There is something about hiking for 6+ hours and eating cold oats and canned beans for 3 days straight that makes you long for civilization. But in all seriousness in order to end with a bang, we decided to climb the tallest mountain in the country, the Mulanje Massif or Mt. Mulanje. Rising 3002 meters above sea level, the peak named Sapitwa literally translates as “Don’t Go”. Not being an avid hiker or remotely outdoorsy, my experience reaching the peak was a struggle to say the least. In fact the only other mountain I have hiked in earnest is Michiru at the beginning of the trip. But with the suffering and pain I learned a valuable lesson in desirable difficulties and what it means to persevere. 

In cognitive psychology, desirable difficulties is a method of effective learning that was pioneered by Robert A Bjork. The basic concept is that putting yourself through challenging situations helps you better learn concepts and improve long term performance. While climbing a sheer rock faces with no training and equating this to my life is a quite literal (and very inaccurate) interpretation of this, nevertheless it provided valuable insight into the field of engineering helping me learn more about myself and my limitations both physically and mentally.

Much like hiking, the prototyping process needs to be done one step at a time. Whether brainstorming, choosing the best solution, or even prototyping, everything can be broken down into manageable sized chunks. I remember that when the project was first announced I selected protecting cup seals from dust in oxygen concentrators specifically because I did not know where to start with this project. One of my previous blog posts even detailed how hard it was to find the source of the problem when talking to technicians. But with guidance and by progressing slowly and purposefully, eventually my partner and I were able to build filter box prototypes and test them. More tests need to be done (some where inconclusive) and by no means is our solution the best or only solution, but at least it was a good start in my opinion. Now that my project, and by extension the internship is over, just like reflecting on the mountain it is amazing how much we’ve all accomplished in such a short time. Just like starting the internship by climbing a mountain and ending it by climbing a mountain everything has made full circle. Hopefully my project (either the improved internal or improved external air filter) will be continued after I go and can demonstrate a measurable impact. But for now what I am really looking forward to is a long shower, a hot meal, and a warm bed to sleep in.

To say that today is a big day for Rice 360 is an understatement. For the past year this program has been applying for the 100&change grant from the MacArthur which from the foundation website would provide 100 million dollars to “fund a single proposal that promises real and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time.” The Rice 360 Institute of Global Health is currently one of the 8 semifinalists; the proposal is to deploy a 16 piece Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST) package prevent 85% of neonatal deaths in Malawi and to reduce newborn mortality by 50% in 10 years. Much more information can be found on the MacArthur Foundation website and the Rice 360 Nest 360 page, but being able to intern during this pivotal time, I’ve been lucky to see the parts of the process behind the scenes and talk to some of the very accomplished professors, doctors, and entrepreneurs.

One of the people I’ve been privileged to get a chance to talk to was Professor Kara Palamountain, a research associate professor and global health lecturer at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management with extensive experience in entrepreneurship and industry. An expert on technology adoption, talking with her was illuminating to see what happens after the engineering design and next steps for successful implementation. This is especially relevant in developing areas where needed technology already exists, but distribution is challenging preventing widespread access. As a result many companies focus their resources in areas that are already well connected which creates an even greater disparity. An comparison she gave was to think of a lemonade stand selling drinks in on a certain street. If the stand earns enough money to expand their business they can either choose to sell other goods like sugar cookies or open up new stands in other areas. But because more people are needed to run the stand and relationships with the new neighbors need to be established many times it’s much easier to build up rather than build out. RICE 360, in addition to tailoring technologies for these developing regions, endeavors to build out and establish a roadmap for implementation, increasing both access and opportunities for more companies to follow.

So with such a daunting task ahead, what makes someone suited to undertake such an endeavor? More generally, what makes someone a good entrepreneur? Connections? Charisma? Determination? Interestingly enough Professor Palamountain immediately answered knowing when to quit. Rather than persevering, picking and choosing your battles can help sort out great ideas from lackluster ones. This is especially relevant to me in the context of GLHT 360; the silica goggles I worked on may be useful but upon conferring with medical professionals there are many other issues here especially like fixing oxygen concentrators that are more pressing. While it is disheartening it is better to understand that this is just part of the process and move on. But this advice will be definitely something to consider in the years to come where things will have much less structure than university.

