Co-Innovation: Bringing Rural Africa into the MIT Class, Taking the MIT Class to Rural Africa

This project seeks to bring together MIT students and villagers of Makuleke in rural northern South Africa into a collaborative "knowledge partnership" that simultaneously improves the quality of the Institute's global courses (in particular those I offer), on the one hand, and the quality of life in the African villages, on the other. Makuleke, a village of about 12,000 people, offers a tranquil, crime-free, and friendly environment, and a rich diversity of human, fauna, plant, and inorganic resources that can enable MIT students to understand Africa through practical fieldwork experience. As a starting point, I would like to take three students there during summer to shoot a documentary called "African Energy Innovations."