David Moinina Sengeh: The sore problem of prosthetic limbs

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour Friction.

Decades ago, a civil war in Sierra Leone left thousands as amputees. Researcher and current Education Minister David Moinina Sengeh set out to help them with a more comfortable socket for prostheses.

About David Moinina Sengeh

David Moinina Sengeh is a biomechatronics engineer and the current Minister of Education and Chief Innovation Officer in his home country of Sierra Leone.

He pioneered a new system for creating prosthetic sockets, which fit a prosthetic leg onto a patient's residual limb. Using multiple technologies, Sengeh created sockets that are far more comfortable than traditional ones, and can be produced cheaply and quickly.

In 2014, he was named one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in Technology. He was previously a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab and a research scientist at IBM. He is the author of Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps Toward Creating a More Just Society.

Sengeh earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University and his master's and doctorate degrees from MIT.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Matthew Cloutier and edited by James Delahoussaye and Rachel Faulkner. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.