Staff
Main Staff
 Amy Smith Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Amy Smith is the founder of the International Development Initiative at the MIT Edgerton Center and has taught classes related to this subject for more than ten years. After graduating from MIT in mechanical engineering, she served in the US Peace Corps in Botswana for four years and has also done field work in Senegal, South Africa, Nepal, Peru, Haiti, Honduras, Ghana and Zambia. She has taught engineering design at a variety of levels, ranging from undergraduate courses in mechanical engineering to high school enrichment programs to graduate courses in sustainable development. She won the 1999 BF Goodrich Collegiate Inventor’s Award for a phase-change incubator that operates without electricity and also won the 2000 MIT-Lemelson Student Prize for Invention. In 2001 she co-founded of the Service Learning program at MIT; she is also one of the co-founders of the MIT IDEAS Competition. |
| In 2003 she began teaching D-Lab, a series of courses and field trips that focus on international development, appropriate technologies, and sustainable solutions for communities in developing countries. In 2004 she was selected as a MacArthur Fellow, recognizing her efforts in creating technologies to improve lives in the developing world and for finding opportunities to inspire students to do the same. Her current projects are in the areas of water testing and treatment, agricultural processing and alternative energy. | |
| Benjamin Linder is faculty member in Design and Mechanical Engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and a designer active in the Boston area. His teaching and research interests include sustainable design, international development, creative design methods and human-centered design. He is an experienced teacher and practitioner of sustainable product design and regularly consults and delivers workshops on a range of related topics internationally. He has co-taught Design for Demining at MIT for a number of years and has extensive experience working with the humanitarian demining community developing and testing products for use in landmine removal. Benjamin holds degrees in engineering focused on design from the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
 Benjamin Linder, PhD Associate Professor of Design and Mechanical Engineering Olin College |
 Harald Quintus Bosz VP of Engineering Cooper Perkins | Harald Quintus-Bosz is Cooper Perkins’ Chief Technology Officer. Harald has over 15 years of product development experience. Harald started his career designing medical X-ray imaging equipment at XRE later joining IDEO. After 6 years at IDEO, Harald joined Materials and Technologies, a semiconductor capital equipment start-up. Harald was the sole mechanical designer of the WaveEtch tool and was responsible for prototype development, production, publicity, market research, and business development. Harald holds 3 US patents and holds an SB degree from MIT and an MS degree from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering. |
| Crossman Hormenoo works as a Workshop Manager of the Suame Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit, which is a part of the Kwwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. His duties include the design and manufacture of a wide range of machinery and processes used in agriculture, food processing, wood processing and general industrial processing. His area of interest is focused around developing simple technologies to help reduce poverty and help improve the quality of life for those living in developing countries. He particpated in IDDS 2007 and for four weeks he and his team worked on a low cost refrigerator project . He returned as an organizer for the 2008 conference and is hugely excited by the prospect of IDDS 2009 in his home country of Ghana! |
 Crossman Hormenoo Technology Consultancy Centre KNUST |
 George Yaw Obeng, P.H.D. Technology Consultancy Centre KNUST | George Yaw Obeng was born on the 5th May 1964 in Kumasi, Ghana. He lives on the University Campus in Kumasi, is an engineer by profession and has also pursued an MSc in Appropriate Technology and Rural Development in the University of Flensburg, Germany. He has also completed a PhD Thesis in the field of Development Studies in Ghana. Currently, he works on development research on the design of food processing machinery and energy for poverty reduction. |
| John Quansah is a Ghanaian National and a research fellow in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. He currently works at the Technology Consultancy Centre(TCC) as the manager of the Centre’s Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit(ITTU) in Kumasi. He did his undergraduate studies at KNUST and pursued his graduate education at Cranfield University in England. He has been working in the area of appropriate technology for over thirty years and his areas of interest include; Renewable energy, particularly solar, biomass and biofuels; Facilitating the establishment of small manufacturing engineering machine shops; Development of intermediate technologies to reduce…in agro-processing and post-harvest activities; Promotion of small scale enterprizes using appropriate technologies and locally available materials. He currently lives in Ghana with his wife and three sons. |
 John Quansah Technology Consultancy Centre KNUST |
 Joe Agoada Communication Arts University of Wisconsin-Madison | Joe Agoada is a lead organizer representing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) International Development Initiative. He is a communication arts graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also completed a course of study in health communication at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He chairs a non-profit organization Two Wheeled Foundation which employs recycled bicycles for pedal powered development in East Africa, was a 2008 International Youth Foundation Global YouthActionNet Fellow and seeks out adventure such as trekking the path to Machu Picchu in Peru and braving the class 5 white water rafting on the Nile River. |
