154:, she decided what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. "At one point I had sort of an epiphany, sitting at my desk looking out over the bush, when I realized I wanted to do engineering for developing countries", Smith said. "In Botswana, I was teaching and then working for the ministry of agriculture as a beekeeper, and I remember thinking to myself that I really liked doing development work, but I wished could do some engineering too, because I like creative problem solving", says Smith. "People in the developing world scrape every last ounce of life that they can out of objects, and my students used to bring me things to fix, and I always enjoyed being able to do that."
236:. The problem with other motor-driven mills is that the screen that filters out rocks and coins could not be made locally and it could take several months to get a new screen. Smith's mill sifted out finished flour aerodynamically using a simpler design that could be manufactured locally by village blacksmiths. "It's nice when looking at things differently is a good thing, and not something where you get zero credit on a problem", Smith said. Smith planned to use some of the prize money from the $ 30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to produce and distribute the mills.
190:, I very rarely have more men than women. There have been times where there have been ten women and one man. This isn't surprising, given that women often want to see an application to what they're learning that they feel is worthwhile", says Smith. "But I'm not involved in any particular projects to encourage women engineers, because I dislike being referred to as a woman engineer. I don't like programs that single out woman engineers as particular achievers just for being women. I think that it should be coincidental."
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254:. The phase change incubator won the 1999 B.F. Goodrich Collegiate Inventor's Award for $ 20,000. Smith planned to start a company around the incubator. "I'm not a person who likes money, so whether it makes a profit is neither here nor there", Smith said. "I didn't want to be in the position of closing down the product because it wasn't making money. That's not the point of the product."
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quite extensively in Nepal. The
Kinkajou microfilm projector, used in nighttime literacy classes, is being deployed in Mali. We're working to commercialize a system for testing water for potability. It's in the field in several countries, but not on a widespread basis. We're looking towards doing a trial of aerosol vaccines in Pakistan, so that's exciting."
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Smith is one of the lead organizers of the
International Development Design Summit (IDDS), held annually to study problems in the developing world and create real, workable solutions to them. "I believe very strongly that solutions to problems in the developing world are best created in collaboration
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program, which works with people around the world to develop and advance collaborative approaches and practical solutions to global poverty challenges. D-Lab's mission is pursued through an academics program of more than 20 MIT courses and student research and fieldwork opportunities; research groups
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professor at MIT. Arthur Smith took his family to India for a year when Amy was growing up while he worked at a university there. "I think that set a lot of things in motion for her. It's very different from growing up in a Boston suburb", he said. Smith says that being exposed to severe poverty as a
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reported on August 14, 2007 that the results from the first
International Development Design Summit had been very positive with end products including an off-grid refrigeration unit tailored for rural areas using an evaporation based cooling method to store perishable food and a low-cost greenhouse
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and the D-Lab of MIT. It brought together 26 people to explore the differences in thinking between relief organizations, development organizations, and designers. Groups worked throughout the week to create concepts and prototypes to address challenges in relief work. These addressed clean water
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Smith co-founded the MIT IDEAS Competition where teams of student engineers design projects to make life easier in the developing world. "Some of the IDEAS competition winners have been very successful", says Smith. "The compound water filter, which removes arsenic and pathogens, is now deployed
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to facilitate collaboration among researchers around the world to develop medical technologies for resource-poor settings. She teaches the courses SP.721/11.025: D-Lab: Development and SP.722/2.722: D-Lab Design. In the past, she has taught 2.72: Elements of
Mechanical Design.
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Smith was instrumental in creating the
Rethink Relief Design Workshop in 2011. Rethink Relief is "dedicated to creating technologies for humanitarian relief that specifically address the gap between short-term relief and long-term sustainable development."
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The CCB curriculum teaches the design process without expecting strong literacy or other academic training. The goal is for individuals, groups and communities to be able to not only articulate their needs but to design and build solutions.
272:"for removing the dried kernels from an ear of corn. The corn sheller can be either cast in aluminum or made from a sheet of metal." More information on the corn sheller including instructions on how to make it is available under a
150:. During her Peace Corps service she was struck by the fact that "the most needy are often the least empowered to invent solutions to their problems." While she was serving in the middle of the
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Smith and colleagues at D-Lab have been working on a new type of curriculum - Creative
Capacity Building or CCB. The purpose of CCB is to place "the expertise in the village instead of at MIT."
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child made her want to do something to help kids around the world. "Living in India is something that stayed with me—I could put faces on the kids who had so little money."
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with the people who will be using them", Smith said. "By bringing this group of people together, we get an incredibly broad range of backgrounds and experiences."
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of Amy Smith discussing her inventions including eco-friendly charcoal and a laboratory incubator which doesn't require electricity. Presented at the
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Smith encourages women to become engineers although she dislikes being referred to as a woman engineer. "Actually, because my class involves
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spanning a variety of sectors and approaches; and a group of participatory innovation programs they call innovation practice.
