Muli bwanji? (‘How are you?’)

not to be confused with Mulanje, where we went hiking last week Monday! Mount Mulanje is a massif not too far away from Blantyre containing a peak called Sapitwa, which is the highest peak in Malawi. MUBAS organized the trip for the day 🙂 We did not climb that high of course (as it takes a few days), but we hiked for a bit and got to the Likhubula Falls with its ‘Dziwe La Nkhalamba’ (‘Old man’s pool’). The hike as well as the waterfalls were so beautiful. See it for yourself!

After the hike, a big part of the remaining of last week was working on the group projects. Having  tested different fabrics and done work on the gathering of materials the previous week, last week Ranken and I focused our work majorly on the electric circuitry of the compression therapy device project that we are working on (see my last post for more information on the project). We are still making changes and improving the circuits up to this day, but we made good progress last week! Overall, this has been a very iterative process so far with quite a bit of debugging as well as some reconsiderations and changes. We have also had to figure out some materials along the way and to work around what is available. With the help of the TA, we now have a pretty functional simplified system and are currently modifying the Arduino code to make sure that all the components work together as we want them to. Below is a picture of me from last week at the MUBAS design studio working on the electronics of the device.

We also continued gathering information pertaining to needs-finding last week, in particular through conversations with medical professionals of different departments from QECH. It is incredible to see and hear the amount of things that engineering could do to make a positive impact here in Malawi within the medical field!

On Friday, we also had presentations with Hillary both about our group as well as our individual site projects (if I have not introduced him so far, Hillary is the Design Studio Manager). This was a good way to compile what we have done so far as well as to get feedback for the remaining two weeks.

Lastly, this weekend, besides doing some work, I went to visit The Mandala House which has an art gallery called La Caverna Art Gallery inside as well as a very nice outside area. I really enjoyed the visit! I added a couple of pictures below:

Until next time, once more!

 

Hi again!

It’s been a bit since my last post, but I can’t believe we are already half way through the internship! It’s gone by so quick! Let me tell you a few things that we did last week.

Like I already mentioned, Ranken and I are working on the deep vein thrombosis (DVT) compression therapy device project. DVT is a common issue that can result in complications which are life-threatening, and the idea of the project was to make a low-cost but also portable and easy-to-use compression therapy device. The project has taken a bit of a turn though, and it has now a more technical focus. After quite a bit of research, we found an existing open-source device which seems quite promising, so we are working on building it. We will of course be adjusting it to the requirements of the site where needed, and it will likely also need some more modifications along the way due to material options, further investigation, other design choices, etc. As we go, we want to make sure that we are tackling the problem appropriately, and to continue with the research on both the condition and the therapy.

More about the project below though! Let me tell you some other things first…

Later last week, Sanjay and I also got the chance to meet with one of the Rice360 student teams’ sponsors. To add some context, Queen Elisabeth Central Hospital (QECH) is the only place in Malawi where one can get an electroencephalogram (EEG). This hospital happens to be right next to MUBAS, the university where we go every day. This past year, a student team from Rice worked on making an intuitive EEG acquisition device. The idea of the project is to facilitate EEG acquisition in settings like Malawi such that this technology can reach a lot more people. We thus met with the sponsor in person to gather some feedback so that the project can be continued in the future.

After a long day of work, we were also able to attend a very nice event 🙂 Together with eight other students from the lodge, we went to one of the Sounds of Malawi Acoustic Sessions which take place in the Jacaranda Cultural Center and Maison de la France here in Blantyre. We were able to enjoy a concert by Angie Tigris, a famous Malawian singer. It was a lot of fun!

We continued with the workshops this past week as well. But going back to the project, we also got the chance to check out a commercial compression therapy device that they had at MUBAS to get a better idea of how these devices work. Below is a picture of one of the cuffs and the tubing from the device.

However, the primary focus of the project has been on figuring out the materials, which is more challenging than it seems. We have been talking with a few different people, looking for several options, and for example, yesterday, Ranken and I went around Blantyre (and even to Limbe!) visiting different fabric stores. We wanted to check out what fabrics were available locally to see if we could use any for our project. We went to five different shops! I am now regretting not having taken any pictures because they were very colorful…

Below is a very nice picture I took yesterday afternoon instead though, I hope you like it 🙂

 

Until next time!

Moni nonse! (hello everyone! in Chichewa). In case you did not know, Chichewa is the most commonly spoken of the many languages in Malawi.