| Ariel Phillips grew up in California, received a master’s degree in Agricultural Education from the U. of California, then a doctorate in Human Development from Harvard University. Some of her interests: human communities, learning environments, biodiversity, conflict resolution, and cultural similarities and differences. She works at Harvard University in an office that provides several kinds of programs, including workshops on group relations, creativity, career choice, and academic life, and she enjoys discussing issues of meaning and direction in life. It was a delight for her to work with IDDS for the previous two years and she's excited to be part of it again this year. Her roles at IDDS include working with mentors and participants on the process side of their work; She's available to try to help with teamwork and decision-making and will also be helping with the evaluation--both short term and long-term--of IDDS. |
 Ariel Phillips |
 Dennis Nagle | Dennis Nagle has been a mentor with D-lab since the beginning of 2007. Previously, he’s had 35 years of experience as a mechanical engineer, and has also worked as a chemical engineer, and an artist, working primarily with light. He’s extremely, maybe even ridiculously passionate about D-Lab and IDDS’ core idea of using engineering to make a positive and powerful impact in the world, and is constantly thrilled to be able to use his life’s engineering experience to help build cool things that help communities internationally. |
| Ela Ben-Ur was born in Israel but grew up in Wisconsin, USA (“America’s Dairyland” and yes, Ela LOVES milk!). She studied Mechanical Engineering at MIT from 1993-99, developing a focus on engineering design and human factors. She’s been at IDEO, a design and innovation firm, since then, and has focused on design research and project leadership in the last 6 years. Her work has spanned medical devices to dentures, jet cockpits to small medical packages. She team-teaches User Oriented Collaborative Design at Olin College with Ben Linder, as well as many other educational programs serving for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She enjoys being outdoors (running, swimming, biking, hiking)and travel with her husband, reading, and playing the violin/fiddle. |
 Ela Ben-Ur |
 Gwyndaf Jones | Gwyndaf Jones is a D-lab trip leader and project mentor. He graduated from Hampshire College having studied agricultural economics and has had several somewhat related career paths, first in manufacturing and then starting a small company that made bicycle frames. This led him to product design and development, which, in a convoluted way, led to work with D-lab and Maya Pedal and lots of pedal powered machines. He has also worked on a variety of other technologies in D-lab including solid fuel stoves, hand corn shellers, nut shellers, to name a few. |
| Jessica Huang was part of the IDDS 2008 power generation team and is now helping to organize this year's conference. Jessica recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with degrees in civil/environmental engineering and business administration. She has done community work in Ecuador, Uganda, Honduras, Cambodia and India on projects ranging from using ICTs for improving rural health care to removing arsenic from drinking water. Jessica is excited about meeting the new IDDS family in Kumasi this year! |
 Jessica Huang |
 Niall Walsh | Niall Walsh hails from the Dublin mountains in Ireland and is currently a final year English major studying at Trinity College Dublin. He has worked in his home country to help combat localized poverty through the Vincent De Paul Society and has also volunteered abroad with Suas, an Irish based NGO which aims to support primary and secondary education programs in Kenya and India. He helped to document the conference last year and updated a blog daily to track the progress of the summit. He has recently joined a brand new start up clothing company with a social objective, Acts of Random Kindness Limited, in Ireland. Niall is an avid reader and also enjoys playing soccer, tennis, table tennis, basketball, netball and just about any other sport you can name. He is very excited about IDDS 2009 in Ghana! |
| Sumit Pahwa was born in a small town in India named Abohar. He did his Diploma in Welding Technology from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (Punjab, India) and is currently pursuing his B.E. in Manufacturing Engineering from the same institute. He has worked with D-Lab for community uplifting and technology transfer. He is cordinating a students club “PRAYAAS” from last three years. His academic projects includes ‘Designn and Mechanization of the Welding Table’. He worked on providing the Low Cost Water Purification System made from locally available materials during the International Development Design Summit’07. His leisures includes dancing, playing and listening to music. His areas of interest are Low cost design solutions and welding technology. |
 Sumit Pahwa |
 Amit Ghandi | Amit Gandhi recently graduated from Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He was an organizer and participant in the 2007 and 2008 IDDS’ where he worked on a BioLight project( using microbial fuel cells for powering applications in the developing world) and a hand held diagnostic tool(to help facilitate DNA extraction from blood from patients) respectively. In addition to IDDS, Amit is also developing a solar water distiller for use in Guatemala through funding from the World Water Forum. |
