What Matters: October 2008
Simple Is Beautiful: Deploying Technology in the 21st Century
By Sanford Friedman SM '68
MIT senior Jodie Wu refined and helped introduce a simple bicycle attachment that speeds corn processing in Tanzanian villages by up to a factor of 30. Above: the device in action. Read her blog about rolling out the device in Africa.
The application of technology to improve the quality of life in the developing world, as well as in the developed world, is motivated increasingly by pragmatic geopolitical considerations. The current financial crisis, globalization, and worldwide urbanization, along with the push for energy alternatives, the need to protect and improve food supplies, the spread of low-intensity war, and the changing face of nuclear-weapons proliferation are among the inexorable forces pressing enormous change on the world order. For technology to be successful in the developing world, it must be engineered so that there are minimal infrastructure requirements for its deployment. To paraphrase Einstein, the infrastructure requirements must be as simple as possible but no simpler. This design objective—minimal infrastructure technology or MIT—offers new approaches that work efficiently and productively with no need for or dependency on preexisting infrastructure and can deliver essential services in communities progress has left behind. MIT could reshape the production and delivery of, for example, power, water, food, and sewage treatment services in locales where such services are nonexistent or inadequate.
To understand how best to deploy new technology in developing countries, we must leverage the talents of the indigenous populations in these new markets. It is critically important to develop local entrepreneurial engineering talent in support of appropriate infrastructure. Failure to accomplish this will likely mean that an inefficient, wasteful, and bureaucratic infrastructure will dilute the effect of the technological innovations.
Ongoing scientific and technical research is leading to discoveries and inventions that have the potential to advance human knowledge and the quality of human life throughout the world. We know enough not to focus our short-term hopes on the possibility of spectacular scientific breakthroughs. We all know that it is the engineering and deployment of technology in target markets that make for successful products that change how we live. The Internet, for example, was available for many years before it was mainstreamed. Although financial gain is the dominant driver of technology, even the most ardent venture capitalist considers metrics related to quality of life, peace and security, environmental preservation, and general health and welfare.
Despite what appears to be chaos in today's world, I am hopeful that we're about to experience one of those enormous bursts of inventiveness, discovery, and creative energy that can alter human history, defining periods of monumental intellectual, religious, political, and scientific enlightenment. The cover story in the fall 2008 issue of the MIT chemistry department's Chemformation, "A Carbon-Neutral Solar Fuels Source Based on Artificial Photosynthesis," describes the remarkable work of Professor Daniel Nocera and postdoctoral fellow Matt Kanan. They developed a method for splitting water molecules easily—at room temperature and pressure—using earth-abundant materials. In a video interview, Nocera describes the research as "at least opening the door for large-scale deployment of solar power." This astonishing approach not only produces electrical energy from sunlight, it also produces fuel.
In the same publication, Timothy Swager, head of the chemistry department, begins his preface saying, "Today, more than ever, solutions to problems confronting the world, including hunger, affordable health care, security, and sustainable energy hinge on advances that must come from chemistry." While some non-Course 5 people might take exception to the preeminent role of chemistry, we can all agree that the work of Nocera and Kanan will, once it has been shown to be viable on a commercial scale, have a profound impact on humanity. The technology will be especially important in the developing world, where energy and fuel generation could be deployed with far lower infrastructure costs than conventional energy systems.
The cover story of the October 5, 2008, New York Times Magazine, "Capitalism to the Rescue," by Jon Gertner, reports on the support of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a well-known venture-capital firm, for start-up companies working on green technologies. Two companies, Ausra and Bloom Energy, are described in detail. Ausra's first installation, scheduled to go online in 2011, aims to deliver electricity to more than 100,000 houses in California. The technology uses mirrors that concentrate solar energy to produce steam and then electricity. The system can plug into existing grids, so wherever grids exist, there is no requirement for new infrastructure. It would be interesting to see whether the Ausra technology would be practical for the purification or desalination of water. In many parts of the world, including China, fresh water is even more important than energy.
Bloom Energy is developing Bloom Boxes, fuel cells that run on natural gas or other fuels. They are quiet, reliable low-emissions systems that can power a house, building, or neighborhood. The Times reports that K.R. Sridhar, the company's founder, "considers his challenge to be akin to what cell-phone makers encountered a few decades ago....In developing countries, governments and entrepreneurs found it cheaper to build cellular networks than land lines." Mr. Sridhar feels that his technology is compatible with grids where they exist and that it could be sold to power individual buildings or neighborhoods in locations where it is not desirable or practical to expand the capacity of the existing grid. In the developing world, the technology can work even without another utility or grid infrastructure. What if there were no readily available fuel source for the Bloom Box? Could it be fueled by hydrogen and oxygen from a Nocera source?
Professor Swager mentions security as another major problem confronting us. The United States spends a huge amount of money on security. As James Carroll pointed out in an op-ed piece that appeared in the Boston Globe on October 6, the Defense Department budget for this new fiscal year exceeds $700 billion. Yet it passed Congress with none of the scrutiny or hoopla attendant to the $700 billion financial-bailout package. The same issue of the Boston Globe contains an article titled "Army Shifts Focus to Nation Building." Writer Ann Scott Tyson reports on a new military doctrine that "declares nation-building missions will probably become more important than conventional warfare." Nation building can be successful only if the problems listed by Professor Swager can be addressed. If the new nation-building doctrine is to be successful, the U.S. Army will have to play a role in deploying new technology, much of it in fragile countries with little infrastructure. The military's experience producing complex systems that are reliable, easily deployed, and field repairable will be invaluable in delivering new technology solutions with appropriate infrastructure for support.
The Internet and cell phones have already introduced revolutionary changes to the infrastructure of invention, communication, and commerce. The globalization of business, manufacturing, and commerce at all levels, the megagrowth of electronically interconnected urban areas, the extinction of centuries-old peasant lifestyles, and the demise of villages and small cities have set the stage and emphasized the intense pressure for the introduction of all forms of inventions to meet the needs and desires of burgeoning populations.
In addition to energy, the most widely required nation-building technologies are those required for the delivery of basic services such as waste treatment and disposal, agriculture, transportation, and water purification. These taken together are fundamental to improving the lives of the billions of people who live in countries that lack the infrastructure to support the delivery of such necessities to their burgeoning and urbanizing populations.
This month, MIT celebrated 25 years of the MIT International Science and Technologies Initiatives (MISTI). And, on the student front, MIT senior Jodie Wu has introduced a new bicycle-powered system for the processing of the corn harvest in Tanzania. This technology speeds the processing by a factor of 30 and will free numerous workers to use their talents elsewhere. In October, an inauguration of the Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship at MIT included a panel of five Nobel laureates in economics speaking on the role of entrepreneurship in development. It is clear and commendable that MIT—the Institute—is mightily engaged, from top to bottom, in efforts to help in the successful development and deployment of new technologies.
Do you know examples of solutions to problems that have used minimal infrastructure technology—or that could benefit from it? Share your thoughts on the Discussion Network.
About the Author
Sanford Friedman SM '68 is founder and chairman of MediRegs, an electronic publisher of regulatory and reimbursement information for the healthcare industry that is part of Wolters Kluwer, Inc. Prior to MediRegs, he was founder and president of Counterpoint Publishing, the first electronic publisher of the complete Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, and other regulatory information on CD-ROM and the Internet. Counterpoint became part of Thomson Legal Publishing.
What Matters is a guest opinion column written by a different MIT alumnus or alumna. The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Alumni Association or MIT. Interested in writing a column? Email whatmatters@mit.edu.