I’m back! From Lilongwe 🙂 We returned last Wednesday and after a pretty long trip, we resumed a more regular internship schedule at MUBAS on Thursday. That day we had the first of our two workshops for the week: a review of the Engineering Design Process. We went over the key steps of what an engineer should do when it comes to taking on a new project and we ended the day with low-fidelity prototyping. For this workshop, we were given the assignment as a mock project of designing a low cost, easy-to-use and portable handwashing station to be used in Malawi with a particular focus on preventing recontamination of the hands. Sanjay worked with Tatyana, and I worked with Ranken. I don’t believe I have introduced them yet! Sanjay is my fellow Rice360 intern from Rice, and Ranken and Tatyana are the interns from MUBAS. Below are some pictures of us with our cool prototypes!

On Friday, we then had a workshop on Intellectual Property. There are no prototypes for this one, but it did open some interesting discussions! We also got introduced to our site projects: Tatyana and Sanjay will be working on a low-cost forearm range of motion (ROM) measurement device, and Ranken and I will be working on a low-cost deep venous thrombosis (DVT) compression therapy device.

After a busy week, we also got the chance to meet on Sunday and start to check out what Blantyre has for us. We visited the Blantyre Market (although we will need to pay at least one more visit as it was Sunday and most places were closed). We did get to see, for example, some handmade baskets, as well as some woodwork and paintings closeby. Below is a picture of a painting I got! We also went to the Museum of Malawi, visited the MUBAS Chichiri campus, and more!

Before I go, I want to tell you one more thing! Yesterday (besides working on the projects) we visited the Rice360 office here in Blantyre for the first time! We had the chance of hearing about some of the challenges faced as well as some possible future work that could improve newborn and maternal care. It was a great opportunity, and we were also able to get a glimpse of the neonatal care facility.

I am very excited to see where this internship will take me next!

¡Hasta pronto!

 

Hello! I am one of the two Rice360 interns in Malawi this year! I’m excited to tell you about my experience these next two months, but first, let me introduce myself!

My name is Paula and I’m from Spain. I graduated from Rice this year with a major in Bioengineering. I am interested in medical device design and in global health. I have also lived in different places throughout my life, so I love meeting new people and learning about other cultures. Moving often also makes me really appreciate the time I can spend with friends and family. Besides that, I also like being creative and always enjoy a good mystery.

During high school, I had the chance of participating in an ‘Immersion Programme’ in Zambia which had a long-lasting influence on me. While I had already wondered how someone like me could make a change in a limited resource setting before having then, it was not until I got to Rice that I learned about global health and the impact that engineering could have in places like these. I am so happy to have the opportunity to be here (yes, I am writing from Malawi already!) and to learn and experience this firsthand.

In this internship, I will be working on different projects, including one assigned by the host (the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS)) and a personal one, as well as getting feedback for different Rice360 technologies. I will also be doing needs-finding to identify different areas or situations where possible future projects could make a positive impact. With these experiences, I hope to learn as much as possible about design in resource-constrained settings, develop my intuition and creativity in doing so, and earn and develop different engineering skills. I also hope to contribute as much as possible in the development of global health technologies.

For quite a long time leading up to the internship, I worked on preparing everything needed for the trip. Other than the long list of items that you can likely already imagine, this included for example learning as much as possible about the Rice360 projects and obtaining supplies. But as I mentioned, I am already in Malawi 🙂 I arrived on Monday after a very long trip and have been writing this entry for the past few days. Below is a picture taken from the plane right after landing in Blantyre!

When we arrived, we were welcomed at the airport by our two fellow interns and the Design Studio Manager from MUBAS. On Tuesday, we familiarized ourselves with MUBAS, got introduced to a lot of people, started learning about the work for the next few days, and got help from the MUBAS interns with some other arrival tasks.

Next Tuesday is the NEST Program Phase 2 Launch in Lilongwe, so the Design Studio has been very busy working on some projects. To help with that, we were tasked, in pairs, with creating a User Interface for one of the projects. We have been focused on this work since Wednesday. It has thus been a very busy start, but I have gotten to learn new things already!

I feel like I will be able to gain a lot from this experience, both as an engineering and a citizen of this world, and I hope that I can also contribute to a positive impact through my work here. I only have a few pictures for now, but I wanted to share one more of a sunset from the lodge:

Until next time!