Editor's note: David Sengeh is a doctoral student working at MIT’s Media Lab.
By David Sengeh, Special to CNN
(CNN) - When Kelvin Doe, a then-13-year-old from Sierra Leone, saw that off-the-shelf batteries were too expensive for the inventions he was working on, he made his own at home. Kelvin did not have the privilege to do his project in a school environment. Rather, he was compelled to act by necessity and for the joy of solving practical problems. Kelvin combined acid, soda, and metal, dumped those ingredients in a tin cup, waited for the mixture to dry and wrapped tape around the cup to make his first battery. He failed several times before completing a final, working prototype. He hasn’t purchased a battery since.
Next up: A generator. Kelvin made one of those by hacking an old rusty voltage stabilizer he found in a dustbin. The generator’s motor, plug, and other components are either homemade or picked from the garbage. In addition to providing electricity to his home, where neighbors come to charge their mobile phone batteries, the generator powers Kelvin’s homemade FM radio station, fully equipped with a custom music mixer, recycled CD player and antenna that allow his whole neighborhood to tune in. Now 16, Kelvin has expanded operations: he employs his friends as reporters and station managers, tasking them to interview spectators at local soccer games and keep the calendar of requests for his DJ services at parties and events. The average age of his crew is 12.
I am a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab working on developing the next generation of prosthetic sockets and wearable mechanical interfaces. I am motivated to do this work by the needs I have seen in my country, Sierra Leone, and elsewhere. At the MIT Media Lab, I have access to immense resources and expertise. But it has become apparent to me that when I take the prostheses back to Sierra Leone, the machines and technologies needed to maintain them will be left at my lab. And, as important, the recipients of the technology will not have participated in finding solutions to their problems nor shared in the joy of creation.
To create an interest in innovation - a key driver of national development - I recently launched a national high school innovation challenge, called Innovate Salone, in Sierra Leone through an international organization called Global Minimum. In March 2012, we asked students to invent solutions to problems that they saw in their daily lives. Six weeks later, 300 students submitted applications encompassing some of Sierra Leone’s toughest problems. Some of them proposed new ways of providing quality education via the radio. Others suggested new agricultural programs for their communities. Eight finalist teams received several types of assistance: $500 to develop a prototype for their ideas; access to a network of local and international mentors; an invitation to a 3-day immersive summer innovation camp; and an additional $1,000 if their initial prototypes were still considered feasible, innovative, and especially promising after the first phase of development. Kelvin and I crossed paths through the Innovate Salone program.
Kelvin, who, before this past summer’s innovation camp, had not left a 10-mile radius of his home, was at the 2012 World Maker Faire held in New York at the end of September. He was invited to participate in a “Meet the Young Makers” panel with four other amazing young makers from America. He is the youngest person in history to be invited to the “Visiting Practitioner’s Program” at MIT, and he presented his inventions to undergraduate students at Harvard College and MIT. Other people Kelvin got to interact with include technology visionaries like Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab and education leaders like President Drew Faust of Harvard University.
While Kelvin indeed has special talents, he is not the only young person in Sierra Leone ready to embrace opportunities like this. Since the launch of Innovate Salone, I have encountered young boys and girls who are pursuing their dreams. One girl has started boiling leaves because she wants to launch a fragrance company. Another young man, who has taken classes on MIT Open Courseware, is making huge strides in creating a robot in his house.
As a Sierra Leonean who was given an opportunity to pursue biomedical engineering at Harvard and now a Ph.D. at MIT, I understand that a basic set of tools and a supporting platform are needed to transform good ideas into projects that impact an entire community. Innovate Salone is hoping to make those tools and that support widely available. The youth of Sierra Leone are ready and capable of transforming their country. By providing them with resources and creative freedom, we can spark the joy of discovery that results in innovation and ultimately, national development.
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Nice piece and great to see bright African kids getting the support they need. Problem is, for everyone of these that gets limelight and support there are probably dozens of others who languish and never get the support they need. That is one thing we are trying to change with AfriTech. See this: http://AfriTech.com
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Good job.
The subject is well covered.
Awesome work! At 13? We have some amazing people looking to improve lives with such passion.
Big up Sengeh & Kevin...true giants from the land of the lions. You are inspiring alotta people. Just watch us raise up wi continent. "we all mek am"
really motivating video? it is very hard job, doing work kinda this!! Keep going? and you will be famous one day i hope! Hope to hear about u later)
How wonderful to see a kid overcome poverty by using his own Ingenuity with what materials he has around to improve his own life. Not dependent on the government to hand out their survival needs. This ingenuity is what made America strong and now we are losing it. Why? The government will give it to me.
I was proud to watch you young man. It gives me hope for Sierra Leone if we have such investigative and enquiring mind young people who can create mechanism that has the potential to become a marketable and useful product worldwide. Well done Kevin because for your hard work and intuitive mind.
We need more young people to be encouraged and motivated like you so we can bring Sierra Leone into the 21st century. Keep up the good work
This truly warms my heart. We should celebrate out youths. They are our gifts from God. We are all born with talents. How we use them that's another story. There is a reason why Kelvin was born in Sierra Leone in order to use his great mind to make a contribution to humanity. How many of us use our minds for something positive. Does anyone know how I can contact Kelvin directly? Being a female technical professional also from Sierra Leone, we can do some great things for Sierra Leone. God bless you Kelvin. Keep up the great work.
