This week truly revolved around our team adding a buzzer to our prototype. This took us on a rollercoaster of options and emotions. This was definitely one of the more challenging weeks in the internship for our team, but we figured it out in the end! I’ve also been appreciating my Malawian colleagues a lot this week. Visiting their homes/rooms has been a truly amazing experience. I really appreciate their motivation, dedication, kindness, patience, optimism and so much more. I’m truly lucky to be working with my teammates (Taonga and Demobrey) and the other interns.
Day 33
Monday July 9, 2018
Its okay
Goals Accomplished
- Tested buzzer circuit
After the long weekend, Francis and Andrew are back from their Rice 360 retreat. We updated them on our team’s progress and they liked the concept overall. Now we are trying to add a buzzer and a female outlet (to plug suction machine straight into our device) to our prototype for our presentation on Friday.
We hit a road bump when trying to add the buzzer to the circuit. We wanted to test out the buzzer circuit and in the process of soldering the buzzer into the existing circuit, the transformer circuit from the phone charger stopped working. I’m not really sure what happened, but my best guess is that we fried it by accidentally soldering together pins that weren’t supposed to be connected.
Our team was very down about this, but I reassured them that it was fine and that we could replace it easily. Demobrey replied to this by saying that it wasn’t fine. Which I responded to by saying “well it happened already so we have to move forward. Its okay”. He said “yes its okay, but its not fine”. In my head both meant the same thing. This really made me think about my choice of words. It’s really important in terms of communication especially on cross-cultural teams.
After this blow, we took a break and went to lunch. Demobrey and Taonga (my teammates) took Franklin (Rice intern) and I to a cafeteria at the Malawi College of Accounting (MCA) which is right next to the Poly. It’s their favorite place to eat. I now love this place too! They sell a lot of fresh foods like chicken stew, fried chicken, beef stew, chips (French fries), nsima (a mashed potato like food made of maize flour), fried veggies, beans, and rice. It was really good. Again, we were given plates but no utensils. Eating nsima with my hands was fun and manageable (its like playdough!).
After lunch, Demobrey went out to find another phone charger that we could take apart for our circuit. Meanwhile, Taonga and I tested the buzzer circuit on its own (not in the actual prototype circuit) with a 9V battery (instead of a phone charger). It worked but the problem is that the contacts are corroding. This is the same problem as with the water level shut off circuit because both are working off of the principal of electrolysis. Since this is a repeating problem we are going to begin looking into a new circuit design that will eliminate the need for electrolysis.
When we got home for the day, the power was out again so I watched The Lion King with Sajel and Akshaya. We ate cereal for dinner and went to sleep. Today wasn’t a great day … but tomorrow is a new day.
Day 34
Tuesday July 10, 2018
Poly Hostels
Goals Accomplished
- Fixed the original shut off circuit with new charger
- Tested buzzer circuit
- Designed and 3D printed a hose adapter
- Visited Taonga’s hostel
When we got to the design studio we immediately began fixing our prototype by adding the new charger. We also added a second pair of contact points for the buzzer into the circuit. However when we tested the circuit, it didn’t work as we had thought. We had created a short circuit by having two contact points so neither the relay nor the buzzer were switched when the water touched the contact points.
We also had some help from Kristoffer in the design of a 3D printed hose adapter for our external bottle attachment. I was also heping Matthews from Team Mathermal with the adjustment of the Mathermal circuit casing using Solidworks. Finally my team and I brainstormed possible ideas for the videos and posters for the Lemelson foundation.
After work I went over to Taonga’s and Timothy’s rooms. They live at the Poly hostels which are kind of like off campus rooms. It was like a block of rooms in rows. I met Taonga’s roommate (Gracious), Timothy’s roommate (Alfred), Taonga’s Neighbor (Sungeni), and many others who came by. They were all really cool and we talked about everything from Cuba to Jeff Bazos. I felt super welcome and the guys even cooked dinner for me. We all shared dinner from two plates. (Malawi is a very community oriented society) Visiting the Poly hostels was a really humbling experience. It really made me appreciate all of the Poly students for the effort that they put in to get an education. Even with the power outages, the mosquitos, the lack of wifi, the lack of transportation and other obstacles they are working hard to graduate as engineers. There’s a lot that we take for granted in the USA. I will always keep this in mind when I’m back in the U.S. where we have so many opportunities.
Day 35
Wednesday July 11, 2018
Apologies
Goals Accomplished.
- Finalized billboard and video ideas
- Brainstormed new buzzer circuit
- Solved team conflict
This morning we settled on a storyline for our video of the internship and we came up with an idea for the Poly-Rice 360 Billboard. We also began thinking of different ways to add the buzzer into our circuit. Eventually my team and I got into a disagreement about adding the buzzer. We were all a bit upset so we just gave each other some space. We didn’t even have lunch together today. I went to SPAR with the Rice interns. I think we all thought about the situation and by the end of the day we had all apologized to each other and resumed adding the buzzer. It was a great moment for me and my team :’). We even had a group hug at the end of the day. I love Taonga and Demobrey. I was so happy. I really appreciate them.
Day 36
Thursday July 12, 2018
Gloria’s Hostel
Goals Accomplished
- Finished presentation for tomorrow
- Designed laser-cut circuit casing for prototype presentation
Today was another slow day. We had another setback. We broke another phone charger transformer circuit. It kind of was a mini explosion. I’m really thankful that nobody was hurt. I also made sure to remind the team about the safety guidelines of working with electronics. After that we just fixed the prototype for tomorrows presentation. I used solidworks to design a casing for our circuit. We lasercut it and finished our powerpoint presentation. The presentation is an update on our work so far.
Today we didn’t go straight home as usual. Instead took a minibus to Gloria’s house. We met Lucy, Chimango, Waku, and others. Demobrey was the only intern there besides Gloria because of transportation issues. Gloria was very welcoming and she cooked us a huge meal all by herself using two electric plates. Props to her for inviting all of the interns to her hostel. This was the only time we all (all the rice interns) went to anybody’s hostel. It’s definitely a lot of effort to host many people in your room because it is culturally unacceptable to invite people to your house without having food. I really appreciate Gloria’s effort from the beginning of the internship to welcome us to Malawi.
Day 37
Friday July 13, 2018
Goals Accomplished
- Presentations
We had our presentations early in the morning. We got a lot of really good feedback for our project. As we were already thinking, our mentors (Francis and Andrew) recommended that we look into other shutoff circuits. We plan on creating a new circuit to eliminate the corrosion issue and the need for salt in the fluids (for conductivity) because our current prototype isn’t very practical.
Day 38-39
Saturday-Sunday July 14-15, 2018
Hanging out in Blantyre
This weekend I hung out with friends in Blantyre. I went with Angela and Nafe (poly intern) to the Blantrye Market on Saturday. We had a great day shopping and eating at the KFC in Blantyre. KFC is surprisingly fancy here compared to the U.S. It also tastes a lot better. On Sunday I met up with my friend Chimwemwe ( a Poly graduate who I met in Houston) and I got to meet her family as well. It was a great weekend and I felt like I fit in perfectly in Malawi. I felt like I got to experience a true Malawian weekend in Blantyre for once.
