MIT Scaling Development Ventures

In April 2015, Scale-Ups, organized the third annual MIT Scaling Development Ventures, a daylong conference with well over 275 attendees from around the world. Conference collaborators this year included MIT D-Lab, the MIT Public Service Center, the MIT Media Lab, the International Development Innovation Network, and the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation.

 

Full 2015 MIT SDV Conference Program (PDF)

 

Keynote Speakers

Kevin Starr, Mulago Foundation (morning), and Ticora Jones, USAID (afternoon)

 

Keynote Panel - Innovation for the BoP, by the BoP

Betty Ikalany, TEWDI Uganda; David Monina Sengeh, MIT Media Lab; David Saleah, IDIN; Amy Smith, MIT D-Lab; Bhaskar Chakravorti, Tufts University; Kara Miller, WGBH Innovation Hub (Moderator).

 

Breakout Sessions

Dispatches from the Lab: MIT Technologies for Poverty Reduction  

Rich Fletcher, Research Scientist, MIT D-Lab, Angi Acocella, Fellow, Tata Center for Technology and Design; Janet Lin, MIT ’15, MIT Engineers Without Borders; and Krithika Ramchander, Master’s student MIT Mechanical Engineering, Tata Fellow.

Measuring Outcomes & Impacts on the Path to Scale  

Kevin Starr, director, Mulago Foundation; Kasia Stochinol, Innovation Advisor, Acumen; Mike McCrelless, Director of Strategy and Impact, Root Capital; Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, Founder  and CEO, Wecyclers; and moderator Kendra Leith, Evaluation Manager, MIT D-Lab. Post-session blog post #1 by Lauren Budzyna.Post-session blog post #2 by Elizabeth Hoffecker-Moreno.

 

Reaching the Last Mile: Distribution Models for Energy Products  
Shanti Kleiman, Energy and Environment Advisor, MercyCorps;  Greg Van Kirk, Co-Founder, New Development Solutions Group; Laurens Friso, Global Partnership Advisor, Greenlight Planet; Alex Hornstein, Founder, TinyPipes; and moderator Jarrod Goentzel Director, MIT Global Humanitarian Response Lab. Post-session blog post by Saida Benhayoune.

The Franchising Model: Managing Risk and Getting to Scale
REHKA VISWANATHAN, Project Officer, UCSF Global Health Group.

 

Product Design for Social Impact: Manufacturing & Assuring Quality toward Scale  
BOB NANES, Consultant, Agricultural and Development Engineering; MATT MCCAMBRIDGE, Instructor, MIT D-Lab; HARALD QUNTUS-BOSZ, CTO Cooper Perkins and Visiting Lecturer, MIT D-Lab; and ANDREW KUMAR, Product Manager, Envirofit International.

 

Marketing with Dignity at the Base of the Pyramid (Boston+Acumen chapter)
LAURA BUDZYNA, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Coordinator, IDIN; YANINA WOLFE, Project Manager, Brain Power and Globalization Partners; and DHAIRYA DALAL, Research Analyst, Office of Institutional Research, Harvard University.

 

Bridging the Affordability Gap: Increasing Access to Products & Services through Financing  

ELIZABETH FRIEND, Senior Program Officer, S3IDF; SAMANTHA AKINS, Director of Institutional Relations, Grameen Foundation; SCOTT OVERDYKE, Senior Program and Planning Manager, Root Capital; ZEHRA ALI, Founder and CEO, Ghonsla; and moderator ERIC VERPLOEGEN, Research Scientist, MIT D-Lab. Post-session blog post by Benji Moncivaiz.

 

Getting the Right Products to Scale: Technology Evaluation of Household Water Filters in India With SUSAN MURCOTT, Research Engineer, MIT DUSP,  MIT D-Lab Instructor; JARROD GOENTZEL, Director, MIT Humanitarian Response Lab and Scalability Lead, MIT CITE;  SHUYUE LIU, Student Researcher, CITE; CORRINE CARLAND, Student Researcher, MIT CITE; JONARS SPIELBERG, Research Associate, MIT CITE. Post-session blog post by Susan Murcott.

 

Collaborative Innovation Networks and the Challenges of Building Them  
With Ticora Jones, Chief, USAID Higher Education Solutions Network; Winthrop Carty, Executive Director, Melton Foundation; Sean Hewens, Director, IDEO.org Amplify; and moderator Jona Repishti, Network Coordinator, IDIN. Post-session blog-post by Rebecca Smith.

 

This conference was made possible in part by funding to the D-Lab Scale-Ups program from the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives.