2009 Summer Prototyping Update

The VertiGrow team has been working hard on completing the first prototypes that we will test in partnership with Carolina for Kibera in August, as well as on developing a comprehensive health, nutrition and user survey to gather as much information as possible from the community we hope to serve.

Our team member, Ellie, will be traveling to the Kibera slum of Kenya this Saturday to launch our very first in-field pilot study. She will be bringing the first prototype to gather feedback and to introduce the VertiGrow project to the Kibera communities. Carolina for Kibera has graciously welcomed our project into their health clinic, which serves thousands of patients everyday. We will be working with the health clinic staff to implement the surveys as well as to promote the idea and use of VertiGrow to the Kibera families.

Please check back for more pictures and updates as we begin our exciting summer pilot!

Furthermore, the VertiGrow team will be attending the week long prototyping workshop at Le Laboratoire in Paris, France at the end of August, hosted by Professor David Edwards at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where we will finalize our business models, improve our prototype designs and integrate all the community feedback we will have gathered from Kibera.

~Tina