Guest Lecturer Biographies
All lectures will be held from 3:00-4:00 PM in 306 Thomas
Thursday, October 27
Dr. Paul R. Polak
President, International Development Enterprises
For the past 23 years, Paul Polak has worked as president of
International Development Enterprises (IDE), a nonprofit, poverty alleviation
organization he founded in 1981. IDE pioneered the development and marketing of
affordable technologies within developing countries. The Technology Museum of
Innovation named IDE-International a Laureate for its development of “Easy
Drip” a truly affordable micro-irrigation system for the rural farmers in
developing countries. In 2004, Paul was awarded Ernst & Young’s “2004
Entrepreneur of the Year” award in the category of social responsibility.
As a result of technologies like “Easy Drip” and facilitated market
entrance, IDE families have increased their net annual income by more than $200
million annually. Recently Paul was honored by Scientific American as one of
the Top 50 innovators in 2003 for his work pioneering poverty alleviation
worldwide.
Dr. Polak received his MD from the University of Western Ontario and
practiced psychiatry for 23 years.
Thursday,
November 3
Joel Segre
Project Impact
Joel Segre is a biomedical engineer who is
working with David Green and Project Impact on the transfer of technology to
produce affordable, foldable intraocular lenses (IOLs) to ameliorate cataracts
which are the main cause of blindness. This work is being done with Aurolab in
India, the first non-profit manufacturing facility in a developing country.
Project Impact, Inc., founded by David Green, is a
non-profit organization dedicated to making medical technology and health care
services accessible, affordable, and financially self-sustaining. Part of the
International Federation of Impact Foundations, Project Impact focuses its
efforts on avoidable disabilities-- most recently those relating to sight
and hearing. Disability is often both a cause and consequence of poverty.
Project Impact puts the disabled back on their feet and on their way back to
economic independence.
Project Impact’s work embodies the economic paradigm of
‘compassionate capitalism’, which emphasizes utilizing production capacity and
surplus revenue to serve all economic strata, rich and poor alike, in a way
that is both financially self-sustaining and affordable to all members of
society. It is philanthropy bypassing the middleman. In this paradigm, profit
is the means to an end, not the other way around.
Thursday,
November 10
Amy
Smith
Instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amy Smith is an inventor and teacher dedicated to developing technologies
that optimize limited resources and solve seemingly intractable problems in
developing countries. As a mechanical engineer, she creates
life-enhancing solutions and labor-saving technologies for people at the far
end of dirt roads in the world’s most remote societies—people facing crises
that erupt in health clinics with no electricity and in villages with no clean
water. Striking in their simplicity and effectiveness, her inventions
include grain-grinding hammer mills, water-purification devices, and field
incubators for biologic testing, each reflecting her inordinate creativity and
ingenuity. Determined to expand her reach, she is systematically
inspiring engineering students to follow her lead and develop solutions to the
problems that plague huge segments of the world’s population.
Amy Smith received a B.Sc. (1984) and an M.S.E. (1995) from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Between undergraduate and graduate
school, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana (1986-1990). In
2000, Smith joined the staff of the M.I.T. Edgerton Center, where she
co-founded the M.I.T. IDEAS Competition, (Innovation, Development, Enterprise,
Action, Service), for students who developed designs to solve community
problems. She received a MacArthur fellowship in 2004.
Thursday,
November 17
Michael Rosberg
Lecturer, University of Belize
Michael Rosberg is a Lecturer at the University of Belize. He has worked as a high school teacher in Colombia and Canada, a Develop Project Officer for the Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO) and Director of Development Programmes for the International Department of the Canadian Co-operative Association. He has done development project consulting work for Government of Canada and for non-governmental and multi-lateral development organizations in Canada the USA and developing nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, Dr. Rosberg serves as part time lecturer at the University of Belize and Galen University in Belize, Central America. He is married and has three children and three grandchildren. His publication, The Power of Greed: Collective Action in International Development, is available November 28th; and suggests that in order for development to be successful it must speak directly to the self-interest of individuals in targeted communities.
Thursday,
December 1
Benjamin Linder
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Franklin
W. Olin College of Engineering
Dr. Benjamin Linder is passionate about the practice of design and design
learning. He is especially interested in socially responsible and sustainable
product design. His design work also involves the adaptation of engineering
techniques to the arts. He is actively involved in entrepreneurship and is
currently studying business structures for social ventures. Recently, he
co-founded a software company focused on delivering product development tools
to large manufacturing firms.
Dr. Linder received a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.S.E. in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he studied
engineering design with Professor Panos Papalambros. He received his M.S. and
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
where he studied product design and design education with Professor Woodie
Flowers.