Extreme by Design

At a time of unprecedented global challenges, the under-30 “millennial” generation has every reason to be fatalistic and disengaged. Yet in fields ranging from public health to education, plenty of millennials are engaged. Call it the empathy revolution. Extreme By Design brings this revolution vividly to life by capturing the experience of 40 students from Stanford University’s Institute of Design (aka the d.school) as they create products that may save thousands of lives in Bangladesh, Indonesia and other developing countries they visit. The students apply the freewheeling “Design Thinking” approach, tapping previously undiscovered creativity and draw on methods from engineering and industrial design, and combine them with ideas from the arts, tools from the social sciences, and insights from the business world. Believing that they can and will make a difference, the students open their hearts and brains and remarkably, almost magically, their products take shape and work. The film follows one principal student from each of three teams. The physical, mental and emotional challenges each participant faces create a compelling narrative and teach them important lessons along the way. Pam, 29, a second-year MBA candidate whose team, Inspire, works to create a breathing device that helps prevent infant pneumonia deaths in Bangladesh. While their idea is successful, do they have what it takes to make the product commercially viable? Durell, 22, an engineering student and track star, whose team, FlexiTangki, devises ways to store drinking water for remote villages in Indonesia. The team must use modern science, but also embrace longstanding traditions held by the villagers they are there to help. Seth, 29, an Iraqi war veteran and first-year MBA candidate, whose team, Caregiver Medical, builds a low-operating-cost IV infusion device for use in developing countries. The device requires complex design, but the team has only one engineer.