Hello everyone! Thank you for tuning into my blog!

My name is Aryun Nemani, and I’m a rising sophomore at Will RiceCollege on the pre-med track majoring in BioScience and minoring in Global Health Technologies. This summer, I have the opportunity to work with the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies to address various global health issues. I’m very excited to document my experiences and findings through this blog, and I hope you’ll follow along!

I first learned about global health through an introductory global health course during the fall semester of my freshman year. Throughout this class, we discussed historical factors that created global disparities in health, current initiatives to solve these disparities, and philosophical issues related to major world health players. We finished the semester by prototyping a semi-reusable colostomy bag that was particularly applicable to lower-resource settings, and I left the class with a newfound interest in global health. These experiences led me to apply to Rice360, and I’m excited to begin my journey as a Rice360 Summer Intern in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania!

Over the next couple of months, Suran and I will be working with an extremely talented team of students and mentors based at the Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology. While we are here, we will create and advance prototypes for medical devices geared towards infant health, while receiving feedback from clinical mentors and local health professionals. Our goal is to utilize locally available materials and implement the feedback we receive to make the device highly accessible across hospitals in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). The projects we will be working on include a low-cost silo bag for treating gastroschisis, a temperature sensor for a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a UV-light phototherapy machine for treating jaundice, and a transportable infant incubator. I am looking forward to working on these projects and collaborating with my peers and other stakeholders!

I am also very excited to experience Tanzanian culture, from trying new foods to learning a new lifestyle to even speaking Swahili! I hope to develop new perspectives on global health and the world in general, while having my preconceived notions challenged. I’m looking forward to sharing the full experience with you, so please stay tuned! Welcome to my blog; Karibu!

– Aryun