Clik here to view.
Architecture, Tools & People
The architect Charles Newman has spent the last several years wandering Central and East Africa building and renovating schools, libraries, kitchens and other structures, often with a camera in hand....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Promising Prototypes and Projects of 2013
In 2013 we saw hundreds of irrigation pump prototypes, power tool parts repurposed for medical devices, prostheses upgrades and lots of low-cost high-tech fixes for formerly intractable problems....
View ArticleLife-changing Innovations at Techcon
Eight labs showed off their innovations with the potential to improve the quality of life of people around the world at this year’s TechCon in San Francisco, Calif., this month. Those labs are in the...
View ArticleWanda Organic’s crowdfunding tips for hardware development
A Kenyan fertilizer startup called Wanda Organic that turned to Indiegogo to raise money from the online crowd has shared its lessons learned with E4C. Wanda makes two kinds of fertilizers for Kenyan...
View ArticleFive Questions with Louisa Brown
Louisa Brown has taken weeks and even months off from her career as a world-traveling structural engineer with Arup to build a foot bridge in Kenya and improve water access in Ghana. Arup allows the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Five Questions with Kamau Gachigi, Head of Gearbox
Inventors and tinkerers who have had a place to build things in Nairobi, and tools to build them with, can thank Dr. Kamau Gachigi. Dr. Gachigi founded a Fab Lab with rapid prototyping and small-batch...
View ArticleSankalp Africa Summit 2017
The 4th edition of Sankalp Africa Summit will feature an interactive and engaging high-level discourse aimed at spurring Africa’s entrepreneurship economy. Premised on the insight that sustainable...
View ArticleASME ISHOW 2017: Kenya
The ASME Innovation showcase (ISHOW) is a global competition for hardware led ventures. ISHOW focuses on the design and engineering journey of taking physical products to market. Globally, hardware led...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Strathmore University’s Energy Research Center
Engineering for Change’s Research Fellow Ignatius Waikwa came to our organization while working as a research engineer at Strathmore University’s Energy Research Centre. This is Ignatius’ report on the...
View ArticleiShow Kenya’s Demo Videos: Agritech Made in Africa
Agricultural technologies swept the competition in Kenya at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Innovation Showcase in May. The winners are GrainMate, a grain moisture sensor by Sesi...
View ArticleDigital Identity: A Solution to Kenya’s ID Challenge?
A proposed national biometric identity program in Kenya has incited criticism from privacy and digital rights advocates, prompting a temporary suspension from the nation’s high court. The program,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Re-Engineering the World’s Waste Ecosystem
Editor’s note: Demand: ASME Global Development Review is shuttering after six years of publishing research, in-depth coverage of the most interesting manifestations of design, engineering and social...
View ArticleA Partnership Yields New Insights into Food Systems in Underserved Communities
A university, a foundation and a global non-profit organization have partnered to research the mango value chain Kenya. Mangos constitute an important, but underserved, niche in the region’s food...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Challenges in Implementing Digital Technologies in Rural Kenya
If you ask people in Nairobi where they might like to live if they didn’t have to worry about a commute to work, the answer is nearly unanimous: the suburbs. The suburbs, they say, lie just close...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Needed: An Ecosystem for Meaningful Digital Innovation in Northern Kenya
Meet Jacob Mugendi on February 24th, 2021, as he discusses this research on a panel in the next E4C Webinar, Digital Development in Kenya: Challenges and Opportunities. The information and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Research Brief: Mapping for Social Resilience
Basin communities in rural Tanzania benefit from climate vulnerability mapping. Denis Macharia shares findings from newly published research. Increasing climate variability coupled with steady...
View ArticleConcrete Foam, a Low-Cost Ventilator and Digital Water Distribution Win ISHOW...
Three teams from Ghana and Kenya developing a concrete foam generator, a low-cost ventilator equipped for remote tele-healthcare and a digital water distribution management system won the 2021 ISHOW...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bioethanol for Refugees: A Startup’s Plan for Weeding Lake Victoria
Looking out from the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria, a green carpet of water hyacinth floats with the tides. The invasive weed clogs shorelines of Africa’s largest lake, preventing the passage of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Kenyan Startup’s Ventilator May Bridge Local Demand
While growing up in Kenya, Wambui Nyabero, the innovator behind an advanced medical ventilator design called AfriVent, had few motivators to cheer her on to become an engineer. The perception of a...
View ArticleAfrica’s Energy Future May Be Mixed
Kenya broke ground on an ambitious project in 2016, a standard gauge railway running from the port city of Mombasa, through capital and commercial city of Nairobi, and terminating in the port city of...
View Article