What does a Swiss Army knife, Cholula Hot Sauce, and a portable phone charger have in common? First and foremost these are all things I am thankful to have brought with me on this trip. More relevant, these items all started out as concepts or ideas waiting to be realized. As an engineer, when testing solutions and building a prototype, a lot of the time is spent on optimization or improving on existing ideas. However, an arguably more critical step is brainstorming. A good idea determines whether a product or solution even has a chance to be implemented and will literally make or break a project. But even though it’s so important, this is probably the least structured step of the engineering design process and the hardest to define. So with that in mind, where does an good idea come from?

I am certainly not qualified to answer a question like that but I will say to me the best way to generate ideas that have merit is a combination of identifying needs and unstructured personal time. The former is pretty straightforward, but the latter are where some of the craziest ideas are generated. At the design studio in order to facilitate innovation and boost productivity we are given time to find and work on our own personal projects; this time is called 20% time. Pioneered by Google , this freedom is responsible for gmail and Adsense among others. It is supposed to be 20% of the working day but due to time constraints this usually happens on Friday afternoons. Since my main project here is currently entering its final stages I wanted to use this space to talk about some of the other projects I have been working on.

The first and most impressive project I have worked on is creating a reusable internal air filter which can be cleaned and can be used across different concentrator models. With all the experience and knowledge I’ve gained, I decided to apply this to internal air filtering in order to solve another common problem. The prototype consists of HEPA filter paper that is sandwiched between two sides of a box which allows for natural baffling of the material, an air tight seal and a mechanism to open and close the device should the paper need to be washed. Currently it is held together by two rubber bands which is easily replaceable but a latch mechanism can be developed to reduce the amount of parts associated with the device. The two green attachment ports fit in both the new life and the devil bliss machines and the different port lengths are to prevent excess blockage of airflow. Preliminary testing demonstrates that concentrator output is the same as the regular filter, but since this is still very early on in the prototyping process more testing needs to be done on efficiency and comparability across different concentrator models.

Other projects I have worked on including learning how to better use Inkscape, designing a logo for the Chinese Student Association and making souvenirs for friends and family back home. But the most valuable lessons learned from 20% time was how to use the different devices and the seemingly random ideas generated from these passion pursuits. Brainstorming is such an organic process; Friday afternoons really helped kick-start the process, better preparing me for my main project.

Reading the short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (the basis for the movie Arrival) I became preoccupied with the notion of time and how culture morphs the elusive concept. In the short story we learn- through the perspective of a linguistics professor-of humanity trying to communicate with extraterrestrial visitors who understand time very differently. The more she learns their language the more she begins to experience time as they do. From an scientific background time’s arrow is the result of entropy (caveat: after reading Story of Your Life this may just be an anthropocentric conclusion). Time’s one-directionality is a notion that I can safely assume ALL humans experience and understand. If not please contact me, I’d love to talk! This lead me to question whether culture impacts humanity’s understanding of time.

My time in Malawi has really showed me how culture truly warps time. Forewarning, I’m not saying that culture influences “scientific time” but instead that our perception and anthropomorphism of time. For example, in the States we have a saying that time is money and money is time. This causes us to be more sparing with our free time. Our culture on one hand stresses timeliness and scheduling which makes for an efficient workforce on the other hand workaholic-ism is also stressed.

Busyness is worn as a badge of honor, pervading every nook and cranny of American culture. From hospitals to college campuses, an inordinate workload has become our national pastime. Our cultural perception of time as limited and commercially valuable causes us to value this workload hysteria even with its exhaustive consequences. Using time to its fullest extent and more is a sign of maturity, success, righteousness, and modernity.

Here in Malawi time marches at a slower pace. There doesn’t seem to be a culture obsession with time. This is evident in what is playfully known as Malawian time. Wether it’s waiting to be served at a restaurant to scheduling meetings, time is negotiable. As a visitor I was at first taken aback by the long waits at restaurants, the tardiness, and the disregard for set meeting times. However, after taking a step back and realizing that I was projecting a Western understanding I was able to see the beauty in the slower pace and learned how to implement in my life.

