT partnership in the process.

Freshman Year Experienceyiliu zhang, tiantian zhou, sudha guttikonda

Every iHouse freshman has the opportunity to participate in the

Freshman Year Experience, which is a chance for fi rst-timers to

get directly involved in a development project. Last year’s fresh-

men, Yiliu Zhang ‘13, Tiantian Zhou ‘13, and Sudha Guttikonda ‘13,

travelled in the summer of 2010 to Shenzhen, China to work with

migrant workers suffering from occupational health diseases. With

the support of the NGO “Little Bird,” they developed a documen-

tary depicting the struggles of many migrant workers, as well as

an informational brochure and playing card comics containing

warnings for the workers against common factory hazards.

A Semester Abroadkathleen li

Kathy Li ‘10 spent her junior year spring semester in Uttarkand,

India, working with public health in rural areas with CHIRAG, the

Central Himalayan Rural Action Group. Kathy worked off of a PSC

Internship to promote awareness in the local villages about Hepa-

titis A and the benefi ts of boiling water. In addition, Kathy helped

create action plans for the facilitation of village health commit-

tees and innovated on a pedal-powered washing machine, a past

D-Lab project. Made completely out of galvanized sheet metal and

rickshaw parts, the handmade washing machine was up and run-

ning by the time she left!

Engineering Treadle Pumpsmary masterman

In the summer of 2009, Mary Masterman ‘10 worked with ACREST

(African Center for Renewable Energies and Sustainable Technolo-

gies) in Bangang, Cameroon to work on the development of a

treadle pump for low-cost irrigation. A treadle pump is a manual

pump to transport water from the source to the fi eld, useful in the

dry season where there is a common lack of water for crops. In addi-

tion, Mary taught local citizens general computer skills, such as using

Picasa, Gmail, Google, and Sketchup. She also innovated on corn

shellers, another past D-Lab project. These were a hit in the local

community, with over 20 of them selling by the time she left.Research and Developmentsophia mian

In Summer 2009, Sophia Mian ‘10 worked at the L.V. Prasad Eye

Institute in Hyderabad, India. The L.V. Prasad Eye Institute is the

leading hospital in Andhrapradesh, India, providing 50% of its

care for free. Sophia worked on a transportation device for storing

limbal stem cell grafts so that they could reach rural health care

centers without degenerating. Limbal stem cell grafts allow the

regeneration of a portion of the eye without an eye transplant.

Sophia’s transportation device was successful as a prototype and

expanded access of this treatment option to the rural parts of

Andhrapradesh.

Founded in 2005 by Raja Bobbili ‘08, iHouse, the International House for Global Leader-

ship, is MIT’s fi rst living and learning community. Bringing together a group of twenty-

one students who have a deep sense of commitment to international development work,

iHouse allows them to nurture each other in the exploration of critical world issues.

Students that live in iHouse have the benefi t of bouncing ideas off of each other, working

together on development projects, or sparking that lightbulb moment in late night chats

in the corridors. The result? In the past three years, iHouse students have worked on a

diverse spectrum of development projects, ranging from the engineering of tools for the

developing world to working with international policy.

To get a taste for what iHouse students have done, read about these exciting projects:

8 komaza | fall 2010 9komaza | fall 2010

Phot

o: S

hayn

a Har

ris

Photo: Dennis Szeszko

10 komaza | fall 2010 11komaza | fall 2010

Shayna HarrisSustainable Agriculture

Shayna Harris seems to overfl ow with energy and enthusi-asm, especially when talking about the role of agricultural trade in development. To ask about her work is to be on the receiving end of a fi re hose of technical information about diversifi ed market strategies, skewed trading powers and lost market opportunities. Five minutes of conversation is enough to be convinced of both her dedication to increasing income generation for poor rural farm-ers and the depth of her understanding of the issues involved.

