Victoria Indaco - "Amy Smith TED Talk"

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/amy_smith_shares_simple_lifesaving_design.html

In the TED talk I watched,Amy Smith discusses how engineers have been working together to prevent communities from inhaling smoke from indoor cooking-fires, surprisingly one of the highest causes of death in third-world countries. Amy Smith questions that with the knowledge and technology that we possess in the United States, we must be capable of creating cleaner and healthier cooking fuels and stoves. 2 million deaths are caused each year by the horrid smoke, and Smith believes that it is inventive engineers who can solve this overlooked crisis and put an end to the #1 cause of death in children under 5 years old, preventing these acute respiratory infections. She mentions how in rural Haiti, the area is 98% deforested because so many trees have been harvested for wood to create charcoal, as fossil fuels are inaccessible in the are. Working with the US Peace Corps, engineering students found alternative cooking fuels accessible to those towns dealing with the environmental problems of no trees. "Bagass," a wasted resource that just sits in piles at sugar mills, was fired in kilns to create a carbonized material, altering it into a "briquette" form and using if for cooking. Then, Smith mentions how in India, communities used cow dung for cooking, but it would create extremely smoky fires that kids and women were surrounded by daily, endangering their lungs. Engineers did tests with wheat straw and white straw to see if those could be alternate burning material, but they didn't burn as long as wood. After a few trials with different materials, and learning that they needed to focus on the forces that could be manipulated to actually make a significant difference in the burning process, the engineers developed a low-cost press that allowed them to produce a charcoal that burned longer and cleaner than wood charcoal. Finally, she mentioned how in Ghana, they turned corncobs into charcoal, creating health, environmental, and economic benefits in communities that cannot afford much. She stresses that in each of these situations, she and the other engineers strived to find a better and easier method to help each community they encountered. She believes we need to re-evaluate not "our" world, but "the" world that exceeds our boundaries yet could use a little help. It's important to create technologies to promote micro finance and enterprises so living under the poverty ling doesn't capture a person all of their life, and with knowledge we could empower every single human being.

Amy Smith is an outstanding woman engineer and inventor who was born in Lexington, Massachusetts. Her father, who was an electrical engineering professor at MIT, exposed her at an early age to the poverty that existed in India through their travels, and that sparked the desire to help people around the world. Being a former Peace Corps volunteer, the first woman to win the Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventions she had created, and a receiver of the MacArthur "genius" grant in 2004, she had accomplished so much in her life by allowing her originality of projects and drive for serving others to carry her through her successes. At MIT she specialized in engineering design and founded the D-Lab program at MIT, which exposes her MIT students to economic, social, and technological problems that third world countries face daily. She invented the screenless hammer mill and phase-change incubator, and one of the founders of the MIT IDEAS Competition which encourages students to pursue their passions and turn their ideas into real inventions. She is on the few yet historical women in the engineering field, and her passion for service is notable in each project and invention she involves herself in.

I would love to pursue the type of ambitious life Amy Smith has achieved over her years of hard work and devotion to service. After high school, I will attend Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a possible minor in Art. However, with my studies and experience that I will develop through my next few years, I am hoping to pursue service projects to utilize engineering to help others. Through Gonzaga's Zambia trip that certain students are selected to go on, I could potentially be one of around 30 students to travel to Zambia and with each of our different majors, help the community back with all we have been privileged. They are creating a water filtering system that will clean the thick, red, mucky water that the towns have access to in order to dispose of infectious diseases and help promote longer lives of the children who barely live past 5 years old. I want to be involved with volunteering and service throughout my life, and using my knowledge to do so, like Amy Smith has done, truly inspires me that it is possible. I don't know what my future holds quite yet, but I know if I remain devoted and compassionate to bettering our world, I can truly make a difference.