Kelvin Doe, 16, is your typical teenager. In his downtime, he enjoys hanging with friends, listening to music, playing football, as well as building radio transmitters and batteries from materials he finds in trash bins.
You know, normal stuff.
The self-taught engineer from Sierra Leone has now caught the attention of MIT for his outstanding inventions and inspiring work. Doe is the youngest person in history to be invited to the “Visiting Practitioner’s Program” at the university with the help of his Ph.D student mentor David Sengeh.
Doe’s homemade battery of acid, soda and metal parts has helped light several homes in his community which would otherwise be in complete darkness. More impressive, the spirited inventor built a radio transmitter and generator to power his own radio station where he broadcasts news and music under the moniker DJ Focus.
“They call me DJ Focus because I believe if you focus, you can do an invention perfectly,” he said in a video released by THNKR. Doe says he would also like to see residents debate issues on his radio show that affect their community and Sierra Leone as a whole.
Check out his amazing story below!