Our cultural understanding of time is unnecessarily stressful and even though some of us may believe we work better in this stressful environment our mental health and health records show otherwise. In Malawi a lassie-fair approach does indeed make the work day and people more enjoyable (earning them the title Warm heart of Africa). I believe that both Malawian and Americans could learn so much from this difference. We know that valuing time does indeed create a more efficient society but at the same time commodifying time harms said society.

The more time I spend in Malawi the more I learn to value time with all of its paradoxes and abstractions. Time isn’t money, time is something much more special and profound. So let’s not waste it on our cultural obsession with success. Instead let’s learn to use it efficiently and meaningfully. Also who doesn’t love longer lunch breaks!

To be an electrical engineer doesn’t only mean designing and implementing the design but you should also be able to diagnose, troubleshoot and fix some faults in electrical devices. For the past 4 weeks that’s what I have been doing. We (with my partner) call ourselves TEAM ReMeDe (REpairing MEdical Devices).

Our main focus was on the oxygen concentrator; we learnt how they operate, some common faults encountered and basic procedures on how to fix them. The job wasn’t that easy as to all of us it was our first time working on that machine but with the help of the service manual and some advice from our supervisor George we managed to fix all the machines that were brought to us to us.

So basically the common faults with the oxygen concentrators that we worked on were the wearing out of the compresser kits, contaminated sieve beds, blown out fuses and constricted pipes. All these problems could cause the oxygen concentrator to produce no or less oxygen concentration.

One thing I have learnt through this internship is that lessons learned from mistakes are of great worth. I remember  when  we were trying to fix the first oxygen concentrator and burnt the sensor the other teams started laughing us they even  changed our team name to burmede (burning medical devices).it was so discouraging coz that moment I felt like we couldn’t do it anymore, I felt like a failure. But that pushed me forward coz since that incident we tried to follow the necessary procedures so we could not damage other components again. The most challenging task I faced during the repairing was the replacement of the cup seals to the compressor. It wasn’t an easy task to try fitting the cup seals on the cup. But all in all it was really fun….

Adios amigo…….

Its been while without posting but work was still the order of the day. Soon after completion of hospital visits, more research on our project was done.  We had to understand the properties of the material that we were to use  for producing the compressor cup seal. The material is called the PTFE and its a self lubricating material.  We thereafter  had to come up with CAD drawing to use for laser cutting. At our disposal, we had three types of the PTFE material but we worked only with two. The difference mainly is the infill.  Cup seals then had to be tested to compare the performance  and the rate of wearing of the two materials.

The testing of cup seals required us to collect pressure readings for a period of 3 days. why pressure? its because the  function of cup seals  is to prevent air leakages during compression in the compressor. low air pressure than the recommended range of 10 to 30 psi would mean something is wrong with the compression process; more likely air leakages in the cylinder.  Collection of this data had to be done as often as every minute.   pressure analyse was not an option hence we had to come up with an Arduion data logger.   This was another interesting part of the project as we had to learn more coding and pressure sensors.

We tested one material so far (white one) and it turns out to wear out more rapidly than we imagined. Now looking forward to see the results of the green material which is under testing.

During the first week that we spent focusing on our assigned project (repairing medical devices), that Monday was Eid ul-Fitr so we had a holiday. Happy Eid Mubarak my brothers and sisters.

During that week we began by focusing on the Oxygen Concentrator. We read about replacing/fixing the compressor, sieve beds, solenoid valves and circuit board in the service manual, with a plan to read about the other components at a later stage. What I took away from the whole process is that the repairing procedure involves identifying which component or components on the concentrator are malfunctioning and replacing that or those components. This is because basically, the Oxygen concentrator is built modularly.

Working on the Oxygen ConcentratorOur supervisor walked us through the troubleshooting process he uses and we were able to identify the obvious problems that might occur with the device but are left out of the troubleshooting section in the service manual. These are the things that we wrote about in the guidelines for novices.

We learnt how to do the standard diagnostic tests on the oxygen concentrator during the week. There are precautions to be taken with some of the test that we did not adhere to very well some there were some mishaps but the problems caused were rectified.

For my personal project during the Friday afternoon period I decided to refresh my Arduino programming skills. I started reading through the notes I had written from my last internship on Arduinos and build up my knowledge there. What I took away from reading back is that practice is very important. Having to go through all the steps in programming that I have forgotten is annoying and with practice I could have avoided it.