Technology for Real Life

Check out this heartwarming article from CNN.com today. It's about how technology can literally save the lives of people.

The background of the article is this: in the refugee camps in Chad, Darfurian refugees who reach the safety of these camps must still leave the camp and forage far and wide for firewood, thus incurring the risk of running into Janjaweed fighters and getting raped or killed or kidnapped.

An NGO heard about their plight and thought up this idea of using solar power to cook food, thus saving on the need for firewood. They made up a design for a cooker that is easily and cheaply constructed, and convinced an NGO who was doing actual groundwork in the camps to give the idea a trial. They have now successfully taught the women in two camps to use solar power to cook, and this project will likely be extended to a third camp in the future.

This is the sort of thing which I think really puts technology to good use. It is like D-Lab project at MIT, which seeks to develop cheap technologies to make life better for impoverished people. Examples are things like a plastic backpack, so that women in Africa can bring home water more comfortably and easily, or a bicycle-powered generator for electricity. The focus isn't on cutting-edge tech, but rather on workable tech -- things that could really change the lives of people, rather than simply making it better -- things that people really need, rather than things that people simply want but don't need.

I wish we could have a course or something like that here. Some sort of a project-based elective, maybe. Something that would *really* open the eyes of our students and give them more exposure, as well as truly benefiting others.