The First Five Years A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
The First Five Years A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center 2017
L-R: Ratan Tata (Chairman, Tata Trusts), L. Rafael Reif (President, MIT), R. Venkataramanan (Managing Trustee, Tata Trusts) and Robert Stoner (Director, MIT Tata Center)
This book commemorates the conclusion of the launch phase of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design. It also marks the beginning of an equally exciting second phase in which the hard work of so many over the past five years will bear fruit in India in the form of new products and services, bringing with them the hopeful promise of modernity and better lives for millions. The impact of the Tata Center at MIT is already clear. Faculty and students have embraced the opportunity the Center offers to use their deep knowledge of science and technology to change the world. The community they comprise has forged a new discipline in which the distinctive challenges and opportunities presented by the developing world are harnessed to shape our research agenda, and inspire invention. For providing this opportunity, those of us who have delighted in being part of its creation are all deeply grateful to our many Tata Trusts friends and colleagues, and to their visionary leader, Ratan Tata. We hope you will enjoy sharing, through the images on these pages, the journey we are making together. Robert Stoner Director, MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design
“ With vision, sensitivity, and infectious optimism, the Tata Center is applying brilliant ingenuity to the systemic challenges of the developing world— and building a better world for us all.” - L. Rafael Reif MIT President
Projects | 5
Projects Tata Center projects originate with the faculty through a rigorous annual call for proposals that typically attracts 100 or more new, world-class ideas. The winning faculty select students from the incoming graduate student class to become Tata Fellows. Together they work for at least the next two years to refine their initial hypotheses and ideas, typically spending many weeks or months in the Indian countryside. In the process, Tata Fellows grow to be engineers and analysts skilled not only in technical matters, but also in the social, political, and environmental drivers of technology and innovation. We organize our work according to field— agriculture, energy, environment, health, housing, and water—but our faculty know that any good idea capable of impacting the lives of ordinary Indians will be considered.
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Agriculture Nearly 70% of Indian farms are smaller than one hectare, and many farmers are facing steeply declining incomes, food insecurity, and poverty. Our agriculture projects focus on improving small farm outcomes and the lives of farmers through reduced drudgery, better soil management, modern tools, input optimization, and affordable smallscale irrigation.
Top: View of Punjab irrigation fields Bottom: Soumya Braganza (right) and farmer Praveen in Ballarwad, Karnataka
OPPOSITE PAGE Left: Soumya Braganza (second from right) with Deshpande Foundation team near Hubballi Right top, L–R: Maher Damak and Kripa Varanasi Right middle: MIT and IITB Tata Fellows during Orientation 2017 in the Hubballi area Right bottom: Farmers examining the Khethworks pump
Projects | 7
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
AGRICULTURE PROJECTS A Torrefaction Reactor for Thermochemical Treatment of Organic/Agricultural Waste
Low-Cost Tractor for Small Holder Farmers
Sensing for Precision Agriculture in India
Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellow: Guillermo Fábian Díaz Lankenau
Principal Investigator: Douglas Hart Fellow: Mark Jeunnette
Mind the Yield Gap: An Integrated Tool to Alleviate Information Gaps Constraining Crop Yields
Soil Moisture Sensing Using RFID Tag-Antenna Based Sensors: a Wireless, Low-Cost, and Pervasive Approach
Principal Investigator: Yanchong (Karen) Zheng Fellow: Somya Singhvi
Principal Investigators: Chintan Vaishnav, Chandra Madramootoo Fellow: Jean-Baptiste Seby
Principal Investigator: Sanjay Sarma Fellow: Nidhi Sharma
Enhancing the Efficiency of Pesticide Application
Point-of-Use Soil Testing and Nutrient Management System
Principal Investigator: Kripa Varanasi Fellow: Maher Damak
Principal Investigators: John Hart, Chintan Vaishnav Fellows: Michael Arnold, Nikhil Mallareddy, Ron Rosenberg
Indian Bee Hive Technology
Reducing the Power Required for Irrigation: Designing Low-Pressure, PressureCompensating Drip Irrigation Emitters and High-Efficiency Solar-Powered Pumps for Emerging Markets
Principal Investigators: Alexander Slocum, Ahmed Ghoniem Fellow: Megan O’Brien
Data-Driven Market Design for India’s e-National Agriculture Market to Improve Market Efficiency and Farmer Welfare
Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: Jonathan Abbott
Low-Cost Paper-Based Soil Diagnostics Principal Investigator: Chintan Vaishnav Fellows: Sydney Beasley, Soumya Braganza
Turbocharging the Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellows: Michael Buchman, Ben Peters
Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellow: Katherine Taylor
Top: Chintan Vaishnav demonstrating a prototype sensor for soil testing in Jadipani, Uttarakhand Bottom left: Deshpande Foundation staff and farmer in field near Hubballi Bottom right: Areca nut de-shelling
Projects | 9
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Energy The Center has become a world leader in rural electrification planning and design with software tools used throughout the developing world. Other projects focus on energy efficiency—in irrigation, desalination, and even refrigerant-free airconditioning. Meanwhile, our GridEdge program is making solar energy cheaper for rural communities with lightweight modules deposited on plastic film. And recent startup Infinite Cooling will soon produce pure drinking water and reduce water use by thermal power plants in India by inexpensively capturing water vapor from cooling towers.
