This fall, the Polytechnic is starting a new biomedical engineering (BME) program. It will be the third university in Africa to offer BME, and the first in Malawi. The Poly will offer two different paths- one is a three-year technical program that provides training relevant to technicians, and the other is a five-year degree program that graduates higher-skilled engineers. The two programs are comparable to education for electricians versus electrical engineers, or auto mechanics versus mechanical engineers. The five-year program is similar to Rice’s bioengineering program, although it is more specifically focused on device design as opposed to cellular or tissue engineering, and it is affiliated closely with the electrical engineering department. 

As a bioengineer, it is very exciting for me to be at the Poly during the final preparation for the new program. It is a chance for me to observe how a engineering degree program is structured, and also to get to play a role in BME’s first introduction. One of the biggest ways that Sarah, Catherine and I are contributing is with the orientation week for new BME students. Because it is a new program, we have a lot of flexibility in our planning and a valuable opportunity to bring some great qualities of Rice’s O-Week and their bioe program to the Poly.

The orientation week we are planning is designed for the forty or so new students to the Poly that have been accepted into the BME program. The students will be coming from secondary schools all over Malawi, so they will bring with them a range of experience with medicine and engineering. Some of the students may have finished a program in a technical college, and are now seeking a five-year degree that would offer more opportunity. In our plans we are trying to offer the fundamentals of BME and engineering design, so that even the students with little previous engineering experience are prepared for the next five years at the Poly.

With four weeks left before our orientation week takes place, Sarah, Catherine and I have started thinking of lectures and lesson plans for activities that we hope to offer the students. We have been trying to align the entire agenda with three goals; to introduce students to the Polytechnic, to show them what skills are necessary to be a biomedical engineer, and to give them an understanding of what the career of a biomedical engineer can look like. We are collaborating with wards at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and Physical Assets Management (PAM) at the hospital, who oversees the repair of medical devices used in the hospital. Hopefully with these connections we can expose the incoming students to real-world BME, so that they can have a more tangible context to the work they will be doing at the University. We are also planning a week-long team design project, so that the students will be exposed to the design process and also get experience in collaboration and working on a team. Both of these skills are absolutely necessary in any type of engineering, and we hope that by providing an early exposure to both we can help the students use these skills in their future coursework.

With no precedent to the program or to the orientation week, it is difficult to predict what exactly our activities will look like or how they will play out. Nonetheless, our combined experience of bioe, global health, and general engineering design classes are a huge asset and a resource that I’m sure will be put to use as we draw closer to the event.  I look forward to facilitating the orientation, and getting to see the BME program unfold in real time.