ThinkCycle: Supporting Open Source Collaboration and Sustainable Engineering Design in Education

In this paper, we describe an approach for Open Collaborative Design of sustainable engineering solutions in critical problem domains. ThinkCycle is a student-led initiative established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2000. The initiative was developed to support cooperative and sustainable design for challenges of critical impact, particularly those related to the environment and underprivileged communities. As part of this initiative, in spring 2001 and 2002 we conducted experimental design studios at MIT, through a course called Design that Matters. The goal of the studio courses was to provide engineering students with exposure to design challenges posed by individuals and organizations working in underserved communities. Student teams built working prototypes with peer review from local domain experts, and documented their ongoing design solutions using an online collaboration platform. We developed webbased collaboration tools to capture ongoing challenges, evolving design rationale, peer reviews and intellectual contributions within a searchable public online database. Working prototypes from several design projects have been demonstrated in areas such as clean water access, cholera treatment devices, low-cost eyewear, and passive incubators for premature infants; many of the innovations are being field-tested, patented and licensed for commercial production. An evaluation study is being conducted to assess the nature of collaborative design, learning outcomes and social attitudes of students towards cooperative initiatives and their intellectual property, using online surveys and intensive interviews. In this paper, we discuss the preliminary outcomes from this initiative, early results from the ongoing evaluation studies, and highlight many critical issues for open collaboration towards sustainable design. 1 Sustainable Design Innovation with Open Source Collaboration? How does one go about designing better water filters for the 1.7 billion people lacking access to clean water, simplified IV treatment devices for cholera patients in refugee camps, low-cost prescription eye-wear for communities in Africa or temporary shelters for disaster relief? In our view, it is possible to improve the way existing market mechanisms, academia and government organizations address critical design challenges in underserved communities and the environment. One way to address sustainable design in critical problem domains is by taking advantage of the unique experiences and expertise of individuals in diverse institutions and localized settings. Innovation may emerge by a nexus of individual and cooperative efforts, while distribution and access requires yet another range of mechanisms and channels. How do we ensure that there is 1 http://www.thinkcycle.org 2 http://www.thinkcycle.org/dtm