Can Low Tech have a High Impact?  While her inventions may be "low technology" there's nothing low-brow about Amy Smith's work to develop simple, affordable technologies for the world's poorest people.

The CSU College of Business and the Department of Mechanical Engineering are pleased to present MacArthur "Genius Grant" winner Amy Smith in lecture as part of the Sustainable Enterprise Speaker Series. Her remarks, entitled Design, Dialogue and Duct Tape - Tools for  International Development, are inspired from real-world experience using technological innovation to address everyday problems in developing nations.

Event Details:
Date:  Monday, November 26th
Place: Clark Building - Room A101
Time: 7:00 to 8:30 pm. 
RSVP:  www.biz.colostate.edu/ms/GSSE/RSVP

Bio:
Amy Smith was recently granted the MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the MacArthur "Genius Grant", for her work in developing inexpensive technologies to solve problems in developing countries. This prestigious award has been preceded by a lifetime of meaningful accomplishments. She won the 1988 JFK Peace Corps Volunteer of the Year Award, representing over 2,500 volunteers in Africa, after which she returned to MIT to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, focusing on engineering design for developing countries. In 1994, she received the Carroll Wilson Award to travel to Senegal to test the screenless hammermill that she designed for her master's thesis. In 1996, she started the Designs for Developing Countries Project at MIT, a program that works with organizations in developing countries to identify technical needs and incorporate them into hands-on design seminars for undergraduate students.

She is one of the founders of the Service Learning program at MIT and started the Public Service Design Seminars as part of this initiative. She is also one of the co-founders of the IDEAS competition.  She won the 1999 BFGoodrich Collegiate Inventor's Award for her work on a phase-change incubator that operates without electricity, and also won the 2000 MIT-Lemelson Student Prize for Invention.  Smith's research has ranged from redesigning medical laboratory equipment for use in remote areas, to designing a kiln for making clean-burning charcoal out of local materials. Most recently, she headed up the very successful International Development Design Summit at MIT.

Smith continues her work in these areas, is director of the D-Lab at MIT and is also in the process of starting a company to produce and distribute some of her inventions.  She is truly a visionary in the field of development as well as design.

Please join us for an exciting evening of provocative dialogue.
RSVP:  www.biz.colostate.edu/ms/GSSE/RSVP