SP.723/11.953 D-Lab: Dissemination
Disseminating Innovations for the Common Good
D-Lab Dissemination focuses on disseminating innovations among underserved communities, especially in developing countries. Students work in teams to complete a term project based on their own Big Idea. The course includes an online forum discussion, student-led case studies, hands-on learning and a final proposal or social-business plan for implementing an innovation. Students are highly encouraged to submit their entries to several competitions: MIT IDEAS Competition and MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition, among others. Emphasis is placed on theory, practice, and skills related to building partnerships and piloting, financing, implementing, and scaling-up a selected innovation for the common good. No trips are formally associated with the class, but many students elect to pursue summer implementation of the dissemination of their innovation.
Course Information
| Instructors: | Susan Murcott, Alice Amsden |
| Teaching Assistants: | Kendra Leith |
| Semester Offered: | Spring (offered since Spring 2005) |
| Lecture Location: | 1-132 |
| Lecture Times: | TR9:30-11 |
| Units (credit hours): | 3-2-7 |
| Class Size: | 30 students |
| Grading: | A/B/C/D/F |
| Resources: | |
Recent Projects
| 2009 | Global Citizen Water Initiative | Coupling of inexpensive water quality test kits with open source spatial mapping for community water quality monitoring |
| Global Cycle Solutions | Bicycle-Powered Businesses (Tanzania, Peru) |
| NutriV | System to help health institutions keep track remotely of the progress of nutritional programs for undernourished children |
| Plastic Bag Recycling | A simple device to turn waste plastic bags into plastic yarn |
| SolSource | Rural Energy Product Distributor (Greater Himalayas) |
| Urban Agriculture | Low-cost household hydroponic system to produce higher yield crops |
| 2007 | Biogas Nicaragua | Alternative biogas energy solutions for rural and urban populations |
| ECVO | Water distillation unit running off of excess automotive engine heat |
| Learn TB | 3-week educational curriculum to teach the school population about the TB disease, contraction, prevention, and treatment |
| Mapping Disease | Publicly-accessible, continuously-updated database to map disease outbreaks in specific geographical locations |
| New DOTS | Solution for monitoring TB drug adherence paired with economic incentives |
| Sustainable Shelters | Appropriate, innovative and affordable housing design to facilitate owner-driven reconstruction in disaster relief |
| Vac-Cast | Human-powered, low-cost vacuum device used for sand-casting (SC) fitting to make prosthetic limbs |
