Reade Harpham: Prototyping Change.
Change for the good is a deeply personal topic for Reade Harpham. His day job as an industrial designer presents him with amazingly complex challenges that indeed, already lead to signficant global change. But the need he saw was greater than what he could reach between 9 and 5. His story of how he answered the question “So, what are you going to do about it?” will move you and leave yourself asking the same thing.
TEDxColumbus: Live Blog: Reade Harpham: October 20, 2009
The power to change the world? What would you do?
Reade Harpham knows technology and design.
Tonight Harpham spoke to us not as a Battelle employee, but as a visionary.
Harpham is working with the OneLab Initiative and creating pearl millet threshers for the people of Malawi, where malnutrition is widespread. Harpham spoke to us about pearl millet and its high protein content, as well as how the millet is nutritionally superior to wheat and rice. He also told us about how the people of Malawi worked manually to process pearl millet with only a 30% yield. Harpham and his crew think this can be done better. He is working on the creation of a portable millet thresher that can fit into a suitcase and fly to a faraway place to help feed people. The new thresher can increase the yield two-to-three times over; even with the issues that will arise in places like Malawi (There is no Home Depot and will people accept change?), it is incredible to think that Harpham and others have found the “physical manifestation of a what if question.”
Harpham asked us to harness our own power to change the world. He asked us what we would do to change the world. I think we all thought hard after hearing his inspirational talk–I know I did.