Right: Demonstration of SELCO battery-light project
OPPOSITE PAGE Top: SELCO solar panels on the central building in the Belgaum slum project Bottom left: Kevin Kung and his torrefaction apparatus Bottom right, L–R: Ignacio Perez-Arriaga, Biswanath Sinha, and Robert Stoner inspecting a home microgrid connection in Tayabpur, Bihar
Projects | 11
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
ENERGY PROJECTS A Modified Internal Combustion Engine to Eliminate Producer Gas Treatment and Greatly Reduce the Cost of Biomass to Power Principal Investigators: Leslie Bromberg, Emmanuel Kasseris, Wai Cheng Fellow: Ryan Zimmerman
A Scalable Architecture for the Interconnection of Microgrids Principal Investigators: Munther Dahleh, Mardavij Roozbehani Fellow: Allison Fero
Advanced Motors for Efficient Appliances Principal Investigator: James Kirtley Fellow: Mohammad Mowafaq Qasim
An Analysis of the Viability and Competitiveness of DC Microgrids in Northern India Principal Investigator: Robert Stoner Fellow: Andrew Campanella
Capturing Biogas as a Sustainable Energy Source to Power Rural Communities Principal Investigator: Zachary Smith Fellow: Qihui Qian
Comprehensive Computer-Aided Support Tool System for Rural Electrification Planning Principal Investigators: Ignacio Perez-Arriaga, Robert Stoner Fellows: Yael Borofsky, Matthew Brushnahan, Turner Cotterman, Cailinn Drouin, Douglas Ellman, GrĂŠgoire Jacquot, Stephen Lee, Patricia Levy, Vivian Li, Olamide Oladeji, Eric Protzer, Roxanne Rahnama
GridEdge: Thin-Film Photovoltaic Solar for the Developing World Principal Investigator: Vladimir Bulović Fellow: Richard Swartwout
Improving Electrical Efficiency and Safety of Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems Principal Investigators: Rajeev Ram, David Perreault Fellow: Thipok (Ben) Rak-amnouykit
Integrated Gasification and Combustion for Efficient Utilization of Waste Biomass Principal Investigators: Ahmed Ghoniem, Sanjay Mahajani, Santosh Shanbhogue Fellows: Cody Jacobucci, Yan Yan
Khethworks Energy System Optimization Modeling Tool Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: Kevin Simon
Low-Cost, High-Temperature and Pressure Sterilization at One-Sun Principal Investigator: Evelyn Wang Fellow: Lin Zhao
Microbial Biodiesel from Waste Products Principal Investigator: Gregory Stephanopoulos Fellow: Sagar Chakraborty
Modeling Low-Carbon Development Pathways for India Principal Investigator: Valarie Karplus Fellow: Arun Singh
Modular Methane Gas-to-Liquid Fuels System Techno-Economic Analysis and Implementation Strategy Principal Investigator: Daniel Cohn Fellow: Angi Acocella
New Control and Design Architectures for Scaling Microgrids Principal Investigator: Konstantin Turitsyn Fellow: Kathleen Cavanagh
Offshore Energy Harvesting, Storage, and Power Generation System Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: Alison Greenlee
Peer-to-Peer Electricity Distribution Principal Investigators: David Perrault, Rajeev Ram, Brian Williams Fellows: Wardah Inam, Varun Mehra, Szymon Sidor, Daniel Strawser
Planning for Reliability and Scalability of Electrification Efforts in India Principal Investigator: David Hsu Fellow: Elise Harrington
Solar Energy Storage for Solar Cooking Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Grossman Fellow: Cedric Viry
Solar Thermal Fuels Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Grossman Fellow: Priyank Kumar
Strategies for the Introduction of Alternative Fuel Vehicles in India Principal Investigator: John Sterman Fellow: Abhijith Neerkaja
Projects | 13
The Engine Reformer: Syngas Production in Engines Using Spark-Ignition and Metallic Foam Catalysts Principal Investigator: Leslie Bromberg Fellow: Emmanuel Lim
Thermally Driven Adsorption Cooling Principal Investigator: Mircea Dincă Fellow: Adam Rieth
Turning Agricultural Waste into Solid Fuel Through Thermochemical Treatment Principal Investigators: Ahmed Ghoniem, Alexander Slocum Fellow: Kevin Kung
Kevin Simon (third from right) and farmers setting up the solar panels for the Khethworks irrigation pump
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Environment We have embraced our role as scientists and engineers to respond to the national appeal of the Clean India Mission with an extensive portfolio of projects that seeks to prevent and mitigate pollution of the air, earth, and water. With a range of ambitious solutions spanning novel industrial processes that reduce chemical discharges into lakes and rivers to the use of boiler ash to make quick-setting bricks and pavers, our faculty and students are cleaning India by eliminating or transforming waste back into high-value products.