If you send an email to innovate[at]gmin.org, you can get in touch with Kelvin and the rest of the youth doing the innovation work. Thanks
Was the liitle butt dumpling that invented jenkUm?
Hi Kevin,
Can you find me a job, please?
LoveIt
Dr.David Sengeh:
I an honored to be able to call you Doctor Sengeh. Venture to imagine this. Half of the "Dr.Kings and Dr. Kamara's" in Africa are a replica of you, Dr.David Sengeh. The sleeping African Giant would have been awake by now.
You see, I see education as a tool for the profit of mankind. In Africa, we see it as a tool to aggrandise ourselves at the expense of our poor folks.
We attain empty accolades like a PHD in History that cannot even sustain our families in the western world. We run with it to Africa where we know a PHD means you are "top of the hill". We become leaders because "we khow better than the rest" when in reality we know nothing. We end up in leadership positions and quickly become looters of the national treasury - this explains why Africa is really not a Third World continent - but rather a 10th World continent.
Learn what will feed you and the community around you - this is education - be practical.
Without a doubt, your words are true. However, Education of all forms are importanant, not only in Sierra Leone but everywhere in Africa.
Now, replace Sierra Leone with "Planet Earth" and you can see how much better our planet could become, if only we stop fighting each other and instead, use all that money to *help* each other.
I'm so proud of you Kelvin. Thank you very much David Sengeh for your immense effort to transform our country into a new dimension of technology. I always say this; in Sierra Leone there are many guniuses but we don't know how to discover them. Keep the good work going bro!!!
Ah good and all, but one needs to remember USA is the greatest country in the world ever, and we became great with our foundation on the Christian principles. Let no one forget that.
moron
you didn't get the memo on sarcasm, did you?
Awesome!
Travelled to SL a few years ago. Amazed by the resiliency of the kids there. Amazed that Kelvin has truly made something from nothing and I hope it takes him all the way!
So sad that I couldn't have met Kelvin in person but I feel that you did this up and coming innovator justice. #NERDPRIDE
God bless you! Keep up the learning, teaching and good work you are doing you are the future of our world!
@ Lostin SLC I used to take my kids on mission trips to Mexico just to see what other kids DIDN'T have and what they (my kids) should be VERY thankful for... as well as to help those families have just a little bit more (emphasis on 'little'). It's really too bad we can't take every – well almost every – kid in the US and EU, drop them for a week in a place like this and see how their mindset changes.
@ Jon C. Wilson !Geeks Rule!
Yes, they do. I am a geek myself, but cha' got to respect the nerds.
Peolple like this young man are the future and it is always wise to invest in the future.
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That's awesome! I'm so inspired to see young gifted kids solving problems beyond most adults comprehension. Keep up the good work Kevin! May God keep you safe!
ive learned how to fix airconditoner electronic panels out of nececity when they where 200 dls a piece and the place i worked wouldnt buy them and had a few residents on the place i did maintenence the fear of loosing my job made me push my self and learned how to fixthem i know how it feelsto beagainst the wall andthe only way is to go forward i hope this kid gets helped so hecan develope his full potential
...if only there was a way to buy a black guy to do work for me....think.....think.....think
hey – thats not me – someone posted that as me – how did that happen?
anyone can post as Sharif ya big ole silly! look...ITS EASY!!
I hate them!
See, I'm Sharif now....hahahaha
wonder if there is a fund or a way to send some $$$ to this dude. So the can further develop his skills. I can waste cash on iphones, tablets. so why not invest on him
Thanks. Actually, there is a way. If you click the link to this site http://www.crowdrise.com/InnovateSalone you could make a donation to the group that does these challenges and works with Kelvin
My son just did a report on Sierra Leone for his class. Had I seen this before the weekend, we would've definitely included it in the project. Awesome work!
I love to read positive news stories.
... Uncle Sam ... make sure to give this dude a green card so he can stay after graduating.
Not only is he handsome and smart and a brilliant head for all of these things..i really and truly hopes he get to fulfill all his dreams and be up there as the inventor that he is to his people and country..well done young man !!
Excellent!!
Forgot to add, glad there is one less to send me emails about their being a long lost prince or something
That's all that comes to your mind to say, huh?
Don't volunteer your ignorance.
disgusting trashy mind you inhabit
Sociopathic tendencies. Not that you care (obviously).
I don't know who this twit above is, but this is not apart of my original comment praising the young man for his inventiveness.
I don't expect less from a true Sierra Leonean. i am so proud of you.
Good Job Kelvin!!! Keep up the great work. As a Sierra Leonean this made my day!!!
Wonderful!! Great job by a very smart young man. Kevin- you keep up the good work!
This is pretty good and all, but shouldn't he be out finding diamonds?
Troll.
Loser
Two thumbs up to you David and Kelvin. I am all smiles.
Keep doing what you do and keep up the good hard work, you can really make a difference in the world. Hats off to you.
You know kids here in the States and EU cry over not having their IPod or game system working properly and this kid is making due with rudimentary tools available to him to eek out a life most of us would be mortified to live in. I salute his heroism in making life happen for himself and his neighbors.
Nice. Keep up the good work brother. Geeks and nerds forever.