Design of a bagasse charcoal briquette-making device for use in Haiti

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 61).Charcoal made from bagasse, the fibrous remains of sugarcane production, has the potential to serve as an alternate cooking fuel in Haiti, where the reliance on wood has led to severe deforestation. Current production methods for charcoal briquettes range from laborious hand- forming to expensive industrial machinery. Thus, there is a need for an intermediate technology. This thesis describes the development of an affordable, locally manufacturable, briquette-making device that produces higher quality charcoal than hand-formed briquettes. The device is intended for small-scale briquette production in rural villages to supply charcoal to local markets. Since little is known about the materials properties and characteristics of bagasse charcoal, several production possibilities have been considered and evaluated. The most important finding during this process was that impact loading is more effective than steady compression because the required forces are not easily achievable by simple mechanisms. The final concept is a pile driver press, which uses a hammer to strike a metal piston and drive it into a tall channel to compact a column of charcoal. Several briquettes can be formed at once by using thin spacers to separate sections of charcoal within the channel.(cont.) A single channel prototype has been constructed as a proof-of-concept model. Cylindrical briquettes formed using this prototype had an average density of 0.29 g/cm3, and an average radial failure load of 390 N. Commercially available Kingsford charcoal had an average density of 0.80 g/cm3 and the compressive strength was 590 N. Although the hammered briquettes were not as strong as commercial charcoal available in the United States, they should still be able to withstand the loads imposed during transport in Haiti. More tests and refinement of the design are needed, but overall the pile driver press has great potential to eventually be adopted in Haiti as a small-scale briquette-making device.by Jessica Vechakul.S.B

Design of bicycle ambulances for Zambia

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 77).In developing countries, people are dying from treatable diseases because they cannot reach medical care when they need it most. Typical methods of transport, such as wheelbarrows or motorcycles, are too slow, dangerous, or expensive. The bicycle ambulance is a locally produced and maintained, fuel-less vehicle that provides safe, affordable transport. The design of this appropriate technology varies greatly between countries because of the variability in local conditions, such as terrain, cultural stigmas, and availability of materials.This thesis describes the development of a bicycle ambulance (Zambulance) designed for Zambia. The Zambulance is a two-wheeled trailer that carries a sheet metal stretcher, and can be towed by common bicycles. The ambulance is fabricated from standard bicycle components and steel stock, such as 25mm round tube that can be easily bent to minimize cuts and welds. A single rider can transport one patient at average speeds of 25kph for distances up to 35km on passable B-grade roads. The trailer is 200cm by 98cm and weighs 22 kg, while the stretcher is 200cm by 65cm and weighs 20 kg. The Zambulance costs 1,200,000 Zambian Kwacha or about 315USD (based on exchange rate on December 27, 2007). One Zambulance can be fabricated in about 20 hours, which are usually spread over 5 days.There are currently forty-seven Zambulances in Zambia, and more are being produced by Disacare Wheelchair Center in Lusaka, Zambia. From January 2006 to August 2007, one bicycle ambulance was used over 125 times to transport patients from their homes to the nearby clinic and hospice. According to records, the ambulance carried men and women between the ages of twelve and ninety who were suffering from various ailments including cholera, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, blindness, broken bones, anemia, and pneumonia.A production manual, user manual, and assessment material is available online for free downloading at http://cadlab6.mit.edu/bike.ambulance. Long-term monitoring and evaluation of the design is needed, but current data suggests that the Zambulances are already saving lives by closing the transport gap between patients and healthcare.by Jessica Vechakul.S.M

Human-Centered Design for Social Impact: Case Studies of IDEO.org and the International Development Design Summit

In the social sector, programs often fail due to a lack of understanding of the norms, knowledge, and needs of the people who execute and benefit from the solutions offered by those programs. Human-Centered Design (HCD) offers a broadly-applicable problem-solving framework and methods for developing an in-depth understanding of people who are directly impacted by development challenges, generating creative ideas, and rapidly learning from small-scale pilots. As HCD is an emerging practice in the social sector, a critical first step is an exploratory case study. Using the Social Blueprint framework, I characterized two drastically different approaches for teaching and practicing HCD for Social Impact. IDEO.org’s Fellowship program represents a Project-Based Consulting Model in which professional design teams partner with social enterprises, nonprofits, and foundations to design and implement scalable products and services. During the one-year Fellowship program, social sector leaders learn HCD by working on design consulting projects with experienced designers. The International Development Design Summit (IDDS) program represents a Creative Capacity Building Model, in which students and members of low-income communities learn to design appropriate technologies and launch social enterprises. IDDS is an educational conference that aims to put participants on a lifelong path dedicated to social innovation. These exploratory case studies consist of a qualitative analysis of documents, participant observations, and key informant interviews. All the key informants were employees or volunteers previously or currently working with the organizations in this research study. By analyzing the evolution of IDEO.org from 2011 to 2015 and of IDDS from 2007 to 2015, I identified challenges associated with trying to achieve impact through the dual goals of design education and practice. IDEO.org addressed these challenges by developing programs with distinct missions focused on either goal. IDDS maintained its multifaceted mission, and developed a Social Innovation Ecosystem of complementary programs and resources to better support its dual goals. The literature on strategic fit suggests that all building blocks of an organization’s or program’s social blueprints must be aligned to achieve its mission or anchor purpose. Despite their shared emphasis on the HCD process, IDEO.org’s Fellowship program and IDDS program produced outcomes that aligned with their respective social blueprint building blocks. My comparison of IDEO.org’s and IDDS’s design processes also suggests that the HCD process is not a static process, but rather is heavily influenced by organizational and project contexts. I developed in-depth case studies of an IDEO.org project and an IDDS project to illustrate the differences in their approaches and identify factors that may influence the progression of projects from the design stage to the pilot stage. HCD has great potential for generating innovative solutions to address challenges of poverty. This dissertation builds a foundation for understanding how to better design for social impact by examining the experience of two renowned pioneering organizations

Environmental Life Style Analysis (ELSA)

In this study we connect life styles and spending patterns to environmental impacts and economic implications for people living in the United States. The results show that even the most modest life styles (Buddhist monk, homeless etc) have impacts much larger that the world average