Cycle Projects

TechBridgeWorld

TechBridgeWorld research group at Carnegie Mellon University innovates and implements technology solutions to address sustainable development needs around the world. Founded in 2004 by Robotics Assistant Research Professor M. Bernardine Dias, TechBridgeWorld is pioneering research in the field of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD).

TechBridgeWorld works closely with developing communities to create the essential technologies that will help them tackle their long‐term challenges. This is accomplished by inventing new tools, customizing existing technology, and inspiring the community’s future technologists. Coupled with the insight of partners in developing communities and the knowledge and imagination of Carnegie Mellon faculty, staff and students, TechBridgeWorld contributes its technical expertise to help realize the community’s vision of development.

Additional Information

In Summer 2009, TechBridgeWorld launched a new internship program this year called iSTEP. To summarize, iSTEP, short for innovative Student Technology ExPerience, is an internship opportunity that provides Carnegie Mellon students and recent graduates with an opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary and globally-distributed team to develop needs-based solutions in collaboration with developing communities. iSTEP 2009's main community partner was the University Computing Centre, an ICT services organization based in the University of Dar es Salaam. iSTEP interns worked with three communities in Tanzania: para social workers, primary school students, and visually-impaired students.

The inaugural year of iSTEP was a success and the following solutions were developed this summer:

1. Information exchange protocol for para social workers to report and receive information about AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) via SMS (text message) on mobile phones
2. Culturally-relevant educational technology game for enhancing children’s English literacy
3. Swahili-functional Braille Writing Tutor (BWT) for visually-impaired students and a MusicMaker game

For more information on iSTEP 2009, the projects, the communities, and intern experiences, please visit the iSTEP 2009 website.

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Considered a leader in the field of ICTD, TechBridgeWorld organized the 3rd International Conference on ICTD hosted at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar in April 2009. ICTD 2009 is the premier interdisciplinary conference on ICTs and international development. The conference’s keynote speakers were Bill Gates (Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, and Co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Carlos A. Primo Braga (Director, Economic Policy and Debt in the PREM Network at The World Bank). The conference was a great success and over 300 participants from around the world came to Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar to participate in the conference’s oral and poster presentations, demos, panels, and workshops.

To learn more, visit the project webpage