We are very proud that two Art Center Product Design students, Bryce Butcher and Nathan Cooke, were selected to participate in the second IDDS Summit hosted by MIT, Olin College, and Cooper-Perkins, and sponsored by Rockefeller Foundation and National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.
We are very proud that two Art Center Product Design students, Bryce Butcher and Nathan Cooke, were selected to participate in the second IDDS Summit hosted by MIT, Olin College, and Cooper-Perkins, and sponsored by Rockefeller Foundation and National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. The four-week summit brings together students and professionals from around the world in fields such as design, medicine, social work, mechanics, and farming, to collaborate and build technologies to improve the quality of life in the developing world.
Through emails and blog posts, Bryce has kept us posted on her time there and the development of her team’s project, System for Nucleic Acid Purification (SNAP)–a portable hand-held DNA diagnostic tool.
As the intense month-long process in Boston comes to an end today, we’re happy to know that Bryce has had a truly rewarding and memorable experience. One that included being interviewed by NPR and the Global Health Agency, who are interested in sponsoring the SNAP project, and having the opportunity to present her award-winning Eco-Loo latrine project (conceived in the Fall 2007 Caltech/Art Center “Product Design for the Developing World” course) to a very receptive audience at Design Continuum. About her Design Continuum presentation, Bryce says in her blog, “I can hardly believe that the stuff I’ve been working on in school, like our latrine project, is capable of going so far to the point where people are actually coming to me, from locations I never thought I would ever have any form of communication with at all. It is seriously amazing and eye-opening at the possibilities of hard work.”
During the Summit, she heard inspiring talks from speakers such as Paul Hudnut, Founder of Envirofit, who spoke on “Designing for Dissemination,” Ruth Mufute from Africare who lectured on the importance of empowering women, and Harishe Hande, co-founder of SELCO INDIA–provider of sustainable energy services to rural India, who imparted lessons of perseverance.
Equally valuable, IDDS has allowed Bryce to meet enthusiastic supporters and make wonderful new friendships with like-minded students from around the world.
We look forward to hearing more from Bryce upon her return to Art Center.
To read more about the day-to-day activities of the IDDS, visit the Summit’s blog here.