About

NextLab is a hands-on design course in which students research, develop and deploy mobile technologies for the next billion mobile users in developing countries. Guided by real-world needs as observed by local partners, students work in multidisciplinary teams on term-long projects, closely collaborating with NGOs and communities at the local level, field practitioners, and experts in relevant fields.

Students are expected to leverage technical ingenuity in both mobile and internet technologies together with social insight in order to address social challenges in areas such as health, microfinance, entrepreneurship, education, and civic activism. Students with technically and socially viable prototypes may obtain funding for travel to their target communities, in order to obtain the first-hand feedback necessary to prepare their technologies for full fledged deployment into the real world (subject to guidelines and limitations).

Course Goals

  • To understand the social impact that mobile technologies are having in the life of low-income people in developing countries, and to chart their possibilities for the future.
  • To design and launch mobile technologies that are technically appropriate and socially informed in the context of developing countries, so as to enable true and sustainable adoption for the next billion users.
  • To learn to overcome the non-technical barriers (social, educational, industrial, financial) that prevent social mobile technologies from large-scale deployment in commercial networks.
  • To help shape the vision of how pervasive connectivity can create unprecedented opportunities for empowering low-income people in developing countries.

Course Structure

This course has two main components: In-class Discussion, and Guided Design Process. The In-class Discussion component shall be generally scheduled for Monday’s class, and the Guided Design Process component for Wednesday’s class; however, special guest lectures and other activities are interspersed throughout. In-class Discussions consist of an 80 min session, once a week, wherein instructors will lead class discussion based on weekly research and case studies presented by students on a given topic. Guided Design Process consists of a separate 80 min. session, once a week, in which students are expected to present their progress on specific design milestones, and submit themselves to structured sessions of both expert and peer reviews.

Student Teams

The projects are the central part of the course and will be done in teams of three to five students. Each team will schedule a formal project meeting time as well as meeting times with its Team Advisors and Project Partners throughout the semester.

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