Aguajira: the practice of co-design for technology transfer (2018, 31 pages)
From the forward
Aguajira: The Practice of Co-design for Technology Transfer is a case study illustrating how participatory design can be used to catalyze technology transfer across underserved communities and contribute to a transfer’s long-term outcomes.
MIT D-Lab and Siemens Stiftung co-developed this case study to share in- sights from the 2017 MIT Practical Impact Alliance (PIA) working group on the challenges of technology transfer. The case is built around an experiment led by MIT D-Lab at the 2017 PIA Co-Design Summit, where D-Lab’s co-design methodology was used as a catalytic process to bring SkyHydrant — a water filtration technology from the Siemens empowering people. Network — to the summit host community of Conejo, Colombia.
The target audience for this case is development practitioners working to bring technology solutions to underserved communities. It is particularly relevant to those who are interested in participatory approaches to development. The MIT D-Lab online course “Introduction to Participatory Design for Development” is highly recommended as a prerequisite to this case study.
The learning objectives of this case study are to:
- Gain a broad understanding of the challenges and best practices around technology transfer in development
- Learn how to apply the MIT D-Lab co-design methodology in the context of a technology transfer challenge
- Connect key concepts of participatory design to technology transfer outcomes