Africabeat

One Laptop per Child Soliciting Applications from College Students

David Sengeh, a junior at Harvard College studying biomedical engineering and originally from Sierra Leone, has asked me to share the following with you:

One Laptop per Child is beginning a summer grant program in which up to 100 teams of university students from around the world will distribute thousands of XO laptops to children in Africa this summer. Partnering with schools and non-governmental organizations in Africa, undergraduate and graduate students from around the world will provide educational opportunities that facilitate self-expression and exploration for children.

One Laptop per Child is asking for applications from student-led teams who will receive funding to spend a summer in an African country of their choice deploying XO laptops. 

According to the website, student-led teams will:

• travel to one of the 53 African countries of their choosing for 9-10 weeks
• participate in a 10-day orientation in Kigali, Rwanda at OLPC’s office
• receive up to $10,000 (USD) per team to cover operating costs
• deploy 100 XO laptops, including hardware and support
• collaborate with up to 100 other teams as part of a life-long global network empowering a generation of children
• send one representative to MIT/OLPC’s all-expense paid summit from Oct 10th-12th 2009

Applications are due March 27th.  Visit their website for more details.

African fractals, and why your computer may be African

So perhaps a better, more succinct response to Will Saletan's piece on race, genetics, and intelligence which appeared on Slate last month, is this video of a talk by Ron Eglash, an "ethno-mathematician" who studies African fractals.  Learn about the African origins of binary code, and how God, architecture, and mathematics are married in infinite regression: