Page 7 - UDU Magazine

David Sengen Innovator | Entrepreneur Senegal David Moinina Sengeh considers himself a lucky man — and one who feels the importance of living every day to the fullest. During Sierra Leone’s fierce civil war, as bands of child-soldiers roamed the country committing murder and mayhem, he and his parents and four siblings escaped unharmed. But his family and friends were not entirely unscathed: Two uncles were brutally killed, and a stray bullet killed a girl who lived next door. “Anybody who lived in Sierra Leone got affected by the war,” says Sengeh, now a doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab.[1] His research in the Biomechatronics Group focuses on the design of Play Video comfortable prosthetic sockets and wearable interfaces. This work is at the @ intersection of medical imaging, material science, human anatomy, computer-aided design and manufacturing. emag.uduonline.com David is on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Technology for 2013, a 2014 TED Fellow, on the Wired Smart List 2013, winner of the Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize, and other awards. He he has been invited to give many talks at institutions like the United Nations, corporate and academic organizations on topics related to education, youth innovation, prosthetics design and more. He is the President and co-founder of the international NGO Global Minimum Inc. (Gmin). Currently, GMin’s main project is Innovate Challenges; the first-ever competition created to foster a culture of innovation among high-school students in Sierra Leone, Kenya and South Africa. Innovate Challenges is a mentorship program and set of workshops where youth can get help in transforming their ideas into tangible solutions. GMin was one of three winners out of 1000 nominees for the Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovators Awards in 2013. Previously, GMin led the distribution of over 16,000 mosquito nets to cover over 28,000 people in Sahn Malen chiefdom in Sierra Leone.[2] David has a bright and dynamic future ahead of him we look forward to great things from him as he leads the charge to inspire and build our future leaders 5