Right: Biomass furnace at Akshaya Patra during Orientation 2017 in Hubballi
OPPOSITE PAGE Left top: The Varanasi research group at the MIT Central Utilities Plant cooling towers where they will test their water-recapture technology Left bottom: David Hagan and Chetan Krishna working on air quality sensors for the Delhi area Right top: Charlene Ren’s lab set-up in Muzaffarnagar Right middle: Visiting a drilling operation near Hubballi during Orientation 2017 Right bottom: Hugo Uvegi and Piyush Chaunsali leaning on their Eco-BLAC brick wall
Projects | 15
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
ENVIRONMENT PROJECTS A System Analysis of Converting Nonrecyclable Plastic Waste into ValueAdded Products in a Paper Cluster in India
Coastal Ocean Sensing and Forecasting for Fisheries Management: Practical Systems for India
Principal Investigator: Charles Fine Fellow: Bhushan Desam
Principal Investigator: Pierre Lermusiaux
Air Pollution Monitoring Using Low-Cost Sensors
Devulcanization of Waste Rubber for Reuse in New Tires
Principal Investigator: Jesse Kroll Fellow: David Hagan
Principal Investigators: Bradley Olsen, Gregory Stephanopoulos Fellow: Wui-Yarn (Daphne) Chan
Application of Bidirectional ICT Channels to Increase Livelihoods for Artisans in Rural India Principal Investigator: Charles Fine Fellow: Sriram Emani
Assessing the Economic, Environmental, and Social Performance of Urban Waste Management: Case Study of Pune, India
Fellow: Deepak Subramani
Exploring Drivers of India’s Materials Metabolism Principal Investigator: Richard Roth Fellow: Nathan Kerns
Extending Urban Waste Management into Low-Income Communities
Principal Investigator: Randolph Kirchain Fellow: Rachel Perlman
Principal Investigator: Libby McDonald Fellow: Katherine Mytty
Bioreactor for Converting Organic Waste to Commodities
Leveraging the Materials Ecosystem to Optimize Economic and Environmental Impact of Pollution Control: The Case of Muzaffarnagar
Principal Investigator: Gregory Stephanopoulos Fellow: Jieun Shin
Building Stability through Decentralization: The Environmental, Economic, and Ethical Argument for Informal Sector Collection and Decentralized Waste Processing in India Principal Investigator: Judy Layzer Fellow: Caroline Howe
Optimizing the Composting of Organic Municipal Solid Waste Principal Investigators: Eric Adams, David Langseth Fellows: Ellen Huang, Julie Karceski, Yequing Liu
Optimization of Municipal Waste Management Systems in India Principal Investigator: Randolph Kirchain Fellow: Dhivya Ravikumar
Sustainable Neighborhood Design of Housing Eco-Blac Bricks: Masonry from Industrial Waste Principal Investigator: Elsa Olivetti Fellow: Hugo Uvegi
System Considerations in Converting Sugar Mill to Waste to Bio-CNG Principal Investigator: Charles Fine Fellow: Leena Ratnam
Waste to Wealth: An Economic Analysis of Applications for Rice-Husk Ash in India Principal Investigator: Charles Fine Fellow: Lesley Yu
Principal Investigator: Charles Fine Fellow: Mohit Kansal
Low-Cost Particulate Matter Filtration Technology for Mitigating PM from Smallto Medium-Sized Diesel Engines Principal Investigators: Yuriy Roman, Carl Kamp Fellow: Sujay Dilip Bagi
Top: Orientation 2017, MIT and IITB Tata fellows visiting one of the Bengaluru FISE start-ups, Hasiru Dala Bottom left: Eco-BLAC brick sample Bottom right: Plastic bottle recycling pile
Projects | 17
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Health Providing a modern standard of health care in rural areas requires sophisticated, low-cost diagnostic and therapeutic technologies that can be used by minimally skilled rural health workers and overstretched physicians. Our work aims to bring a high degree of sophistication and automation to rural health care for conditions ranging from abdominal cancer and drug-resistant tuberculosis to Zika and dengue.
