Ms. Petsod is helping a variety of foundations pool resources, including one group that is creating an online fund for contributions to cover the cost of the application.
To entice the farmers to show up, it offered to teach them how to sell their produce online and use the low-cost video-chatting application Skype to communicate with far-flung relatives.
Dr Sindi also founded Sonoptix Technology, Cambridge, with Saudi Arabian seed funding, and led the development of a cost effective measurement technology for application in clinical diagnostics.