Urban complexity lab

Abstract

How do you describe your lab to visitors? We design interactive products to solve the problems of developing countries. We believe that information and communication technologies (ICTs) give us the opportunity to address many problems that have plagued a large number of people in the world for many years. Our lab is not located in a single room, but rather is made up of people who contribute from different parts of the building, and also from different parts of the country. We are based in a design school, so our focus is on design and the development of products and services. We are one of the few design schools in the world that follow the open source philosophy. What is a unique feature of your lab? Four things make us unique. First, the domains we work in—literacy, education, text input in complex scripts, and healthcare—have many problems that are particular to developing countries. Second, much of our work happens in the field rather than in the lab. Third, when we start a new project, our focus is on using design to solve problems and creating social impact rather than on producing a research paper. As a result, only a small fraction of our work ever gets published. As it becomes more realistic to use ICTs in the contexts of developing countries, our focus seems to be shifting toward deployment. Fourth, though we use a lot of technology and are located in a sought-after technology university, our group is completely technology agnostic. We tend to use whatever technology fits the context. How many people are in the lab, and what is the mix of backgrounds and roles? Our lab has a fuzzy boundary. Our more permanent team consists of only eight people, but we keep collaborating with at least 20 other people from within the design school on different projects. Also, we have seven or eight master's students and eight Ph.D. students who work with us. About 10 interns join us every summer. Each year, on average about 35 people are on our team. People come from various backgrounds—