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From plight to promise
The following is an excerpt from a blog post by D-Lab associate director Kofi Taha, "Reflections on on an earthquake: from plight to promise."
I feel deeply privileged to be part of D-Lab where we collectively try to learn how to best answer the call to act, not only in moments of dramatic crisis, but also in response to the quiet crises that threaten opportunity and well being every day for half the world's population. Through our small program – where an exciting mixture of students, staff, faculty, alumni and international collaborators from the public and private sector regularly interact with creative force – we will only touch a tiny fraction of the need we speak of when discussing "global poverty," but without a doubt, we are learning more everyday about moving from plight to promise. I invite you to explore the wide range of ways we pursue this knowledge, many of which are highlighted below.
- Kofi Taha, Associate Director, MIT D-Lab
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Attracting female engineers - the D-Lab way
 "At the interdisciplinary D-Lab at M.I.T., which focuses on developing “technologies that improve the lives of people living in poverty,” 74 percent of over 230 enrolled students this past year were women. This makes the D-Lab one of the few engineering initiatives in the country that has a severalfold higher enrollment of women than men. . . It is not just about gender equity — it is about doing better engineering for us all." Read full New York Times article.
D-Lab Spring Student Showcase, May 8
 What are students working on D-Lab this semester? A device to allow riders who have only one arm to propel a wheelchair, a passive heating strategy for a high-altitude school, and much more. Students from D-Lab: Design, D-Lab: Earth, D-Lab: Energy, and D-Lab: Dissemination WASH-Env will be presenting projects. With community partners in Ecuador, Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Puerto Rico, Jordan, El Salvador, Uganda, and Tanzania, student projects range across sectors including agriculture, energy, water sanitation and access, and assistive devices. Read more!
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D-Lab Biomass Fuel & Stoves Group
 Traditional means of cooking pose acute and chronic health risks, introduce time burdens on women and children, contribute to unsustainable harvest of forests, and in many cases, represent a significant cost burden on base of the economic pyramid households. D-Lab is committed to addressing these issues through:
- Applied research to evaluate existing fuel and stove technology and design improved solutions
- Supporting a community of social entrepreneurs who are supplying clean fuels and stoves to their communities
- Engaging in international agreements to increase the quality, availability and sustained adoption of clean cooking technology
Learn more about the D-Lab Biomass Fuel & Cookstoves group including research areas, testing capabilities, and partners!
Advancing lean research in international development
 Academics, researchers, practitioners, and donors from leading institutions in international development came together in April for a the second meeting organized by the D-Lab and Tufts Lean Research team, which has established principles for conducting human-centered field research. Visit the Lean Research webpage to download the Lean Research Framework and the draft working paper, and to sign the Lean Research Declaration! Read MIT News article.
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Two IDIN teams named MIT IDEAS Global Challenge Award winners
 Two IDIN-affiliated teams—Sensen and Voca—were named winners in this year’s MIT IDEAS Global Challenge competition. This year, nearly 60 student teams competed for just 11 prizes. IDEAS, which is managed by the MIT Public Service Center, was co-founded by IDIN director and MIT D-Lab founder and co-director Amy Smith. Read more!
A conversation with the organizers of summits in Colombia, India, and Botswana
 IDIN communications coordinator Lauren McKown sat down with the organizers of this summers' three design summits to learn more about their plans. Read her conversation with Thabiso Blak Mashaba (left), lead organizer for IDDS D’Kar in Dekar, Botswana; Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar, lead organizer for IDDS Zero Waste in Cali, Colombia; and Habib Anwar, lead organizer for IDDS Aarogyam in Chennai, India.
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Members convene, learn new skills
 On April 10, Practical Impact Alliance members from around the world dug in to case studies related to the year’s selected Working Group themes, connected with with up-and-coming entrepreneurs supported by the D-Lab Scale-Ups fellowship program, engaged with MIT student innovators through the IDEAS Global Challenge, and rolled up their sleeves for a team-building activity that doubled as an introduction to lost-foam casting, a basic manufacturing process particularly useful for prototyping. Read more!
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Netia McCray, founder of Mbadika
 Netia McCray graduated from MIT in 2014 with a degree in political science. While an undergraduate, she founded Mbadika, fostering youth-driven innovation and entrepreneurship through hands-on workshops in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Netia writes that her "main motivation to participate in D-Lab was to learn how I could incorporate D-Lab's methods and knowledge in order to increase the impact of Mbadika." Read Netia's blog!
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