Distance learning, Bond style

Teacher in Mumbai records footage with spyglasses, shares it with students in US

NEW YORK: A group of aerospace engineering and computer science students gathers once a week in Atkinson Hall of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) to learn designing technology for the developing world. But their lecturer Derek Lomas never quite shows up in the classroom, at least not in person. He prefers to take classes of the popular ‘Design for Development’ course from his desktop in Mumbai — through videoconferencing that is.

Sitting in California, Lomas’ students see Mumbai through their teacher’s eyes as he weaves his way around the city, wearing his James Bond-like shades that unobtrusively record video footage.

Lomas, who came to India in July last year to work for Qualcomm Inc, says one of the benefits of teaching from Mumbai is that it gives his students a “first-hand account” of life in India, which brims with technological resources despite grinding poverty.

“It increases the sense of connection to the people we are trying to serve,” Lomas said in a statement. “I am able to show them the street life by walking through crowded markets,” he said.

His students love what Lomas brings to the table, getting Indian inventors and designers to share their work. “Derek’s blog is a walking tour and his tele-presence in India makes that part of the world more real for us,” Eva Shon, a graduate student in computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego, told DNA.

Shon said Lomas had her attention when he highlighted Microsoft Research’s work in India in developing Text-Free User Interfaces for illiterate first-time computer users. According to her, Lomas helps the class spot “good and bad technology design” in the context of the developing world.

Lomas also takes his class through Lamington Road, exploring Mumbai’s crammed electronic market. In one video, he goes out shopping for random electronic parts during the monsoon. Lomas then tinkers with the just-bought electronics, hacks into a cellphone and gets a sewing machine-driven cell phone charger up and running.  

“Lack of electricity is a significant barrier to the rural adoption of mobile telephony. We, therefore, designed an inexpensive device that can charge mobile phones using power derived from a foot-powered sewing machine,” explains Lomas on design4dev.wetpaint.com <http:design4dev.wetpaint.com>. Twenty minutes of furious peddling on a Singer treadle stitcher with Lomas’ India-inspired cellphone charger can produce an hour of talk time.

“The ideas which are brought up in Derek’s class are interesting and discussed in a balanced way. It is not always focused on cheap technology. Price is only one design constraint. We look at new technology from all angles, including the environment,” said Albert Lin, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Lomas has also focused on Bajaj’s autorickshaw while looking at appropriate technology — products that are inexpensive, easy to use and built with locally available material. “In one class, we looked at Mumbai’s tuk-tuk cars (autorickshaws) and studied how they could affect the future of India. Derek’s class opens up the world for us. I would love to work in India or China. These classes are a statement on the progress of education,” added Lin.