Right: Victor Prost working on his prosthetic foot prototype
OPPOSITE PAGE Top: Richard Fletcher (bottom row, far right) with his students, Xavier Soriano (3rd row, far right) and Christian Infante (top row, far right), as well as the ASHA workers who are testing his cell phone-based children’s health screening kit Bottom left: Tonghan Gu (far right) preparing liquid RUTF for spray drying Bottom left middle: Victor Prost (left) adjusting the prosthetic foot on a patient Bottom right middle: Hilary Johnson (right) teaching deaf girls how to write their names on the keyboard of a tablet Bottom right: L-R: Xavier Soriano, Chandani Doshi, and Honey Bajaj at a poster session
Projects | 19
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
HEALTH PROJECTS A Platform for Scalable Diabetic Retinopathy Screening
Health Diagnostics: Skin Perfusion Photography Personalized Learning Technologies for Resource-Constrained Communities Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar
Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar Fellow: Tristan Swedish
Fellow: Guy Satat
Principal Investigators: Cynthia Barnhart, David Simchi-Levi Fellow: Michael Beeler
Affordable Ergonomics: Designing Healthy Sewing Workstations for Women in the Informal Economy
Identification of Design Requirements for a High-Performance, Low-Cost, Passive Prosthetic Knee Through User Analysis and Dynamic Simulation
Principal Investigator: Bish Sanyal Fellow: Jaswanth Madhavan
Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellow: Yashrah Narang
Principal Investigator: Lee Gehrke Fellow: Helena de Puig GuixĂŠ
Anterior Segment Ophthalmic Imaging
Implants for Cost-Effective and Accessible Intraperitioneal Delivery of Chemotherapy
Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for Severe Acute Malnutrition Treatment
Principal Investigator: Michael Cima Fellow: Aikaterini Mantzavinou
Principal Investigator: Alan Hatton Fellow: Tonghan Gu
Low-Cost Echocardiogram for Treatment and Monitoring of Cardiovascular Disease
RetiCue: Predictive Analytics via Mobile Phone-Based Retinal Imaging
Principal Investigator: Richard Fletcher Fellow: Niccolò Pignatelli
Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar Fellow: Everett Lawson
Low-Cost Mobile Kit for Screening of Cardiovascular Disease
Retrieval of a Gastrointestinal Drug Delivery Device for Tuberculosis Treatment
Principal Investigator: Richard Fletcher Fellow: Botong Ma
Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: Dalia Leibowitz
Machine Intelligence to Enable the Next Generation of Mobile Health Tools
Robust Point-of-Care Detection of Urine-Based TB Biomarkers
Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellows: Kathryn Olesnavage, Victor Prost
Principal Investigator: Richard Fletcher Fellow: Daniel Chamberlain
Principal Investigator: Hadley Sikes Fellow: Eric Miller
Development of Mobile-Enabled Diabetic Foot Analyzer (m-DFA)
Microfluidic Modules for Point-of-Care Testing
Scale-Up and Deployment of Pulmonary Disease Diagnostic Tools
Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar Fellow: Shantanu Sinha
Assistive Devices for the Blind: Low-Cost Braille Labeler Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: Hilary Johnson
Continuously Learning Geospatial Services for Community Health Workers Principal Investigators: Deb Roy, Prabhjot Singh Fellow: Raphael Schaad
Design and Evaluation of a Low-Cost, High-Performance, Mass-Manufacturable Prosthetic Foot
Principal Investigator: Mandayam Srinivasan Fellow: Jessica Ong
Principal Investigator: Patrick Doyle Fellow: Sarah Shapiro
Mobile Child Health Toolkit for Community Health Workers Principal Investigator: Richard Fletcher Fellows: Honey Bajaj, Xavier Soriano
Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya Viruses in India
Principal Investigator: Richard Fletcher Fellows: Aneesh Anand, Christian Infante
Projects | 21
School children in a Rwandan village, site of a pilot microgrid design study
Scaling the Maternal and Neonatal Survival Initiatives (MANSI) Program in Low-Resource Settings Principal Investigator: Richard Larson Fellow: Deepa Fernandes Prabhu
Self-Aligned Retinal Imaging and Predictive Analytics Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar Fellow: Mrinal Mohit
Systems for Quality Assessment and Food Safety in the Dairy Industry Principal Investigator: Sanjay Sarma Fellow: Pranay Jain
Toward Accessible Evaluation of the Electrophysiology of Human Vision Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar Fellow: Amy Canham
Understanding the Relationship between Sanitary Hygiene, Sanitation, and Workforce Participation for Women Employees on Factory Shop Floors in India Principal Investigator: Susan Silbey Fellow: Ranjith Shivaram
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Housing Our housing projects address home as well as community design, emphasizing often-overlooked concerns such as thermal comfort, disaster resiliency, expandability, and livability. From the Rann of Kutch to Kathmandu, we look for ways to use advanced structural concepts and modeling to improve upon vernacular styles and techniques, while reinforcing family and neighborhood support systems.
