David Moinina Sengeh, born and raised in Sierra Leone, is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab. His research in the Biomechatronics Group focuses on the design of comfortable prosthetic sockets and wearable interfaces. This work is at the intersection of medical imaging, material science, human anatomy, computer-aided design, and manufacturing.
David is on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in technology for 2013, a 2014 TED Fellow, on the “Wired Smart List 2013,” the winner of the Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize, and the recipient of other awards. He has been invited to give many talks at institutions, including the United Nations, and corporate and academic organizations on topics related to education, youth innovation, prosthetics design, and more. David 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. In 2013, GMin was one of three winners out of 1000 nominees for the Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovators Awards. Previously, GMin led the distribution of over 16,000 mosquito nets to cover more than 28,000 people in Sahn Malen chiefdom in Sierra Leone.
