The Appropriate Technology Collaborative
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC) creates new sustainable technologies that promote economic growth and improve the quality of life for low income people worldwide.[1]
ATC designs, develops, demonstrates and distributes affordable technological solutions that empower people and create jobs. ATC works in collaboration with local talent in low income countries and other nonprofits (NGOs) to create market based solutions that are culturally sensitive, environmentally responsible and locally repairable in order to improve the quality of life and reduce adverse impacts on the environment.[2],[3]
Target Population
ATC works with low income populations, student "World Challenge Design Teams", engineers, architects and designers to create new technologies that are sustainable, affordable and provide opportunity. ATC works in rural Guatemala and Nicaragua and in slum cities surrounding Managua Nicaragua and Guatemala City.
Core Expertise
ATC has extensive experience designing renewable energy systems, potable water, solar refrigeration, ram pumps and low cost biomedical tools.
[1] [2]
Gallery
Programs
ATC has four primary programs: product design, product development, education and business development.
- Product Design: Choosing what to design is the most important step in creating a successful product for low income people. ATC works with local populations in low income communities to listen, learn, understand needs and communicate possibilities.
- Product Development: ATC creates collaborative design teams that include end users, local engineers, World Challenge Design Teams(tm) and professional mentors. ATC prototypes products at Colleges and Universities, and at the Maker Works facility in Ann Arbor Michigan. Once a new design is proven in the laboratory ATC will prototype the product in the country where it is intended to be used. Local talent is involved throughout the product development process.
- Education:The ATC education program provides opportunities for qualified professional mentors, high school,undergraduate, and graduate students and World Challenge Design Teams. This program promotes a free flow of information between university students and faculty, design clients and ATC's incubated businesses. Most new products developed by ATC, World Challenge Design Teams, or mentors are disseminated online for free from the ATC Website.
- Student design teams who work with ATC are invited to prototype and test the designs in one of the ATC's facilities in Guatemala or Nicaragua. Designs are tested and data is collected in ATC client communities.
- ATC provides an opportunity for student interns, workshop employees and volunteers to participate in the product design and business development process by presenting ATC designs in rural communities, rural clinics, schools, hospitals, and community centers. This outreach demonstrates the affordability, and value of ATC products and increases acceptance in target populations.
- Business Development Starting in 2012 ATC will work with engineering and entrepreneurial talent in developing countries to create new sustainable businesses that provide income to people living in rural villages and urban slums. ATC will teach technical school students in Guatemala how to design and install small scale home energy systems - a proven business model in rural Guatemala.
References
- ^ Mulvaney, Dustin (2011). Green Technology: An A-to-Z Guide. Sage. p. 24. ISBN 1412996929.
- ^ Bill Clayton and Marcin Szczepanski, "Students Without Borders", Michigan Engineer, Fall 2011
- ^ David Ferris, "Innovate", Sierra Magazine, April 2010
External Links
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative Official Website
Maker Works
![[1]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ATC_and_Michigan_State_Solar_Vaccine_Refrigerator.JPG){kind=link}
![[2]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carlos_From_Xela_Teco_Working_on_Solar_Lights.jpg){kind=link}