Top: Woman next to Kathmandu pati, part of PreHub Nepal project Middle: Ana Vargas (second from left) with children from her project to transform public spaces in low-income communities in Caracas Bottom: Hugh Magee (second from right) and Thomas Poinot (far right) with Tejas Kotak (far left) of the Hunnarshala team
OPPOSITE PAGE Left: Madeline Gradillas (left) working on a roofing project Top right: Chris Porst (far right) in Muzaffarnagar inspecting bricks with local masons Bottom right: Children in front of Kathmandu pati, part of PreHub Nepal project
Projects | 23
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
HOUSING PROJECTS Catalyzing Entrepreneurship from the Ground Up: An Experiment in Small-Town India Principal Investigator: Ramesh Raskar Fellow: Rajesh Nair
Participatory Urban Design Tools Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellow: David Moses
Simulating Air and Pollutant Flows in Urban Neighborhoods to Estimate Constraints of Air Quality on Natural Ventilation
Confined Masonry as Low-Cost, EarthquakeResilient Housing
Post-Award Governance in Indian Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships: Making Indian PPPs more Flexible
Principal Investigator: Leslie Norford Fellow: Chetan Krishna
Principal Investigator: John Ochsendorf Fellow: Chris Porst
Principal Investigator: Richard de Neufville Fellow: Vivek Sakhrani
Principal Investigator: Maria Yang Fellow: Jasmine Florentine
Environmental and Economic Tradeoffs in Building Materials Production in India
PrepHub Nepal: Public Space Infrastructure for Disaster Preparedness
Thermally Autonomous Low-Income Housing
Principal Investigator: Randolph Kirchain Fellow: Nina Schuchman
Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellow: Hugh Magee
Housing Microentrepreneurs: Designs for Incremental Neighborhoods
Public by Design: Auto-Fabrication for a Contemporary Urban Physiognomy
Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellow: Barry Beagen
Principal Investigator: Larry Sass Fellow: Michela Lumaga
Improved Kitchen Air Quality in Mumbai’s Dharavi Slum
Real-Time Flood Mapping for Disaster Management Decision Support in Indian Cities
Principal Investigators: Leslie Norford, Ronita Bardhan, Rishee Jain Fellow: Justin Lueker
Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellows: Maanasa Priyaa Dharmapuri Sridhar, Abraham Quintero
Improving Roofing Structures and Ventilation Strategies for Low-Income Housing
Resilient Development Models for Rapidly Urbanising Industrial Cities
Using Industrial Waste to make Building Materials
Principal Investigator: Leon Glicksman Fellow: Bradley Tran
Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellows: Macauley Reardon Kenney, Mayank Ojha
Principal Investigator: John Ochsendorf Fellow: Michael Laracy
Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Structural Components for Housing in India
Rural Mapping and Feature Extraction to Improve Rural Development and Assist in the Planning of Infrastructural Expansion
Principal Investigator: Caitlin Mueller Fellow: Mohamed Ismail
Making Machines that Make: Object-Oriented Hardware Meets Object-Oriented Software Principal Investigator: Neil Gershendfeld Fellow: Nadya Peek
Principal Investigator: Donald Sadoway Fellow: Brian Spatocco
Solar Thermal Fuels
Principal Investigator: Leon Glicksman Fellows: John Kongoletos, Vadim Kuklov, Emma Nelson, Madeline Gradillas
Tracing Public Space: A Participatory Approach to Transform Public Spaces in Low-Income Communities Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellow: Ana Vargas
Transforming the “World Factory”: Designing for a [Post]industrial Shenzhen Principal Investigator: Miho Mazereeuw Fellow: Mingxi Zou
Projects | 25
Madeline Gradillas (left) with Hunnarshala’s Tejas Kotak
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Water Many people in rural and urban India endure inadequate supplies of potable water due to a lack of purification and delivery infrastructure. We look for ways to inexpensively detect and remove contamination from piped and drawn water and protect it from recontamination in leaky public water systems. Related analysis and policy research led by Professor James Wescoat seeks to equip local planners to reduce the costs of expanding and maintaining water systems in small cities and peri-urban areas.
Top: Woman in a village near Torpa distributing drinking water Bottom: Woman carrying drinking water container Right: Amos Winter (far left) and Natasha Wright (2nd from left) discussing village-scale desalination with villagers
Projects | 27
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
WATER PROJECTS A Discussion of the Development Process, Identification of Design Requirements, and Implementation of Improvements to a Pointof-Use Water Purifier in India
Development of Low-Cost Water Filters Using Plant Xylem
Reducing the Risk of Water Contamination: A New Water Valve
Principal Investigator: Rohit Karnik Fellow: Krithika Ramchander
Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: David Taylor
Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellow: Sean Ricks
Dry Sampling Technology for Centralized Analysis and Management of Water Quality
Scale-Up and Implementation of Shock Electrodialysis for Water Purification
Principal Investigators: Rohit Karnik, John Hart, Chintan Vaishnav Fellow: Emily Hanhauser
Principal Investigator: Martin Bazant Fellow: Michael Kameron Conforti
Addressing Intermittent Water Supply in Indian Cities Principal Investigator: Andrew Whittle Fellow: Xin Zhang
