Technology and Development for 4 Billion (T&D4B)

This Readings and Research (Special Topics) course studied meaningful ways of utilizing advanced technologies for development with regard to the world's poorer 4 billion people, people who today lack access to modern technologies and infrastructure. Looking beyond digital divide issues, which in and of themselves are an important issue, we considered technology to be an enabler of development, and studied the intersection of technology, policy, and the business case with an emphasis on sustainable solutions. The course, an updated version of the ICT4B class taught in 2004, covered three broad areas relating to technology and development:

1) The broad economic and social contexts of development;
2) Current applications of advanced technology for sustainable development;
3) Current needs for advanced technology to promote sustainable development.

Within the applications for development goals, education, health, energy, and water are some of the areas where technology might play a role, e.g., through the use of the sensor networks or real-time control or GIS. A related sustainability question was examining the business case for ICT and advanced technologies -- can this lead to income generation or should investments in technology be treated as an underlying social imperative and paid for by the public similar to highways and other infrastructure?

This was a unique course. Given the broad and interdisciplinary nature of this topic, and the expected diversity in student background, we covered the basics of technology, economics, and policy, but expected students to explore specific areas in further depth on their own. Students were given readings to prepare for discussions and analysis; class participation was mandatory and counted towards the final grade. They were also required to do a major project in teams, which accounted for a substantial portion of their final grade. (There was no final exam.)

The final project(s) were chosen by the instructors and each student was assigned a portion of the/a project in accordance with their interests. We arranged for fielding the class project(s) in a developing community to allow interested students to continue their participation in the project beyond the classroom, and get experience in designing, implementing, and fielding technology solutions in developing communities.

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