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Leveraged Freedom Chair
The Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC) was an all-terrain wheelchair made from bicycle parts. History Amos Winter, a PhD graduate from MIT, travelled to Tanzania during his work, and found that conventional wheelchairs are inadequate in areas without wheelchair accessible roads and buildings. He and his students from his mechanical engineering class worked together on the development of the project. The tests of the LFC were conducted in East Africa, Guatemala and India. Description In addition to a normal wheelchair push rim, the wheelchair had a lever drivetrain that let the user grip the lever far from the wheel for high torque on rough terrain. The levers could be removed and stored on the chair, allowing it to be used like a normal wheelchair indoors. The wheelchairs were designed to be produced at low cost from commonly available bicycle parts, and to be repaired and maintained at local bicycle shops. The chair was developed by a group called Global Research Innovation & Techn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to a 2024 estimate, Tanzania has a population of around 67.5 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator. Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included South Cushitic languages, Southern Cushitic speakers similar to modern day Iraqw people who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotic languages, Southern Nilotes, including the Datooga people, Datoog, who originated fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of April 2025, Kickstarter has received US$8.71 billion in pledges from 24.1 million backers to fund 277,302 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards or experiences in exchange for their pledges. This model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, in which artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work. History Kickstarter launched on April 28, 2009, by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler. ''The New York Times'' called Kickstarter "the people's National Endowment for the Arts, NEA". ''Time (magazine), Time'' named ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditions And Student Activities At MIT
The traditions and student activities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology encompass hundreds of student activities, organizations, and athletics that contribute to MIT's distinct culture. Traditions MIT has relatively few formal traditions, compared to many other universities, but has a rich culture of informal traditions and jargon. There are a few "big events" such as Commencement (graduation), but many smaller, decentralized activities sponsored by departments, labs, living groups, student activities, and ad hoc groups of MIT community members united by common interests. Brass Rat "Brass Rat" refers to the MIT class ring, which prominently features the school mascot beaver on the top surface. The ring is traditionally made of gold, the beaver is the largest North American rodent, hence "gold beaver" has informally become "Brass Rat" in student lingo. Course numbering MIT students often refer to both their majors and classes using numbers alone. Majors ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MassChallenge
MassChallenge is a global, zero-equity startup accelerator, founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009. MassChallenge is headquartered in Boston's Seaport District in the MassMutual Building, and has additional U.S. locations in Texas, as well international locations in Israel and Switzerland. History MassChallenge co-founders John Harthorne and Akhil Nigam were working as strategy consultants at Bain & Company during the 2008 financial crisis when they developed MassChallenge. MassChallenge secured early support from successful entrepreneurs like Desh Deshpande and Joe Fallon, the public sector including Thomas Menino the then-Mayor of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and large organizations like The Blackstone Charitable Foundation and Microsoft. During its first Boston-based cohort in 2010, MassChallenge accelerated 111 startups. Notable alumni * JoyTunes, a music app producer * Drync, a wine mobile app for iOS platforms *''Her Campus'', an online newsmaga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patents For Humanity
Patents for Humanity is an awards program run by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Obama administration started the initiative in February 2012 to encourage new innovations to solve global development challenges. 2018 winners Source: * Medtronic for creating a portable, low-water kidney dialysis machine for potential use in a wide variety of care settings, including those that lack the infrastructure required for traditional dialysis. * U.S. National Institutes of Health for creating a low-cost, temperature tolerant rotavirus vaccine for use in developing countries, with 3.8 million doses ordered by the government of India’s childhood immunization program. * Little Sparrows Technologies for creating a portable low-cost phototherapy device for treating jaundice in infants, which causes 100,000 newborn deaths a year. * Kinnos Inc. for creating time-sensitive color chemicals to ensure proper disinfection procedures by health workers in Ebola treatment centers a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
