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…….

 

Hey, am Bernadette Hara, a fourth year student studying electrical and electronic engineering at The Malawi University, Polytechnic. I am interested in medical electronics that is the reason why I applied for this internship so I could apply the knowledge I have to designing, modifying and repairing medical devices.

The last two weeks so far have been so educational and fun. The first week was mainly just for introductions. We interacted with our fellow interns from Rice University . We taught them some common words in our local language, had them taste some local food and then show them around the campus. We were also introduced to equipments in the design studio, so we could be familiar with them as we will be using them for the next coming weeks of this internship. After the end of the first week I have learnt how to solder, and also be able to design a component on Autodesk inventor and then print it on a 3D printer or cutting it using the laser cutter. By the end of this internship I believe I would be a pro in all of these machines and software’s. After familiarizing ourselves to the equipments in the design studio we were introduced and assigned to the projects to be done during the six week internship. The project I will be working on during the internship is Repairing Medical Devices. The project expects us to come up with procedures on how to fix common faults in medical equipments. Medical devices that are to our focus are the Oxygen concentrators, Radiant warmers, bCPAP pumani and the suction.

The second week I had to prepare a questionnaire for the research with my partner. Then we went to Mulanje district hospital, Zomba central hospital, Chiradzulu hospital and Thyolo districts hospital to collect the necessary data that will be helpful when doing the project. One thing I observed from all the hospitals is that they have a lot of damaged oxygen concentrators and they are not fixing them because they do not have spare parts. After collecting the data, they say a little fun doesn’t hurt so we went to have fun at Sunbird Ku Chawe and Hapuwani lodge

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