Give a man a fish and he’ll have a seafood supper. Teach a man engineering principles and he could start an aquafarm, devise a better net or fishing pole or maybe even come up with an entirely new way to combat chronic fishlessness.
That’s the premise behind a nonprofit organization called Future Scientist that teaches people to use basic science and engineering to solve problems — and then encourages them to teach others to do the same. The group is the brainchild of biological engineers Gautham Venugopalan (below, right) of the University of California, Berkeley and Richard Novak (below, left) of UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. “Science is not just for scientists,” Venugopalan says.
Among its projects, Future Scientist has staged an expedition to Haiti to help set up solar panels and is leading an ongoing effort to clean up water supplies in Portobelo, Panama. Anyone can get involved: Volunteers who cover their own trip expenses can contribute their skills to projects and learn to work with communities abroad.