Accelerating India’s Upgrading to Clean, Continuous Water Supply Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: David Taylor
Advanced Tools for Rurban Water Management Principal Investigator: James Wescoat Fellows: Paige Midstokke, Marianna Novellino, Himani Gupta
Cheap Robust Nanofiltration Membranes for Household Water Treatment Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Grossman Fellow: Brendan Derek Smith
Development of an Efficient Off-Grid Pumping System to Increase Access to Irrigation for Smallholder Farmers in India
Evaluating Potential for Energy Generation in the Canal Irrigation Network in India Principal Investigators: James Wescoat, Afreen Siddiqi Fellow: Sabah Usmani
High-Recovery In-Home Water Desalination Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellow: Sahil Shah
Modeling Peri-Urban Areas for Strategic Water Planning in Pune, Maharashtra Principal Investigator: James Wescoat Fellow: Rebecca Hui
Photovoltaic-Powered Village-Scale Electrodialysis Desalination Systems
Sustainable Irrigation: Designing Waterand Energy-Efficient Systems Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellows: Jaya Narain, Pulkit Shamshery
Textile Effluent Recycling Principal Investigator: John Lienhard Fellow: Jaichander Swaminathan
Wastewater Trading in Gujarat Principal Investigator: Michael Greenstone Fellow: Nick Hagerty
Wastewater Treatment Method Selection for Small-Scale Pulp and Paper Mills Principal Investigator: John Lienhard Fellow: Charlene Ren
Principal Investigator: Amos Winter Fellows: David Bian, Sterling Watson, Natasha Wright
Principal Investigator: Alexander Slocum Fellow: Emily Gorbaty
Top left: Village overlooking Lake Muhazi in Rwanda, near site of a pilot microgrid design study Top right: Village women’s group meeting with Chintan Vaishnav (far left, bottom) to discuss water quality issues near Torpa Bottom left: Orientation 2014 in Dharavi slum Bottom right: James Wescoat (second from left) discussing water management in the field
Projects | 29
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
“The Tata Center helped me to venture out of traditional academic roles and explore the intersection of scientific research and humanitarian engineering.� - Rohit Karnik Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Our People | 31
Postdoctoral Associates + Research Staff Reja Amatya
Nevan Hanumara
Aruna Ranganathan
Jesse Austin-Breneman
William Johnson
Claudio Ricardo
Aditya Barve
Mohit Kansal
Srinivas Seethamraju
Michael Bono
Kevin Kung
Santosh Shanbhogue
Michelle Calabrese
John McGann
Arun Singh
Piyush Chaunsali
Rajesh Nair
Jaichander Swaminathan
Devin Currie
Elsa Olivetti
Chintan Vaishnav
Anshuman Das
Thomas Poinot
Ruoqian (Roger) Wang
Selma Duhović
Helena de Puig GuixĂŠ
Ggoch (Grace) Ddeul Han
Claudio Ricardo Vergara Ramirez
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Collaboration Connecting Tata Fellows and faculty with communities, businesses, and government actors at all levels is a crucial part of our approach to innovation. In our first five years, we have built relationships with hundreds of knowledgeable and influential partners across India. With their help, we have learned, invented, and implemented projects in every corner of the country—and when opportunities present themselves, in other developing countries such as Nepal, Rwanda, and Kenya, where ideas that take hold in rural Indian communities can also be useful. Our indispensable collaborators are the domain experts and project managers of the Tata Trusts themselves.
Collaboratoration | 33
DELHI & GURGAON Central Electricity Regulatory Commission Development Alternatives IIT Delhi Indian Agricultural Research Institute NITI Aayog Tata Power DDL TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) Public Health Foundation USHA Pradan
DEHRADUN Himmotthan MUZAFFARNAGAR Bindlas Duplux Ltd.
KATHMANDU, NEPAL Lumanti Support Group for Shelter Kathmandu Valley Development Authority
JAIPUR JaipurFoot - BMVSS
BHUJ Hunnarshala Foundation JALGAON Jain Irrigation Systems
PATNA Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission
MUMBAI IIT Bombay Mahindra & Mahindra Tata Water Mission
JAMSHEDPUR Tata Steel CSR
PUNE Chest Research Foundation Maharashtra Groundwater Survey and Development Agency
HUBBALLI Deshpande Foundation BENGALURU Arghyam EKSTEP St. John's Hospital SELCO-India ERODE SP Textile Processors
HYDERABAD International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics LV Prasad
CHENNAI Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) Agada Hospital King's Hospital
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
“ We are competing with poverty, underdevelopment, and inequality—not with an IBM or a Google for market share. To create a competitive advantage against poverty, you must collaborate with other players. Collaboration is the key to creating impact in a resource-constrained setting.” - Manoj Kumar Tata Trusts, Head of Entrepreneurship and Innovations
Symposia | 35
Symposia Beginning in 2015 and in each succeeding year, the Tata Center has hosted an international symposium. We invite many of our Indian partners from industry, government, and the NGO community to join us in both celebrating our achievements and identifying opportunities to work together to solve pressing problems. The symposia have become an integral part of our annual cycle and an important part of MIT’s intellectual fabric. Keynote speakers have included luminaries such as Desh Deshpande, Ashok Khosla, and Nandan Nilekani.
