16 year-old Sierra Leone Native Kelvin Doe ASTOUNDS MIT Experts with Self-Taught Engineering Skills
16 year-old Sierra Leone native Kelvin Doe is the youngest person to be invited to MIT’s “Visiting Practitioner’s Program.”
Essentially a self-taught engineer, Doe was making batteries and generators from discarded household items at 13.
His accomplishments are astounding; he runs his own community radio station, and he created a battery that provides light for homes in his neighborhood.
“The lights will come on once in a week, and the rest of the month, dark,” Doe told interviewers.
It took several attempts before Doe finally had a working prototype for the battery — a combination of soda, acid and metal, wrapped together by tape.
MIT discovered Doe during Innovate Salone, a national high school innovation challenge held in Sierra Leone by an international organization called Global Minimum. Doctoral student David Sengeh recognized his skills right away.
“It’s very inspirational,” Sengeh said in the video. “He created a generator because he needed it.”
He is slated to be a resident practitioner at MIT’s International Development Initiative, and a guest presenter at Harvard.
Incredible. Best of luck to this talented young man.
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