Since 2008, ATC has worked with engineering professionals and university students to design appropriate solutions to common development challenges.

Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, their office is set in the midst of the tool library at Maker Works where they work with volunteer engineers to build and test new appropriate technologies.
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Their community network in Guatemala provides an ideal test site for developing world contexts. They collaborate with community members to design, build and test new technologies and programs to suit their daily realities.
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They share their designs open-source from their Design Library to empower grassroots organizations with appropriate, affordable solutions to development problems. Their designs have been downloaded 7,500 times with responses from communities in Papua New Guinea, India and 41 other countries.

In 2011, ATC began exploring solar power and wind power solutions to address Energy Poverty in the Western Highlands of Guatemala.

Over the course of the following 6 years, Mayan Power and Light was born of community requests for solar power and high demand for job opportunities for women.
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ATC designed the Mayan Power and Light (MPL) program in direct partnership with local organizations and community representatives who informed their programs based on their experiences on the ground and participant feedback. Pilot projects naturally led us to design the innovative MPL program as it is today.