In this class, students explore possible uses of repurposed electronic devices in several sectors of development, including agriculture, education, health, and energy, to have a positive impact on people living in low-income communities. Guest lecturers provide insight into current trends in information and communication technology for development.

Instructors: Heewon Lee, Aditya Mehrotra
Credits: 3-0-6
Schedule: W 2-5pm

Student teams and projects
Students work in teams to apply principles of participatory and inclusive design to specific projects that they develop in collaboration with community innovators in refugee camps in Northern Uganda and rural areas of Tanzania. This class is offered in conjunction with the MIT D-Lab program Design for Second-Life Innovations.

Student travel
Optional travel to Uganda and Tanzania occurs over subsequent IAP with D-Lab partners in the field. Graduate students complete additional assignments.

Seminar on founding, financing, and building entrepreneurial ventures in developing nations:
Challenges students to craft enduring and economically viable solutions to the problems faced by these countries. Cases illustrate examples of both successful and failed businesses, and the difficulties in deploying and diffusing products and services through entrepreneurial action. Explores a range of established and emerging business models, as well as new business opportunities enabled by innovations emerging from MIT labs and beyond. Students develop a business plan executive summary suitable for submission in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition's Accelerate Contest or MIT IDEAS.

Instructor: Ramesh Raskar
Schedule: R 10am-12pm

Through relationships with businesses in countries such as India, Tanzania, and Nicaragua, students work in interdisciplinary teams to develop previously established technologies toward manufacturing-ready product designs. Partial funding may be available for some student travel and out-of-country fieldwork related to this class.

Lessons are hands-on and case-based. This is an advanced design course, and we expect students to use CAD and various rapid prototyping and mass-manufacturing technologies, resulting in substantially iterated product designs and, if appropriate, a small production batch. We encourage students from all majors to enroll.

Instructors: Mathieu Aguesse, Macauley Kenney
Credit: 3-2-7
Lecture: TR 11:30am-1pm
Lab: R1 2.30pm

About the Instructors
The course is taught by instructors from D-Lab with deep field experience and industry experts from product development consulting and consumer product design, including Mathieu Aguesse and Macauley Kenney.

The faculty member of record for the course is Maria Yang (Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Associate Dean, School of Engineering).

Engages students in advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7, which seeks to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy systems, through community-based approaches.

Applications of Energy in Global Development is a hands-on, project-based course where student teams collaborate with D-Lab community partners to address a challenge they are experiencing. Students learn and practice D-Lab's design process including gathering information about the challenge and context, building and testing prototypes, and receiving feedback from stakeholders. Students have the opportunity to participate in an immersive experience to visit their community partners to pilot, test and refine their prototypes during the Independent Activities Period (IAP, January), however that will depend on the pandemic conditions during IAP 2022. The class includes practical lectures on the product design process, guest lectures from social entrepreneurs and practitioners, and instructional prototyping sessions.

Instructor: Ahmad Zakka
Credit: 4-0-8
Schedule: TR 3-5PM

Projects
Teams will work on off-grid energy projects focused on challenges including vegetable storage, home heating, cooking and livestock rearing to address a challenge faced by pre-selected D-Lab community partners. Project and partner continuity is prioritized, so most projects are continuations from EC.711 (Introduction to Energy in Global Development) and the previous EC.712. The projects may be at different stages and require various approaches including needs assessment, technology and business model identification, and implementation strategies. All of the projects include analysis, design, prototyping, testing and implementation.

Travel
There is a possibility to travel over the January Independent Activities Period (IAP) to visit and continue collaborations with the community partners, typically in Africa or South Asia. Alternatively, students can continue their projects at D-Lab through UROP, thesis or other D-Lab courses.

What effects does poverty have on individuals in different parts of the world? Why have so many development programs been ineffective in addressing poverty? What is your role in making the world a better place?

This class addresses those questions and more through lectures, case studies, guest speakers from around the world, and hands-on, experiential learning. You will examine technological improvements for developing countries through a variety of lenses and understand how the quality of life for low-income households can be improved by the adaptation of low-cost, sustainable technologies.

Instructors: Libby Hsu, Bish Sanyal
Credit: 3-2-7
Schedule: MWF 3:30-5pm

Projects & Teams
Students in this class form project teams to partner with mostly local organizations in developing countries and formulate plans for an IAP site visit. Most of these visits focus on needs assessment, evaluation of previous work, cultural immersion, and the advancement of long-term projects with our close collaborators. Previous field sites include Ghana, Brazil, Honduras, Tanzania, El Salvador, Uganda, and India. Weekly project team meetings focus on developing specific ideas and include cultural, social, political, environmental, and economic overviews of the countries and localities to be visited.

Travel & Funding
Guided IAP travel experiences may be available to students in the 2022-23 academic year, pending COVID-19 safety guidelines and funding availability.

Illuminating the power dynamics and root causes of inequality within cultural, political, and economic contexts

Identity has several dimensions, including gender, race, sexuality, and class, and these intersecting links influence a person’s daily life. Therefore, a gender analysis that utilizes an intersectional lens is essential to designing and implementing equitable international development projects.

This course explores gender and identity, illuminating the power dynamics and root causes of inequality within cultural, political, and economic contexts. Designed to give students a framework with which to understand gender dynamics and the skills to conduct a gender equality assessment, the course teaches students how to integrate gender-sensitive strategies into their work.

Instructors: Libby McDonald, Sally Haslanger
Credit: 3-0-9
Schedule: W 9:30am-12:30pm

Lectures & Guest Speakers
Lectures by course instructors and guest speakers, including researchers, filmmakers, and development professionals, prompt critical discussion about the social, economic, and political conditions that shape women’s roles in development. Focus is placed on the design and implementation of projects that provide opportunities for earning a living wage in sectors including water, energy, and agriculture.

Labs
In the first half of the class, labs include the application of D-Lab's Lean Research methods to analyze gender dynamics in local and international development programs.

Projects
This year student teams will partner with organizations in Brazil, Columbia, Kenya, and Peru. Find examples of last year's projects here. The projects in Kenya and Columbia will continue. One focus of our work will be sexual and reproductive health and menstrual health and hygiene.

Travel
Optional travel may be possible during the Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January 2023 to continue collaborations with the community partners.