Three weeks in Africa proved the perfect opportunity for WunMin (Ashley) Wong to field test her MIT classroom lessons in energy. She had taken classes in the physics of energy, and photovoltaics, which she says inspired her “to learn more and dig deeper into energy issues, and apply them to real world problems.” Now she had a chance to see how energy science and engineering might actually be deployed, and in a particularly challenging project: designing lighting solutions for communities in Rwanda far from electric power.
This MIT D-Lab venture powerfully illustrated for Wong the complexities of bringing new, potentially transformative technologies to developing countries. The need for lighting alternatives in Rwanda is great, Wong notes, because people suffer respiratory problems from burning wood and kerosene to illuminate their homes. She hoped to introduce a solar lighting option, a simple design using a small solar cell attached to a circuit that Rwandans themselves could duplicate and sell. Unfortunately, “it didn’t work out,” recounts Wong. “We discovered that the LEDs and transistors are really expensive there.”
While some might find this outcome demoralizing, for Wong it was instead an instructive, even positive, experience. It drove home key insights from her classes: that finding energy solutions means going beyond “putting scientific equations on real life energy issues” to factoring in the bigger picture, which includes economic and social conditions. The Energy Studies Minor, which Wong is completing this semester, helped her find and develop interests that complement her major course of study. “I love how the inter-departmental aspect of the Energy Minor enables me to take classes in anything related to energy, from photovoltaics to vehicle energy consumption.”
After graduation, this Sloan management major intends to return home to Malaysia, where someday she would “love to be involved in energy issues in developing countries,” which she has seen firsthand “can be really complicated.”