The MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design recently announced eight new projects for the academic year 2018-2019 that will be supported through its annual seed fund. These projects were shortlisted after an exhaustive review and awarded on the basis of their potential impact on the developing world.
The center received close to 70 inspiring proposals that will put the MIT community’s wealth of knowledge and creativity to work for the world’s disadvantaged communities.
These newly-awarded proposals will become part of a portfolio of 45 active projects currently being supported by the center. Having funded more than 150 proposals over the past six years, the center, along with Tata Trusts, is “helping shepherd many of these proposals through a translational process that will ready them for adoption by startups, established firms, or policymakers in the coming years,” said Tata Center Director Rob Stoner.
The new Tata Center projects for 2018-2019 are:
- “Next-Generation Electrochemical System for Water Treatment in Rural Communities” — Alan Hatton of the Department of Chemical Engineering
- “A Novel Assay for Simultaneous Detection of Latent Malaria Reservoirs and Artemisinin Drug Resistance” — James Collins of the Department of Biological Engineering
- “Modeling and Deployment Strategies for Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors in Urban India” — David Hsu of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Youssef Marzouk of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Jesse Kroll of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- “Utilization of Creamery Waste to Produce High-Quality Animal Feed” — Greg Stephanopoulos and Devin Currie, both of the Department of Chemical Engineering
- “Designing New Policy and Technology Interventions to Mitigate Indian Agricultural Residue Burning Impacts Considering Effects on Local Agriculture” — Steven Barrett of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Leslie Norford of the Department of Architecture
- “Understanding the Sources Contributing to the Air Pollution Crisis in India” — Colette Heald of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- “Mobile Technology to Enable Non-invasive Screening and Therapy for Diabetes” — Richard Fletcher of MIT D-Lab
- “Assessing the Socioeconomic and Technical Requirements for Village-Scale Water and Sanitation Systems” — Amos Winter of the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Founded at MIT in 2012 with support from the Tata Trusts, one of India’s oldest philanthropic organizations, the Tata Center gives holistic support to MIT faculty and graduate student researchers working on projects aimed at improving quality of life in the developing world. A part of the MIT Energy Initiative, the Tata Center is on the web at tatacenter.mit.edu.