From inventor boot camp, gadgets that could change lives

From Crave: The gadget blog:

Andres Sierra Davila of Guatemala works on a simple incubator that could be used to nurture premature babies in remote villages. (Credit: MIT/Donna Coveney) A cable-car-like ropeway that transports goods uphill. A charcoal-crushing machine made from carbonized corn cobs. A low-cost incubator that could be used to nurture premature babies in remote villages. These are just a few of the gadgets that emerged from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology summer design workshop aimed at finding cheap, simple solutions to problems in the developing world. More than 50 innovators from some 20 countries on 5 continents gathered on MIT's campus for the monthlong International Development Design Summit, which wrapped up Friday. Oswin Chibinga, a professor of agriculture at the University of Zambia, was part of a team designing a method for charging batteries while pumping water with a treadle pump, a simple irrigation device widely used in many developing countries. The idea is to take advantage of the labor people are already doing to give them electric lights instead of the kerosene lamps they currently use.

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