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
L–R: Srikanta Bhaskara (eKisaan), Malavika Chauhan (Himmotthan), Mala Subramaniam (Arghyam), Gajendra Singh (Indian Agricultural Research Institute), Biren Bhuta, (Tata Steel, CSR), Chintan Vaishnav (MIT), and Indramani Misra (Indian Agricultural Research Institute)
Symposia | 37
Top left: Gayathri Thakoor and Narendra Shah from IITB Bottom left: Robert Stoner Top right: R. Venkataramanan Middle right, L–R: Diane Rigos, Anuradda Ganesh, Katie Taylor, Raj Melville, and Manoj Kumar Bottom right, L–R: David Taylor and Mark Jeunette
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Top left, L–R: J.V.R. Murty and Partho Sangupta Bottom left: Hilary Johnson at her poster Top: Ahmed Ghoniem Middle, L–R: Ashok Khosla and Shrashtant Patara from Development Alternatives talking to Kathleen Cavanagh Bottom: Ashok Khosla from Development Alternatives
Symposia | 39
Top: Ganesh Das (front, center) looks on as Narendra Shah poses a question at Symposium 2017 Bottom, L–R: MIT Tata Fellows Eric Miller, Justin Lueker, Sujay Bagi, Ryan Zimmerman, Yan Yan, Cody Jacobucci, and Michael Arnold
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Symposia | 41
Top left: Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Infosys; Bottom left: Evelyn Wang; Middle: Desh Deshpande; This page: September Symposium 2017 audience
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
“ We walk the lines between product designers, machine designers, ethnographers, and social scientists, and it’s at the convergence of all those perspectives that disruptive new solutions come together.” - Amos Winter SM ‘05, PhD ‘11 Director of Global Engineering and Research Lab
Students In Action | 43
Students In Action A crucial part of learning to create and design for the developing world is to go there. Many incoming Tata Fellows travel to India for our annual orientation event before they have even seen MIT—and they return frequently during IAP and summer trips to work with NGOs, officials, and business mentors to refine their ideas, gather information, and demonstrate their prototypes.
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
L–R: Abraham Quintero, Sujay Bagi, Botong Ma, Eric Protzer, Yan Yan, Emily Hanhauser, Vadim Kuklov, Pankaj Verma, Priya Kedia, Yash Lalai, Vipul Ahuja, Mueed Ahmad, Justin Lueker, and Diane Rigos
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Top: MIT and IITB Tata Fellows meeting with village women in the Deshpande Foundation program for mothers and children Bottom left: 2014 Tata Fellows orientation in Dharavi slum Bottom right, L–R, top row: Dhivya Ravikumar, (unknown woman), Jess Ong, and Paige Midstoke with village women
Students In Action | 46
Top left, L–R: Prithwish Biswas and Daphne Chan Top right: Soumya Pasumarthy from the Deshpande Foundation and farmer leading a group of Tata Fellows into a field near Hubballi during Orientation 2017 Bottom left, L–R: Ron Rosenberg and Soumya Braganza Bottom right: MIT and IITB Tata Fellows and staff during Orientation 2017 at a Deshpande Foundation farm site near Hubballi
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Top: MIT and IITB Tata Fellows and staff during Orientation 2017 at Akshaya Patra in Hubballi Bottom left, L–R: Michael Larissey and Thomas Poinot with Eco-BLAC bricks Bottom middle left, L–R: Dhivya Ravikumar, Jess Ong, and Megan O’Brien Bottom middle right: Victor Lesniewski from Khethworks speaking to Tata Fellows at IITB during Orientation 2017 Bottom right, L–R: Chintan Vaishnav, Suhail Shaikh, and Emily Hanhauser during Orientation 2017 at IITB
Students In Action | 48
IITB Tata fellow Mueed Ahmad followed by a group of children near Belgaum slum, Orientation 2017
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
“ Tata Center support made it possible for our research team to work directly with government agencies at all levels for the first time. This collaboration helped us show how drinking water policies created to serve a fundamental public need actually work, and discover new paths and processes for fulfilling those goals in the future.� - James Wescoat Aga Khan Professor of Architecture
Awards | 50
Awards Our students and faculty are rightly proud of their work and achievements and are an outsized presence in award ceremonies at MIT and around the world. From Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, the Tata Center is synonymous with excellence and ingenuity.
