Late stages of product design for users in low-income settings.
Through relationships with businesses in countries such as India, Tanzania, and Nicaragua, students work in interdisciplinary teams to develop previously established technologies toward manufacturing-ready product designs. Partial funding may be available for some student travel and out-of-country fieldwork related to this class.
Lessons are hands-on and case-based. This is an advanced design course, and we expect students to use CAD and various rapid prototyping and mass-manufacturing technologies, resulting in substantially iterated product designs and, if appropriate, a small production batch. We encourage students from all majors to enroll.
About the Instructors
The course is taught by instructors from D-Lab with deep field experience and industry experts from product development consulting and consumer product design, including Emily Young (co-founder and CEO of the Okoa Project).
The faculty member of record for the course is Maria Yang (Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Associate Dean, School of Engineering).