Striding down a hallway at MIT, Amy Smith is a woman on fast-forward, and she does not so much talk as download information. She is one of the brightest minds in a movement that sets out to prove that the best technology can be cheap and simple. In a culture that hails mobile phones and plasma-screen televisions as the great innovations of our time, Smith is gloriously out of step. Bravo! During the midsemester break, her undergraduate students will travel to Haiti, Brazil or India. There, they will act as consultants in remote villages, helping locals solve technical problems. What did you do on your spring break? Necessity Is the Mother of Invention | 