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
2015
2016
Dubai International Award for Best Practices
Forbes “30 Under 30” in the Energy category
Fellow: Ana Vargas
Fellow: Natasha Wright
MIT Water Night (research showcase) 2nd place
IDEAS Global Challenge
Fellow: Krithika Ramchander
Fellows: Rebecca Hui, Kevin Kung, Hugh Magee
MERE 2016 - Grand Prize for Outstanding Presentation Fellow: Guillermo Fabián Díaz Lankenau
MERE 2016 - Best Live Demo Fellow: Deepak Subramani
MIT Innovation Initiative Showcase
MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize 2nd place
Fellows: Kevin Simon, Brian Spatocco
Fellow: Kevin Kung
Fellow: Sahil Shah
2015 IDEAS Global Challenge - Grand Prize
Medtech 40 Under 40 Health care innovator
MERE 2016 - Honorable Mentions
Fellow: Sagar Chakraborty Faculty: Devin Currie (postdoc)
Faculty: Anshuman Das (postdoc)
Fellows: David Bian, Sterling Watson
Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition - 1st place
$100K Pitch competition - 2nd prize
Fellow: Katy Olesnavage
Flight to Freedom Conference - Innovator of the Year
USAID Desal Prize - 1st place Fellow: Natasha Wright Faculty: Amos Winter (Assistant Professor), part of joint team (Tata Center + Jain Irrigation)
Fulbright Scholarship Fellow: Kevin Kung
Factor(E) Energy for Development Prize (Part of MIT Clean Energy Prize) Fellow: Kevin Kung (part of Safire team)
$100,000 grant - Vodafone Americas Foundation, 7th-annual Wireless Innovation Project
Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition - 3rd place Thomas Sheridan Prize for Creativity in Man-Machine Integration
Faculty: Anshuman Das (postdoc)
Fellow: Katy Olesnavage
D-Lab Scale Ups Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship Fellow: Wardah Inam
Mashable- List of innovations that “improved the world in 2015”
Faculty: Rohit Karnik
Fellows: uLink Team
Fellow: Honey Bajaj
2016 HITLAB World Cup, NYC - 3rd place
J-WAFS Solutions Grant to commercialize low-cost water filters
National Geographic - List of energy breakthroughs
Fellows: Infinite Cooling: Maher Damak, Karim Khalil
Fellow: Pulkit Shamshery
Fellow: Daniel Chamberlain Faculty: Richard Fletcher (research scientist)
Fellows: Eco-BLAC Team
MERE 2016 - Newcomer Award
MIT Sloan Newsroom - 17 Promising MIT Startups to Watch Fellows: uLink Team, Kumwe Logistics Team
2016 Technology Awards in Los Angeles, CA Environment category winner Fellow: Maher Damak
Innovation@ONE business pitch competition “Best Early Stage Idea” Fellows: Safe Tap: Paige Midstokke, Marianna Novellino
Awards | 52
Top, L–R: Stephen Lee, Richard Swarthout, (unknown woman), Sahil Shah, and Sydney Beasley Bottom left: Katie Taylor; Bottom middle: Ana Vargas receiving the Dubai International Award for Best Practices; Bottom right: Natasha Wright
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
Awards | 54
2017
Lemelson-MIT Student Prize - Winner of “Cure It!” (improvement in health care)
Graduate Science Award at Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition: 3rd place
SME’s 30 Under 30 (in Manufacturing Engineering magazine)
Fellow: Katy Olesnavage
Fellow: Maher Damak
Fellow: Kevin Simon
Lemelson-MIT Prize Winner of “Eat It!” (improvement in food and agriculture)
Technology & Policy Program: Best Thesis 2017
MERE 2017: Runner-Up
Fellow: Arun Singh
Fellow: Kevin Kung
MechE’s multimedia specialist John Freidah was honored with a New England Emmy in the Health/Science Program/Special category for the film “Water is Life,” which chronicles Tata Fellow and PhD student Natasha Wright and Tata faculty Amos Winter as they travel to India gathering research on how to design a low-cost desalination system for use in developing areas.
MERE 2017: Honorable Mention
Graduate Science Award Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition: 1st place
Fellow: Natasha Wright Faculty: Amos Winter
Fellow: Sahil Shah Faculty: Amos Winter (co-author of awarded paper)
Fellow: Deepak Subramani
Cleantech University Prize national competition hosted by the US Department of Energy: 1st place
Forbes “30 Under 30” in the Energy category
Fellow: Natasha Wright
MIT Clean Energy Prize, $60,000 prize: 2nd place Fellows: Infinite Cooling: Maher Damak, Karim Khalil Faculty: Kripa Varanasi
Graduate Science Award Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition: 1st place Fellow: Krithika Ramchander
Graduate Design Award at Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition: 3rd place Fellow: Hilary Johnson
Fellows: Infinite Cooling: Maher Damak, Karim Khalil Faculty: Kripa Varanasi
Graduate Design Award at Admiral Luis de Florez (‘11) Award competition: 3rd place
MIT Tech Review’s 35 Under 35: Humanitarian Innovator
Fellow: Sahil Shah
Fellow: Katherine Taylor
Top left: Sahil Shah Top right: Katy Olesnavage Bottom left, L–R: Maher Damak and Karim Khalil receiving the US-DOE Cleantech University Prize Bottom right: Evelyn Wang
Fellow: Sahil Shah
MERE 2017: Runner-Up Fellow: Victor Prost
International Desalination Association World Congress 2017: Best Presentation in State-of-the-Art Category
Fellows: Maher Damak, Karim Khalil
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center
“ …what advances a nation or a community is not so much to prop up its weakest and most helpless members, but to lift up the best and the most gifted, so as to make them of the greatest service to the country.” - Jamsetji Tata
Section | 56
The First Five Years: A Celebration of the MIT Tata Center