Airbus is making planes lighter with technology we barely understand

At UC Berkeley, the Blum Center for Developing Economies and the Center for Effective Global Action are working together to formalize development engineering as a field of research - a new generation of engineers committed to making a social impact.

To break through gridlock on fair housing, city planners, citizens, and government officials in wealthy Westchester County, New York, try a new tactic: Using a simulation game to try out different development scenarios. The result has been increased civic participation and efficiency.

Game inventors have created a new game to help students who suffer from ADHD and other mental problems develop and stimulate their brains in a safer, more targeted way than normal medicines.

In an idea borrowed from college athletics called redshirting, STARS enrolls promising engineering students — many of them women and minorities — to give them an additional year of collegiate academic work before they’re ready for the big time. A similar program is in its second year at Washington State University.

SERVIR, a joint development initiative of the United States Agency for International Development and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, leverages data from space to improve environmental decision-making in 30 developing countries.

In Saudi Arabia, female gamers were barred from gaming conventions so an all-female gaming convection was born, offering women a place of self expression and encouraging careers in science and computer programming.

In Oakland, a non-profit created an industrial arts education school offering youth an alternative classroom for learning where failure is welcomed and everything is hands on, such as welding and forging. The non-profit, which is known as The Crucible, was founded in 1999, and serves more than 8,000 students per year, all managed by close to 100 faculty members.

In Honduras, tens of thousands of people have hearing disabilities. The National Autonomous University of Honduras has developed software that converts spoken language into an avatar on the computer who signs for the hearing impaired. Teachers in classrooms can teach hearing impaired students with this new software.

CFCs, chemicals created in the early 20th century, were an industrial success but destroyed the atmosphere. How a group of environmentalists, scientists, and lawyers in the 70s/80s raised public awareness which ultimately led to the most successful treaty ever, banning CFCs.

Ecological toilets that use natural composting to break down waste are simple to construct, waterless and are easy to fix. But as philanthropists are finding, getting these to those that need it most is harder than anticipated.