Shayna and two business partners are creating a company called Supply Change, which aims to partner with farmers in developing countries to improve their livelihoods through sustain-able agriculture. This work builds on knowledge Shayna acquired through several years spent with the non-profi t organization Oxfam working on their Make Trade Fair campaign; traveling to farming communities in Central America, Mexico and Ethiopia; and as a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil, studying the effects of farmer choice

and power on livelihoods. She has worked closely with farmers to learn about their agricultural methods and what kind of

support they need.

A large part of the credit goes to a cam-pus atmosphere that encourages out-of-the-box thinking and students who are willing to fi nd the best solution to a problem, even if it takes time to develop.

One major problem for small-scale farmers in South America is the limited shelf life of many crops, especially fruit. A large proportion of highly perishable food grown in developing countries goes to waste before it can generate any economic benefi t – up to half of the produce in some locations, though good data on this problem are scarce. Together with students in her 15.375 Develop-ment Ventures class, Shayna is researching techniques and tech-nologies that can be used to preserve different fruits, for example

by drying, or to process the fruit locally into a higher value product like jam. Preserving fruit will enable more of it to reach the market and substantially reduce wasted income.

Supply Change also hopes to help farmers by improving coor-dination of crop production. The company partners are developing a cell phone application whereby farmers can send weekly text messages detailing how much food they have produced, how much has sold and for what price. The information would be received by a local cooperative manager and could be used to better coordinate farming activities. For example, farmers could collectivize their crops to negotiate for better prices, or manage their growing schedules to better match production to changing market demand.

The Supply Change team will be conducting pilot testing of the cell phone application with two farming cooperatives in Para-guay over January 2011. They also plan to bring the results of their research on fruit preservation, so they can workshop ideas with the farmers and collaboratively develop methods that will best suit these communities.

Shayna has nothing but praise for the environment she found at MIT. “I was super excited about this program but it’s been beyond amazing,” she says. A large part of the credit goes to a campus atmosphere that encourages out-of-the-box thinking and students who are willing to fi nd the best solution to a problem, even if it takes time to develop. “The companies that are the most successful in their impact are the ones that will sit in a place of uncertainty, [not rushing into a solution,] but be really driven by a certain cause in their hearts and what they want to achieve.” Supply Change certainly seems to have all the drive it needs to suc-ceed.

For more information, go to: www.supplychangenow.com

Dennis SzeszkoOrchids for Income

In some respects, Dennis Szeszko is not your typical entrepreneur. A self-taught orchid specialist, he spent fi ve years employed by the Mexican government’s agricultural department, conducting fi eld research and compiling an inventory of native orchid species. In the state surrounding Mexico City alone, Dennis found

Shayna Harris and Dennis Szeszko are both current Legatum Fellows and second year students in the

Sloan School of Management’s MBA program.

Entrepreneurs for Developmentby rebecca gianotti

around 250 species, which he says represent about 20% of the total diversity in Mexican orchids. The results of this work are documented in a book set to be published early next year, which he hopes will be both a scientifi c resource and a beautiful illustra-tion of native Mexican plants.

Dennis developed a plastic matrix that acts like scaff olding for orchid plants, enabling them to be grown without soil.

But in a demonstration of pure entrepreneurial spirit, Dennis has found a way to turn his knowledge of these stunning fl owers into a business opportunity for rural Mexican farmers. Exotic fl ow-ers like orchids have a high profi t margin, and with so many local species to work with, international orchid trade could be a viable form of income generation. But only a small fraction of fl owers currently sold in the US comes from Mexico, partly because very little work has been done to investigate which species could be commercialized and how to get them into the market.

A stumbling block is the fact that fl owers can be transported across international borders but soil cannot. Traditional methods for growing orchids require them to be transported in the soil in

Orchid photo: Dennis Szeszko

Market photo (right): Shayna Harris12 komaza | fall 2010 13komaza | fall 2010

which they are grown, prohibiting importa-tion into the US. Dennis developed a plastic matrix that acts like scaffolding for orchid plants, enabling them to be grown without soil.

The drawback of using these plastic substrates is that they don’t hold any mois-ture or slowly fi lter water through to plant roots like soil does. So when a plant grow-ing on this plastic substrate is watered, it will be instantaneously drenched and then subject to complete drying, which would mean death for many plants. Dennis’ work identifi ed that a native genus, the Barkeria orchid of western Mexico, has adapted to similarly extreme climatic conditions and is perfectly suited to growing on the plastic.

To commercialize his work, Dennis started a venture-backed company based in Mexico. The company is currently growing several different hybrid varieties of Barkeria orchids on 2 acres of land, to test market demand for orchid color and size, and is working towards patents for their new varieties. The fi rst fl owers will be ready for sale by the end of this year and, if the pilot

program is successful, the company hopes to eventually scale up their investment to about 20 acres.

Dennis’ long-term objective is for his company to continue growing orchids to the seedling stage but then contract local farmers to raise the seedlings for market. The fl owers would be bought back by the company at a pre-determined price, providing farmers with guaranteed future income and obviating the company’s need to purchase more land. In this way, Dennis hopes that capital-izing on this beautiful natural resource will provide long-term eco-nomic benefi ts for low-income communities.

Legatum Center Fellowships

The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship was founded at MIT in 2007 on the belief that economic progress in low-income countries comes from entre-preneurship and innovations that empower ordinary citizens. The Center administers a fellowship program for MIT graduate students who demonstrate the potential to create innovative, sustainable, for-profi t enterprises that promote prosperity in low-income countries and who are committed to implementing their business plans upon graduation.

While many Legatum Fellows are students in the Sloan School of Management, the fellowship is open to students from all academic and professional disciplines. Current and former fellows have included PhD students in Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning, and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology.

Left: Shayna (left) and fellow MIT student Gustavo

Setrini (middle) visited farmers in Calle 3 community,

Paraguay, during January 2010. Farmers provided a

tour of their land, where they grow everything from

citrus fruits to corn to manioc root, to sell at the local

market. Photo credit: Shayna Harris.

Right: Barkeria orchids grow on the soil-free plastic

substrate Dennis developed in his company’s shade

house in Mexico. Photo credit: Dennis Szeszko.

Their prototype rickshaw is currently being road-tested in Guwahati, while the design is being further enhanced by par-ticipants in this semester’s Cycle Ventures class. Dhaval remains involved with the project, helping to machine parts for new prototypes as the design continues evolv-ing, and hopes to stay connected with the project until he graduates. The Global Vil-lage Project’s support has not only allowed Dhaval to maintain a longer term engage-ment with this project, but also helped Gwyn to maintain seamless continuity in the project between academic years.

Another way the Global Village Project is hoping to support project continuity is by encouraging graduate student involvement. Masters students frequently carry out a development-oriented project for their the-sis research, which could potentially be con-tinued by another student as demonstrated by Dhaval’s work with the rickshaw design. Meanwhile, the length of time required to undertake a PhD thesis means that these students can participate in projects for several years, even if their involvement is at lower intensity.

Anna Agarwal, a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, can attest to the benefi ts of such involvement. Her thesis research focuses on energy policy and she has long been interested in development work. “Graduate students fi nd these projects interesting because the prob-lems are challenging, but at the same time you’re helping people and get the oppor-tunity to positively impact an underserved community,” she says.

Anna took part in a scoping mission over January 2010 that was sponsored by the Global Village Project. With four other graduate students, Anna traveled to Ranikhet in northern India to gather data on local needs and existing efforts to meet those needs. Ranikhet was chosen as the location for this scoping mission because it is home to a non-governmental organiza-tion (NGO) that already partners with MIT through D-Lab, which illustrates the type of resource-sharing that the Global Village Project hopes to promote.

While in India, the students spoke with residents of nearby villages, learned from local NGOs about existing work in the area, and documented all that they observed regarding access to health, education, water, energy and information technology. The result was documentation on potential avenues for new development projects, which can be a valuable launching pad for

other students wishing to initiate work in that region.

