Realizing that MIT needed a central resource to support and further the humanitarian spirit of its students, the MIT Public Service Center was founded in fall 1988 by a steering committee chaired by First Lady Priscilla Gray and Professor Robert Mann '50 under the direction of Dean of Student Affairs Shirley McBay.

When the PSC was founded, its primary focus was on engaging MIT students with K-12 students in our Cambridge community.

The CityDays program began in the PSC in 1992, originally as a series of days in which Cambridge Public School children would come to MIT to engage in sports, crafts, and education. CityDays then transformed into a one-day community service event where MIT students would serve at local organizations in the community.

KEYs (Keys to Empowering Youth) was founded at MIT in 1993 to provide mentors to middle-school girls and to show them hands-on aspects of science and engineering that they might not be exposed to in the classroom.

The Kanchan Arsenic Filter (KAF) is a low-cost household water filter for the developing world that has removed arsenic and other harmful particles from treated water for about 100,000 people in Nepal. The KAF was developed at MIT in 2002 by graduate student Tommy Ngai under the direction of Susan Murcott '90, SM '92, senior lecturer in civil and environmental engineering. 

Innovators in Health (IIH) is a nonprofit founded by MIT alumni that ensures access to high quality tuberculosis (TB) treatment for patients in rural India. IIH grew out of the founders' original idea for uBox, a low-cost pillbox that reminds patients when to take medication while tracking the times of dosages for health care providers.

Through Four Weeks for America, a PSC program since 2008, MIT students have the opportunity to work under the guidance of a Teach For America host teacher to develop projects that will have a long-term effect on the participating schools.

Popinjay produces luxury handbags while creating sustainable livelihoods for underprivileged women in Pakistan. Popinjay provides these women with above-market wages and offers practical training a path to self-sufficiency.

CommuniTech is a program that was founded through the PSC to teach basic computer skills to individuals in need and then provide a refurbished computer at completion of the training. The program was taken over by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab's (CSAIL's) Imara program, where it continues to thrive.

Global Cycle Solutions develops and distributes technology that improves village life. It began in 2009 as a technology company that developed and sold bicycle add-ons for farmers in Tanzania, but it has since expanded its product line to include solar lights, solar-powered phone chargers, and maize shellers.

The 6dot Braille Labeler enables its visually impaired users to easily produce embossed Braille labels in any language. The labeler has countless applications for improving daily life, as it can be used to label prescription bottles, CDs, canned foods, and anything else. 6dot has the potential to have a profound impact on the staggering unemployment rates and illiteracy rates among the blind population.

Emerge Global works with girls in Sri Lanka, ages 10-18, who are survivors of sexual abuse and are courageously testifying in court against their perpetrators. Emerge equips these young women with the skills they need to live self-sufficient lives and make the changes they are passionate about in their own communities.

The Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC) is a low-cost, lever-powered, all-terrain wheelchair that enables people with disabilities in developing countries to move beyond the pavement, providing them with the mobility they need to lead independent lives.

Since the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the PSC has funded many MIT students to travel to New Orleans to assist communities in need.

WiCare (Worldwide Innovative Healthcare) develops innovative medical devices that are clinically effective and affordable worldwide. WiCare identifies high-impact, proven medical treatments that currently reach only a small subset of patients and then develops cutting-edge solutions to deliver the treatment to a broader population.

The mission of EGG-energy (Engineering Global Growth) is to provide sustainable, clean and affordable access to electricity in East African communities that are not served by the traditional sources. Today, EGG-energy operates electricity service stations in several locations in Tanzania.

The mission of EyeNetra is to reshape the world of eye diagnostics. With its technology, eye tests can now be performed by and for anyone in the comfort of his or her own home. The team was inspired by the poor user experience in traditional hospitals, especially in the developing world, and by the more than two billion people worldwide living with vision impairments.

Amphibious Achievement is a dual athletic and academic mentorship program for inner-city Boston Public Schools students. The goal is to promote “success in and out of the water” through a combination of aquatic sports and college-preparatory athletics.

Sanergy is dedicated to making hygienic sanitation affordable and accessible in the slums of Kenya, where eight million people lack access to adequate sanitation. We are inspired by the idea that people living in slums have the strongest desire to build healthy, prosperous communities for themselves.

Co-founders Kyle Fisher '13 and Aakriti Shroff '13 started the Indian Mobile Initiative (IMI) to promote innovation and social change through mobile technologies. IMI teaches engineering students in India how to solve their own community’s problems by teaching the necessary technical and entrepreneurial skills for them to create solutions using mobile applications.

Recovers.org provides simple, easy-to-use online software for communities to respond to disasters. Through the Recovers.org platform, communities have tools to manage volunteers, donations, and information.

Wecyclers is a crowdsourced recycling platform that operates in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria. By developing a fleet of mobile collection centers on bicycles ("wecycles") and using a points system for participants, wecyclers inspires urban communities to take action against waste by incentivizing residents to collect recyclable materials.

The Innovate Salone "A De Mek Am" program, a first-of-its-kind competition in Sierra Leone, supports teams of secondary-school students (ages 11-18) in building solutions to local problems that they themselves have identified. Innovate Salone brings together the idea of innovation awards with the “maker” ethic of Sierra Leone.

Essmart is a distribution company for essential technologies, such as solar lanterns and water filters. The company connects small, local retail shops with a catalog of these products. Essmart launched operations in southern India, but its goal is to create a channel through which life-improving products can reach millions around the world.

As 2013 is our 25th anniversary year, it is a great time to celebrate the tremendous public service work of the MIT community. However, the stories on this site are just a taste of the past 25 years. We want to hear from you and all members of the extended MIT community.