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Smith received her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1984. Smith returned to MIT after the
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102:(born November 4, 1962) is an American inventor, educator, and founder of the MIT D-Lab and senior lecturer of
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Smith worked on an incubator that requires no electricity. The device was originally designed to diagnose
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availability, re-purposing of aid materials, transportation challenges, and first aid supply logistics.
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Smith invented a motorized hammermill that converts grain into flour which she successfully tested in
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With other members of D-Lab and community partners, Smith has developed a small, easy-to-make
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Amy Smith is one of the lead organizers of first
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The workshop was co-organized in
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She is a senior lecturer in the
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in Africa. She is also one of the founders of the popular
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Most Influential People for 2010 in the Thinkers category
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206:, and she is also involved with the application of the
770:"In the World: Cultivating creativity | MIT News"
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to get her master's degree in mechanical engineering.
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More information on projects from IDDS can be found
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699:"South-South Design Flourishes at MIT Summit"
683:"Making a difference in the developing world"
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170:for developing countries. She founded the
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937:Full Belly Blog entry, February 2, 2006
583:"2006/02/mit-report-amy-smith-in-ghana"
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361:, 1999 (for the phase-change incubator)
299:International Development Design Summit
293:International Development Design Summit
166:specializing in engineering design and
89:, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
898:"Necessity Is the Mother of Invention"
638:: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
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382:magazine named Amy Smith one of their
892:Amy Smith - 2000 Student Prize Winner
146:serving four years as a volunteer in
60:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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407:A to Z of Women in Science and Math
180:Innovations in International Health
122:. Her father, Arthur Smith, was an
925:Peace Corps biography of Amy Smith
822:"Amy Smith - MacArthur Foundation"
500:"Technology as a form of altruism"
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1002:MIT School of Engineering faculty
445:"eHealth in Developing Countries"
1022:MIT School of Engineering alumni
982:Appropriate technology advocates
907:"A MacGyver for the Third World"
559:"A MacGyver for the Third World"
533:"Interview: Amy Smith, Inventor"
935:MIT Report: Amy Smith in Ghana
334:Delft University of Technology
324:Rethink Relief Design Workshop
16:American inventor and engineer
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252:sexually transmitted diseases
654:"Resources | MIT D-Lab"
198:Smith's designs include the
546:magazine, September 1, 2006
538:September 23, 2009, at the
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587:fullbellyblog.blogspot.com
366:Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
359:Collegiate Inventors Award
341:Creative Capacity Building
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216:Lemelson–MIT Student Prize
882:100, Thinkers: Amy Smith"
744:"Rethink Relief Projects"
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1017:American women inventors
967:Amy's outdated home page
723:"Rethink Relief - About"
708:by Jonathon Greenblatt,
704:August 26, 2007, at the
564:January 4, 2006, at the
274:Creative Commons License
214:. In 2000 Smith won the
188:humanitarian engineering
120:Lexington, Massachusetts
114:Early life and education
48:Lexington, Massachusetts
1012:Pew Fellows in the Arts
1007:Development specialists
504:Boston Business Journal
364:First woman to win the
246:Phase-change incubator
240:Phase change incubator
228:Screenless hammer mill
204:phase-change incubator
200:screenless hammer mill
168:appropriate technology
124:electrical engineering
104:mechanical engineering
919:"Design that Matters"
449:cyber.law.harvard.edu
264:Universal nut sheller
212:MIT IDEAS Competition
208:Malian peanut sheller
685:by Heather Manning,
502:by Roberta Holland,
372:MacArthur Fellowship
278:D-Lab Resources page
222:Motorized hammermill
178:She also co-founded
70:MacArthur Fellowship
568:by Kari Lynn Dean,
506:, February 25, 2000
138:Peace Corps service
802:on August 10, 2015
572:, October 22, 2004
118:Smith was born in
997:MacArthur Fellows
712:. August 14, 2007
689:, July 13, 2007.]
542:by Amy Crawford,
405:"Smith, Amy", in
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142:Smith joined the
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850:"Amy B. Smith"
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796:"What is CCB?"
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987:1962 births
774:web.mit.edu
544:Smithsonian
420:"Amy Smith"
144:Peace Corps
132:Peace Corps
87:Peace Corps
976:Categories
831:August 12,
806:August 26,
624:August 26,
570:World News
394:References
368:, in 2000.
194:Inventions
37:1962-11-04
172:MIT D-Lab
100:Amy Smith
888:magazine
702:Archived
687:MIT News
634:cite web
562:Archived
536:Archived
202:and the
148:Botswana
915:article
780:May 31,
754:May 27,
728:May 27,
663:May 31,
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454:May 31,
276:at the
234:Senegal
878:"2010
353:Awards
66:Awards
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955:Video
912:Wired
618:(PDF)
611:(PDF)
886:Time
880:Time
833:2018
808:2012
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640:link
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431:2023
385:Time
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