A Philadelphia 8-year-old is being called a hero after he helped his pregnant mother, who lost the ability to see while driving, steer her car through a mile of traffic intersections until he could find a safe place for her to stop.

• http://www.thenewsroom.com/mash/swf/cube.swf?a=V3634439&m=796461
• http://www.thenewsroom.com/mash/swf/cube.swf?a=V3634439&m=796461
• http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Tiny_Hero_Steers_Mom_to_Safe_Stop_Philadelphia.html

Thanks to some MIT students, many people living without electricity in developing countries may benefit from a new human-powered washing machine that could save them precious time and hard labor.

The availability of a washing machine could also make a difference for the entire community by cutting down on the water pollution created in open streams and lakes from doing wash by hand.

The pedal-powered machine, built by MIT students and staff mostly from bicycle parts and empty barrels, could also be built locally, and thereby create jobs. The machine was designed to be easy and inexpensive to manufacture, using parts and tools that are readily available almost everywhere in the developing world.

The "motor" of the machine consists of a bicycle frame, with the chain running forward to a gear at the end of the washer drum's shaft. The highest gear is the spin cycle, and the lowest gear is the wash cycle.

Testing the Machine in Peru
Under development for almost four years, the new machine -- dubbed "bicilavadora," combining the Spanish words for bicycle and washing machine -- got its most rigorous workout last month when a team of MIT students took the latest prototype to an orphanage in the slums called Ventanilla outside Lima, Peru. With 670 resident children, the home generates enough laundry to keep the washer perpetually busy.

Lisa Tacoronte, a junior in mechanical engineering who worked on the project recalled setting up the machine. "Many of the children would watch us work, ask us questions at the same time or try to help us by holding things, or handing us tools while we built it."

An earlier version of the washing machine, developed by mechanical engineering graduate student Radu Raduta, won first prize in the MIT IDEAS competition in 2005. That resulted in some funding for further development, which led Raduta to improve the design of the machine's inner drum so that it could be more easily manufactured and transported.

Lisa found the experience very inspiring. "The more time I spent there and the more amazing people I met, the more passionate and determined I became about finishing the lavadora and making sure it worked," she says. After the first test run, with the high-gear spin cycle successfully eliminating most of the water from the drum, she says, "The moment they pulled out the merely damp sheets was exhilarating."

Watch the brief video below, showing the wash and spin gears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd4gPZAdQJw&eurl=http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/component/option,com_mycontent/Itemid,349/id,5024/task,view/