A $12 computer of sorts - a cheap keyboard and Nintendo-like console - already exists in India, where people hook the devices to home TVs to run simple games and programs.
But Lomas, an American graduate student who stumbled across the computers in Bangalore while on an internship last summer, hit on the idea of upgrading the devices 1980s-era technology.
He and others at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology symposium hope to soup up the systems - which are based on old Apple II computers - with rudimentary Web access and more.
My generation all had Apple IIs that we learned to type and play games on, the 27-year-old said. If we can get buy-in from programmers, we can develop these devices and give (Third World) schools Apple II computer labs like the ones I grew up with.
A six-member team at the MIT conference is working on writing improved programs and hooking the devices to the Web through cell phones. The group also wants to add memory chips - which the devices currently lack - to allow users to write and store their own programs.
Team members have already recruited Apple II enthusiasts to help with the programming.
The group has also contacted an Indian nonprofit that expressed interest in using the devices to train village micro-loan officers.
Also, the teams foreign members - who hail from Brazil, Ghana and India - plan to do market research on the souped-up devices back home.
We think we can develop a really good educational tool that could give kids exposure to keyboards, typing and mouse usage at an early age, said Austin-Breneman, a 25-year-old MIT graduate and a mechanical engineer.
