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MOST-reprap-sliced.jpg Win a free 3-D printer for sharing your designs for 3-D printable open source appropriate technologies in the 3-D Printers for Peace Design Contest Deadline 1 Sept, 2013
Sludgecontest.jpg As part of the Emergency Sanitation Project, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announce a student emergency sanitation design project. Deadline 3 March 2014
Covered bike racks at Fabrica La Estrella
Parras transportation gallery. There appear to be hundreds of bicycles hung on a series of covered bike racks at Fabrica La Estrella, just inside the entrance to the fabrica (factory). The bicycles are unlocked. The racks were manufactured in Torreón. Active non-motorized transportation offers benefits to its users' health, the community at large, and earth's climate. Covered bike racks, specifically, offer bicyclists greater status (as people worthy of finding a dry seat when they go to use their bike), and make bicycle parking a more emphasized part of the landscape. Improving the status of bicyclists is particularly important in Parras, as the bicycle is identified as a poor person's vehicle, and they are afforded little respect on the road. Drunk driving is rampant on weekends. It happens that on the morning of 4 June 2006, a bicyclist was run over early in the morning. In such accidents, as in this case, the driver most frequently does not stop. If covered bike racks are to truly improve the status of bicycles, however, they must be installed outside of the factory, as in this location they are intended to serve the the lower-class labor force of the factory exclusively, and are invisible to the greater community. Issues include the factory labor practices, waste water, etc. Long distance travel using bikes can be difficult. Also, bikes require frequent maintenance, whereas cars require less frequent but more costly maintenance.
WaterPod Rocket Stove

The WaterPod's only cooking appliance for the entire summer voyage. Discovery News says, "If rising ocean levels force us to figure out how to float, it might not be an entirely bad thing. Especially if the food tastes like this."

Henry David Thoreau
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.

— Henry David ThoreauW
The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1487.
Those who have health have hope, and those who have hope have everything.
— Arabian Proverb

An individuals health greatly influences their ability to support themselves, provide for their family, and contribute to the community. Because of this, access to care and the health of a community is central to any development effort.

Unfortunately, health care is poorly distributed around the world. Southern hemisphere countries are much more likely to suffer from lack of access to care. One aspect of this disparity is the health technology gap between developed and developing nations. While developed countries continue to invest in high technology equipment, developing countries often lack the most basic health care tools. Appropriate Medical Technologies (AMT's) can help communities, governments and development agencies create simple, low-cost, and culturally appropriate responses to health care problems.

The use of appropriate technologies is less common in healthcare than other fields such as construction or agriculture. However, there is significant crossover between the public health field and the water and sanitation fields, areas that are more familiar with appropriate technologies. Appropriate technology is often used to develop mobility and rehabilitation equipment as well as tests used to diagnose diseases.

edit  watch  Selected service learning Projects gallery (refresh)

ENGR 215 Introduction to Design projects – Fall 2008: Full Belly Project: The Fall 2008 semester of Engineering 215 worked with the Full Belly Project to adapt their Universal Nut Sheller in the following three manners:

Fall 2008 ENGR 215 Intro to Design Projects - Full Belly Project
The LC sheller
Innovating concrete with sawdust and clay to lower the costs and weight using materials available in some parts of Western Africa  
The Full Bell
Improves the original UNS by reducing the cost and increasing durability of the sheller  
Hot Dang Plastic Encasement
Waste plastic bags available in Haiti cleaned, cut, crocheted and ironed into a hard plastic mold  
Pressed Plastic
A process to thermoform waste plastic bags to form molds for nut shellers using resources available in Haiti  
Nutsy
Shaped like an acorn the Nutsy aims to be a smaller, more portable, and more aesthetically pleasing version of the UNS for marketing within the US  
Multiplicity
Smaller U.S. prototype with exchangeable rotors for different size nuts  
Simple Simon
Smaller US prototype made from wood and aluminum  

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