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My research is focused around 2 areas:
(1) Design for Sustainable Development - this includes solar powered water pumps, appropriate technology and industrial methods (for both more and less developed countries) for ensuring sustainability within the New Product Development process
(2) Design of biomedical devices - primarily incontinence solutions.

A bit about the first one then. "Appropriate Technology" (also known as "Intermediate Technology") is technology that is applied in a manner appropriate to the context of those that are going to use it. For example, whilst it is appropriate for a computer to be sitting in my office where there is an electricity supply and technical support available nearby, it may not be appropriate to have a computer in a village in South Africa where there is no grid connection and no-one to maintain it.

Two important considerations to bear in mind when deciding whether a project is appropriate or not are:

(a) The provision of community services, including health, water, sanitation, housing, roads and education.

(b) The use of local resources of labour, materials and finance.

(Dunn, P. D., Appropriate Technology. 1978: THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD)
My research, in particular, considers the provision of water in developing countries.

Professor P. Dunn (reference above) talks about the world water supply situation in the following way:

In the West we believe that water is something that comes out of a tap with unfailing regularity, but in the developing countries water supplies are a major concern and their provision is essential to the development process.

Renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind energy, may be considered to be appropriate for providing motive power in water pumping. An example of such a system is shown below. The manner in which these sources are applied, however, may not always be appropriate.


A village in Morocco is shown in the photo below.


The water supply for this village comes from a solar PV powered water pump in a configuration similar to that above. This can be seen in the next photo.




The contents of this page are © T. D. Short February 2007 except where otherwise indicated. Please note that photos may be be reproduced if (and only if) full reference and acknowledgement of the copyright is made. Oh, and if you wouldn't mind telling me I'd be obliged!

Last updated: 1st February 2007