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| Amy B. Smith, Senior Lecturer at MIT, head of D-Labs, and woman for the age* |
Senior Lecturer at MIT, Amy B.
Smith stands out from the crowd
Of notable American engineers
And inventors as a leading advocate
For appropriate technology, best
Described in the book Small is
Beautiful by Ernst Friedrich
Schumacher, an English economist
Who subtitled his work A Study
Of Economics As If People Mattered.
Ms Smith is head of MIT’s D-Labs,
Which stands for Development
Through Discovery, Design, and
Dissemination. It might simply be
Easier to say that as the child of
An engineer in Lexington (MA) who
Took her with him to his Army
Assignments in India, she was
Exposed early on to the poor and
Their desperate living conditions.
As a youngster she put half of
Her earnings from baby sitting
Into a jar which, when full, she
Sent off regularly to UNICEF.
She expanded her experience
Joining the Peace Corps and
Since has become famous for
Finding and developing low-tech
Solutions to third world problems.
Overcome by the smoke of
Cooking fires in Haiti and seeing
The accompanying deforestation,
She set about development of
A cleaner burning charcoal not
Derived from precious increasingly
Scarce trees which also did not
Damage Haitian mothers’ and
Children’s ability to breathe.
She found the ideal answer in
Charcoal from waste corncobs.
Women in poor villages worldwide
Spent up to two hours grinding dried
Corn for meals. By inventing a grinder
Which could easily be fashioned from
Local materials by local craftsmen
She reduced corn meal grinding to
One-tenth the time and effort of
Hand grinding with mortar and
Pestle. She and her students have
Made numerous contributions
To easing the life of the poor
Through technology applied at
Village levels. Unimpressed
By the profits she could have
Made from her inventions,
She lets them spread freely to
Benefit the poor everywhere:
"Living in India is something
That stayed with me—I could
Put faces on the kids who had
So little money.” Prize money
Derived from her many awards
Is often used to underwrite her
Programs or pay for related
Capital expenses in the
Countries affected.
c. J.S.Manista, 2017
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