It’s been our first week here and I can’t get over how great and eye opening this partnership has been. This first week has been a mini o-week of sorts. The first few days were spent bonding with the Malawian interns and learning about the Polytechnic University. I learned about the very fulling staple food, nisma. Most of the time however, was spent having crash courses on standard engineering and prototyping skills. It was these days that were really insightful for me. My experience thus far in engineering has been conceptual heavy except with Global Health Technologies 360. Its only through an informal setting that I have learned how to CAD, 3D print, and laser cut. However, this week at the Polytechnic allowed me to further my technical experience in a much more formal way. I learned how to solder efficiently and correctly, how sensors actually work and how to pair them with arduinos, and most importantly how to take my conceptual understanding of circuitry to create functional real life circuits. Every new skill I learned really changed the way I perceived engineering. Theoretical engineering no longer was the only way I thought about creating medical devices. I could now rudimentarily take a conceptual idea and create a real life device. That’s something I never learned in any of my intro STEM classes. Don’t get me wrong though, I am a firm believer in understanding theory and that’s why I really value learning how to do something with all this theory. In my opinion its the ability to shape ideas into practical innovations that makes engineering so extraordinary. So if you are considering engineering take time to change your perspective by engaging with the crossroad of theory and real life application, its well worth the arduino hassle and solder smoke.

In other news I got my project assignment on Friday! I’ll be working with the Poly intern Webster on coming up with a process to locally manufacture worn out oxygen concentrator cup seals. Cup seals create an airtight seal in the compressor that allows for maximum pressure and oxygen concentration as such they are a critical element in oxygen concentrators. However, in Malawian hospitals the intensive use of the concentrators plus the high level of dust that enters the machine causes the compressor cup seals to degraded frequently due to high friction (from the dust particles) and high temperature (from the prolonged and inefficient cooling system and high friction). Since spare parts are extremely costly to import, many oxygen concentrator end up in tech graveyards. We are hoping that by locally manufacturing this important part then we could reduce the hospital’s reliance on a constant supply of donated machines.