As scraps of wood fly through the air, Dr. Lew Lama remains focused. “Go faster,” is echoed throughout the lab while he stares intently at the spinning piece of wood he is bent over. The commands bellowed through the lab are coming from Dr. Lew Lama, who is supporting Drexel University’s MEM Senior Team with building a wood-turning lathe; a simple machine that is created from scrap material and used to cut and shape wood.

Dr. Lama said, “We can think of a million uses for this lathe. I envision with this lathe that it will allow people to have new capabilities. It will become a world-wide phenomenon.”

Dr. Lama has been guiding engineering students Alpha Bah (’08), David Droz (’08), Josh Raizman (’08) and Shreyansh Shah (’08) with building a wood-turning lathe to provide the citizens of Karatu, Tanzania with a manufacturing technology that will enable them to sell goods from renewable energy sources and local materials. In addition, the senior design team created an instruction manual that will assist local citizens with building the lathes with Dr. Lama’s guidance.

In the lab, Dr. Lama helped the MEM Senior Design Team with the first prototype of their wood-turning lathe. The lathe is powered by a bike that is cycled by Droz while Dr. Lama shapes the wood. With his carpentry skills and his compassion for global outreach, Dr. Lama hopes to bring a form of sustainable technology to the people of Tanzania.

Dr. Lama is a skilled carpenter and he has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology with an emphasis in economic development. His primary experience has been in intermediate technology construction in southern Europe and East Africa over a 25 year period. For more information on the project, please visit the team’s website at http://www.lathesforafrica.org/

How did the team's journey begin? Find out more here