The second annual International Development Design Summit was held at MIT in 2008.

Once again, the campus was transformed into a living example of MIT’s mission “to develop… the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.”

For one month, more than sixty people from over twenty countries worked on ten projects in eight workshops in a creative, collaborative—and sometimes chaotic —experience.

Projects included:

• A device for generating electricity from treadle pumps
• A machine that removes the grains from the stalks of pearl millet
• A very low-cost computer for educational programs
• A charcoal crusher to make briquettes out of carbonized corncobs
• A machine that makes interlocking soil blocks
• A tool to help manufacture pico-hydro electric generators
• An easily repairable incubator for babies born with low birth weights
• A hand-held tool for isolating DNA and improving diagnostic capability
• A device to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their children during breastfeeding
• A ropeway system to help artisans in the Himalayas get their products to market

Host: MIT
Partners: Olin College of Engineering