| Andres Sierra Davila lives in Guatemala City. He is an Industrial Designer graduated from Universidad Rafael Landívar. He has different interests for develop projects, such as handcrafts; community development and accessibility for disable people. He worked in a construction company for a while, in which he helped on a project to rebuild bridges that were damaged by hurricane Stan in 2006 in Guatemala’s countryside. After being a participant in IDDS 2008, he’s trying to get more involved in social development. He loves reading, hiking, travel in different places and learn from other cultures. |
 Andres Sierra |
 Hayley Sharp | Hayley Sharp is a fourth-year student at Bristol University, England, studying Engineering Design with a specialization in mathematical systems modeling. Two of her previous development projects include rural water testing in Ecuador and water sensing equipment at the technical university in Havana, Cuba. She is currently working on a two-year project investigating feasibility of pico-hydro systems for rural areas in developing countries. She is the National Research Coordinator for the charity Engineers Without Borders UK. This role includes working with NGOs to identify areas within international development where technological solutions could be beneficial, and helping students to undertake these projects as part of their degree work. |
| Jessica Vechakul (organizer and participant) is a mechanical engineering doctorate student at UC Berkeley in the USA. She has been a participant in the past two IDDS’s. Jess has also been involved with MIT D-lab since 2004 and has worked on international development projects in Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Guatemala. She is very excited to be helping organize IDDS 2009. Jess enjoys making things, rock climbing, and doing pottery in her free time. |
 Jessica Vechakul |
 Laura Stupin | Laura Stupin has been an IDDS organizer from its inception nearly three years ago. She is a member of the second class to ever graduate from Olin College, and is now a member of the first class of graduate students at the new university in Masdar, a new carbon neutral, zero-waste city being built from scratch near Abu Dhabi. Before, she worked happily as staff at D-Lab with Amy Smith at MIT where she mentored student teams and lead project trips to Zambia. Currently, she is working at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology to set up a D-Lab Energy program to work on energy issues in the developing world. |
| Miguel Chaves was born and lives in São Paulo. He is a fourth year student at Escola Politécnica – University of São Paulo. He studies Mechanical Engineering and is interested in renewable energy, product innovation, and social responsibility. Prior to university, Miguel studied computer science for two years. Miguel was an IDDS 07 participant and then went on to be a participant and organizer for the 2008 conference. Moreover, next to his arrival in Brazil after IDDS07, Miguel was one of the founders of the Engineers Without Borders Brazil. He enjoys sharing solutions with communities and improving their quality of life. In his free time, Miguel likes to play sports, travel and discover other cultures. |
 Miguel Chaves |
 Nadia Elkordy | Nadia Elkordy is a 2008 graduate from MIT with an SB degree in Mechanical Engineering. Her interest in international development was sparked during a lecture given at IDDS in its inaugural year, and she has been hooked ever since. Nadia has participated in a number of development endeavors over the past year, including a rope pump training and construction project while in Honduras, and an ongoing project in collaboration with the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) to develop a process for making pencils from bamboo, a venture that will eventually be implemented as an income-generating enterprise in India. Nadia is immensely awed by the IDDS coordinators and participants and is excited to be working with them! |
| Nathan Cooke was born and raised in California, USA. He is currently an Undergraduate Product Design student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He has done some design work for a small non-profit in Portland, Oregon and worked on a solar dehydrator for the (sadly now defunct) LA Community Gardens. He look forward to applying my education towards development work and environmental sustainability. He enjoys bicycling, running marathons, hiking, cooking (pancakes especially), eating ice-cream and drawing. |
 Nathan Cooke |
 Stephen Gerrard | Stephen Gerrard is a recent Chemical Engineer graduate at Cambridge University UK. In 2006/2007 he spent a year studying at MIT and took D-Lab 1 - an international development course run by Amy Smith. This culminated in him traveling to Honduras with a team looking to introduce bio-digester technologies into the local community. He is also a placements manager for Engineers Without Borders UK. In October he is starting a PHD at Cambridge on the HIV Breast Milk filter project which he helped design at IDDS 2008 - justmilk.org. In his spare time he enjoys playing football and playing the piano. |
| Tombo Banda is a former participant from last year who has come back to be an organiser for this years summit. She is originally from Malawi and has just completed a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College in London. She is am passionate about empowering people and using engineering to improve and enhance standards of living. She loves politics and debate, and also enjoys playing sports in her spare time. She is fairly competent at SolidWorks and can help with metal fabrication in the workshop if people require help on their projects! |
 Tombo Banda |