Anna returned to MIT with a big ques-tion weighing on her mind: Despite sig-nifi cant growth in the Indian economy and energy infrastructure, why has there been limited progress in rural electrifi cation? She spent the spring semester conducting her own research and then returned to India over the summer with support from the Global Village Project. Anna met with gov-ernment offi cials and energy entrepreneurs in New Delhi and Hyderabad to learn more about the challenges facing rural electricity services.

Anna has now framed a research proposal based on her information gather-ing and the Global Village Project team is helping her search for a faculty mentor. Although she acknowledges that her prog-ress may be slow, Anna is confi dent that her efforts over the remaining years of her program will yield long-term results.

And lasting results are, after all, the goal of all development activities. With the Global Village Project’s support, it is hoped that more projects will be able to achieve long-term success.

All faculty and students interested in opportunities with the Global Village Project are encouraged to email globalvillage@mit.edu or check out http://engineering.mit.edu/about/initiatives/globalvillageproject.php for more information.

Photo: Anna A

garwal

Requirements for funding support from the Global Village Project:

Strong faculty involvement

Multi-year project

Engineering-related

Continuous community partnership

Adequate documentation for student handover

Student involvement is conditional on taking at least one class related to the project

Classes and research commitments often prohibit students from returning

to the same locations repeatedly. When new students take over a project, knowledge can be lost if there isn’t suffi cient documenta-tion of the project history.

The Global Village Project aims to help projects achieve continuity by tapping into one of MIT’s most valuable resources: its incredibly talented and experienced faculty. With Global Village projects, a faculty member is placed at the helm of a develop-ment project in order to ensure continuous engagement between MIT and in-country partners, and can also facilitate knowledge transfer between outgoing and incoming students.

There are several ways that the Global Village Project team offers support for

faculty-led projects. They can be a network-ing resource to link faculty members and potential community partners, or match interested students to appropriate projects. Where a faculty member already has a com-munity partner and a well-defi ned devel-opment project, the Global Village Project can provide funding for travel, in-country expenses and materials.

This support will enable more faculty to embark on development work, for example by assessing how their research could be adapted for a development con-text. It will also allow projects that begin in the classroom to extend beyond the academic year. Many courses offered at MIT, exemplifi ed by the various D-Lab classes, get students working on faculty-led devel-opment projects. But after the semester

fi nishes it’s tough for students to continue their involvement and return to the same communities.

Dhaval Adjodah, a senior in Phys-ics, spent this past summer working on the fi rst project to have made this jump from campus to the fi eld and back again with support from the Global Village Project. Dhaval took D-Lab’s Development class in Fall 2009 and was looking for more long-term project work when he met Gwyndaf Jones, the instructor for D-Lab’s Cycle Ventures course. Gwyn had started a part-nership with Rickshaw Bank, a microfi nance organization in India that was looking for engineers to help create a lighter, stronger and more effi cient rickshaw design.

Over Spring 2010, Dhaval worked with Gwyn on some improvements to the existing rickshaw design. Then with funding support from the Global Village Project and the Legatum Center, Dhaval traveled over summer to Guwahati, in northeastern India. He was joined by Gwyn and they worked on refi ning their design. Four iterations later, the pair came up with a rear frame proto-type that weighs only 45% of the original mass.

The Global Village Projectby rebecca gianotti

The School of Engineering’s new initiative, the Global Village Project, was motivated by one of the biggest challenges in any development undertaking: project continuity. Rarely does a project succeed without sustained effort on behalf of the partners both in the local community and at MIT. But project continuity can be extremely diffi cult for students to achieve.

Photo: Gw

yndaf Jones

14 komaza | fall 2010 15komaza | fall 2010

Left: Dhaval sits on the prototype rickshaw he

helped to design.

Right: Anna at a rural electricity franchisee

project in Hyderabad.

Questions? Comments? Email komaza-offi cial@mit.eduVisit http://web.mit.edu/komaza/www/

The opinions expressed within this magazine do not necessarily refl ect those of Komaza, its staff, its Advisory Board, or affi liates, or

those of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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