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One of the topics I care about is engineers making a real difference in the world. I lived in Singapore and Nigeria while I was growing up and traveled widely. My father was a professor of engineering (chemical, industrial), statistics and business. He was very interested in applying technology and human knowledge to help people have better lives, and I share that interest.
People like William Kamkwamba are the people that are worthy of respect. I wish the USA was more focused on people that are worthy of attention, instead of who the news media choose to show and people choose to read about. At least a few of you seem to like reading about those I do, based on the traffic this blog receives (well actually that would be a pretty poor metric, let say the attention popular science sites, magazines, podcasts, TV shows… receive).
Another video with William at TED. I posted about William previously: Make the World Better and Home Engineering: Windmill for Electricity.
Related: Appropriate Technology – posts tagged: engineers – What Kids can Learn – Water and Electricity for All
April 12th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I really resonate with this post; I think American kids far too often worship and adore people who are nice and shiny on the surface….but have virtually zero substance where it counts….
July 5th, 2008 at 10:03 am
The boy is from my country, Malawi.I am impressed with his ingenuity. I just hope that now that he is back to school, he will be able to acquire the scientific theories with great speed so that his full potential can be unleashed
July 30th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
“Morris Mbetsa, an 18 year old self-taught inventor with no formal electronics training from the coastal tourist town of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean in Kenya, has invented…a mobile phone-based anti-theft device and vehicle tracking system…”
August 6th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Wow amazing. What a smart man and how resourceful. He built a windmill from a tractor fan and wood. If we had more people in this country like William Kamkwamba we would have a totally different society. The oil companies bought up all the alternative energy technology and make them extremely expensive to buy. That’s why in this country going green is associated with high costs. As you can see from this video it does not have to be. Truley remarkable. I love basketball and feel people like ARod and Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning are great but this guy should be as great as a superstar as them. We have all the wrong heroes. Could you imagine if kids looked up to William like they do singers or athletes. Wow!
January 21st, 2010 at 11:49 am
[...] have written about William Kamkwamba before: Inspirational Engineer – Home Engineering: Windmill for Electricity. And along with the post, Make the World Better, [...]