Innovative Designs for Impoverished Communities

Monday on Word of Mouth, we take a look at improving life on the ground for the 2.7 billion people in the world living on less than $2 a day.

Bicycle wheels that can thresh millet, Lego-like bricks created from soil, and electric generators hooked-up to irrigation pumps are simple projects that could go a long way toward improving the lives of millions of people in developing countries. That's the guiding principle behind a month-long summer workshop that just wrapped up at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The International Development Design Summit was initiated by Amy Smith, a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at MIT and the recipient of a 2004 MacArthur "Genius Grant." Smith joins Word of Mouth to talk about the ideas that came out of the summit.

(Photo by Niall Walsh)