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Print Edition StoriesFriday, February 27, 2009
OLPC launches internship team program
By Mass High Tech staff
Designing laptops for kids
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) has announced a summer internship program that will give 100 global university teams the responsibility of distributing 100 XO laptops each — or 10,000 total — to children in Africa.
OLPC, which has a mission to provide $100 laptops to those who couldn’t otherwise afford them, will give each team the 100 XO laptops, as well as associated hardware and up to $10,000 in operating costs. The student teams, made up of undergraduate and graduate students, will then distribute and help educate children in Africa on the use of the laptops.
Internship teams will receive training in Kigali, Rwanda for a week.
The organization has said that it has delivered more than 500,000 XO laptops to children in need worldwide.
OLPC was launched in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT professor. The founder announced on his blog in January that OLPC laid off half of its staff and implemented salary reductions for the remaining 32 employees.
The XO laptop itself features a screen built to be easy to read in sunlight and the ability to operate without access to electricity. A 12-hour battery charged with solar power and a long-range wi-fi antenna are also built into the machine, which is designed to operate using less than 1 watt of power. Mass production of the XO laptop computer in November 2007, manufacturing them to withstand heavy rains in the rainforest, the heat of the desert and a fall from five feet. Since shipping began, however, prices for the laptops have hovered closer to $200 each.
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