Toby Cumberbatch - TEDxColumbiaEngineering - 11/29/11

"Engineering for the Middle of Nowhere"
Filmed November 29, 2011 - Miller Theatre, Columbia University, NYC

Toby Cumberbatch has taught at The Cooper Union since 1994 as a member of the Electrical Engineering department. He founded the Center for Sustainable Engineering, Art and Architecture -- Materials, Manufacturing and Minimalism (SEA2M3) in 2005 to bring together students from the schools of Engineering, Art and Architecture to focus on problems that address the fundamental needs of energy, water and shelter in very poor communities in the less industrialized countries. He is a member of the adjunct faculty at The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana and a visiting professor at the National University of Rwanda in Butare, Rwanda.
Toby travels regularly to East and West Africa, taking students to Northern Ghana to work on energy and water audits, defluoridation filters, solar lighting systems, low energy housing and improved wood stoves.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Toby
• Cumberbatch
• TEDxColumbiaEngineering
• Engineering
• for
• the
• Middle
• of
• Nowhere

[phronesis891]

I am so motivated about this. Working in Social entrepreuneurship is my dream ;what i want to do, ;With the greedy world, I was starting to doubt the possibility but this video brought some inspiraton Back. I am part of a commitee of Students from columbia in NY and polytechnique in Montreal are actually working on such a project called " student lighting africa". Their next mission is in January 2013 in Sahel.

[BennuSolar]

Very inspiring! Thanks.

A few questions, though.

1. this solar lighting bag also looks interesting: luminaidlab

2. d.light has a robust solar lantern for about us$10 search on youtube: /watch?v=9QkpPvNfkJc

3. Nokero and Mandarin are even priced below us$10

4. I compiled a list of lighting solutions for rural BoP and it is on the bennu-solar database, under "solutions"

How do they compare?

Hope to learn the readers opinion,

Thanks again,

Yotam

[jkjathome]

Loved this presentation. In his steady and self-effacing way, Toby and his students, along with co-creators in Ghana, just might have figured out a real solution to bring light to people who don't have it. As someone who also spent a big chunk of my childhood in (North) Africa, I am thrilled.

[nelchiu6]

Prof. Cumberbatch presents on the deficit of lighting systems on the global scale, with a brilliant pitch dark introduction. His desire lies in providing a sustainable lighting solution that utilizes the framework of an engineering problem. His experiences in Africa emphasize the design limitations and considerations due to being in the ‘middle of nowhere’. The presentation was wonderful and I am excited to hear more on how the lighting solution will scale, to help ‘countries in the dark’.

[ninatandon]

Professor Toby Cumberbatch of the Cooper Union speaks about bringing light to the middle of "nowhere" in his beloved Africa. In this dramatic talk, he enters to a dark stage, and then, as he has for many years, he advocates for "small is beautiful" and "doing more with less." I couldn't agree more. Please spread the word!