I was not in the audience for Jodie Wu’s talk about her
experience with Global Cycle Solutions, so I have done my own research on the
products that are in place and how they have impacted the communities in which
they are implemented. The main goal of
GCS is to “disseminate affordable, quality technology for villagers
around the world (gcstz.com).” In her lecture, Jodie Wu focused on her
experience designing and developing the bicycle-powered corn sheller. She began the process in2009 at a MIT design
lab with may different prototypes and possibilities that could be implemented
half way across the globe in Tanzania.
As with any project, she faced many challenges; however, the challenges
of implementing a new technology in the third-world brought an even more unique
experience. Her biggest challenge is seen
through her favorite quote, “technology without reach is technology without
impact,” which describes the necessity of accessible and practical technology
that can become a common good without a dramatic change in a citizen’s way of
life. In order to make the
implementation of any new technology successful, the villagers must be able to
sustain it by themselves and become proficient in using the technology. To overcome this potentially detrimental
problem, Wu sought out to train one villager and molding them into the village
encyclopedia; someone who knows the technologies on a level deeper than their
surface and can teach his fellow citizens how to use and fix them. Having a village encyclopedia creates the
opportunities for individuals to become more educated and reach higher levels
of entrepreneurship than were possible before the technology entered their
lives. The technology not only makes
farmer’s lives easier by introducing an alternative to the two previous methods
of maize shelling, (hand shelling which is only able to bag 1 sac a day, or
whacking during which much of the maize is destroyed) giving the farmers a way
to fill 10 to 15 sacs a day, but it also creates more jobs in the community
through the production and training process.
Wu mentioned that the entire experience of designing and implementing
the Sheller and other technologies has been a very rewarding process.
Although the lecture did not focus on much past the corn
sheller, I looked through the Global Cycle Solution’s website and found that
there are four main technologies that are currently being used by a total of
30,000 families in Tanzania: a solar-powered light and phone charger, the maize
sheller, a Bicycle-powered kiwa phone
charger, and a motorcycle phone charger.
The solar light and charger is currently the world’s longest lasting
light with a phone charger attached to it, clocking 30 hours of light from one
day’s charge, and it is very durable, making it a good investment. The bicycle-powered phone charger will charge
the phone as you ride your bicycle, taking a task that is very common in every
community, especially those in the third-world, and giving the mundane task an
exciting addition. There is no extra
time needed to charge the phone, and it is cheap and easy to lean how to
use. Similarly, a motorcycle charger was
implemented to charge a phone as you ride the motorcycle.
Jodie Wu and Global Cycle Solutions have received a lot of
publicity in the United States and abroad.
Wu was named to Forbes ‘list of 30 under 30, the greatest minds in business,
she was a TED fellow in 2011, and even has the bicycle-powered kiwa phone
charger on display at the Smithsonian museum in Washington.
Sources:
Nice write-up, thank you!
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