William Kamkwamba was 14 and living in Malawi when he built a windmill out of scrap parts based on a design he found in an old textbook.
Here is a quote from an interview[1] with him:
"So, when Tom told me I could find any information on the Internet, the first thing I did was search Google for windmills. I was amazed that I could find pictures and information — even instructions about how to build windmills. When I built my windmill I just used a book with pictures! I was amazed. Everything I needed to learn had been hidden in the Internet the whole time!"
Here is a quote from an interview[1] with him:
"So, when Tom told me I could find any information on the Internet, the first thing I did was search Google for windmills. I was amazed that I could find pictures and information — even instructions about how to build windmills. When I built my windmill I just used a book with pictures! I was amazed. Everything I needed to learn had been hidden in the Internet the whole time!"
Here is his TED talk about building the windmill:
http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_t...
1 - http://blog.ted.com/2009/09/23/how_my_windmill/