Karibuni tena! or Welcome back!

This past week was filled with productive progress on our prototypes, beautiful scenery, and unforgettable memories. It’s hard to believe it is only Week 3!

In the week prior, President DesRoches and Rice360 affiliates visited different hospitals in Tanzania and the design studio here in DIT to commemorate the launch of Phase 2 of NEST360. It was incredibly gratifying to showcase all the progress Aryun and I have made so far as well as all of the amazing projects the students here at DIT developed. We also received a lot of promising feedback and ideas for all four projects as we head into this week.

 

Seeing as Monday was a national holiday (Eid al-Adha), Aryun and I spent our day catching up on some much needed sleep, as well as a trip to the local City Mall where we hit the gym and ate some good grub.

Heading into Tuesday, we continued our work on all of the four projects.

For the photo-light therapy device, we continued brainstorming the physical shape of the project. There are multiple devices currently in use for neonatal care and it is important to keep this in mind as to develop a device that can be compatible with as many pre-existing technologies. As for the continuous newborn temperature sensor, or NICU-T, we first began by outlining the flow diagram for the device in order to better help us code for all the different sensors, probes, and displays. Below you can see the brainstorming process in action and later you can see the working rough sketch of our device that we completed on Friday!

For the gastroschisis bag, we were able to develop a prototype of the wound retractor that is currently being used in hospitals around Tanzania. The current wound retractor features a rubber ring connected to a latex material with another rubber ring at the top. Our prototype consists of rubber rings that originate from a nearby shop with similar elastic properties to the wound retractor. With regards to the gastroschisis bag, it is quite important that we design a device that consists of locally sourced materials such that it can be reproduced en masse locally in Tanzania. This would substantially improve the supply of gastroschisis bags as currently, Muhimibili National Hospital receives around 200-300 bags as donations to supply to hospitals for the entire neonatal population of Tanzania.

On Wednesday, we woke up bright and early to visit the nearby Ifakara Health Institute where the NEST360 offices are located. Here, we were welcomed by many NEST360 affiliates and discussed recent progress on current and future projects and devices. We were also able to receive more valuable feedback on the projects we are currently working on. It was absolutely incredible to see how despite how busy those working at NEST360 were, they were still able to make time and include everyone’s contributions to all of the different projects they are currently working on.

Thursday and Friday consisted of progressive work on all four projects. For the previously mentioned NICU-T project, after hours and hours and hours of trial and error, we finally developed a working prototype with all of the components. It’s remarkable how straightforward the initial flowchart of the device was, compared to how difficult getting the code figured out was. Briefly, this device will be able to continuously monitor the baby’s body and ambient temperature and sound a visual and audible alarm which will then have a reset button for the nurse to press to turn off the buzzer. This is designed to replace the current method of manual temperature checks with thermometers every 4-6 hours. Below, you can see the fully designed initial prototype of NICU-T.

With regards to the transport infant incubator project, we designed a low-fidelity prototype out of cardboard that features all of the intended capabilities the future device will have. Key considerations we discussed were the method of heating (utilizing heating pads or a gentle heating fan), the efficiency and speed of the heating mechanism, and the power consumption of the device as to maximize the amount of operational time while the baby is in transport from one setting to another. We then developed higher-fidelity prototype with pre-existing materials and will begin testing starting next week. Below you can see the different prototypes for the device:

Alternate Prototype with Heating Pads

 

Seeing that we made much progress on all of our projects, we decided to plan a trip to Serengeti National Park, just before the end of the Great Migration. Friday evening, we boarded our flight to the city of Arusha (my first time on a propellor plane!). We then woke up outlandishly early Saturday morning and travelled with a group of 6 to Serengeti National Park. Our driver Damian taught us that in the Maasai language, Serengeti means endless plains and it was clear why. The beautiful savannah of Serengeti seems to go on forever, in every direction.

We were lucky enough to see a cheetah, giraffes, and even some sleepy lion cubs!

 

At the end of our game drive, Damian drove us to our lodge where we woke up the next morning to a wild buffalo yards away from our room (which seemed to scare Aryun more so than me😂). Early Sunday we traveled to the nearby Ngorongoro Crater. Damian mentioned that long ago, this crater was a large volcano (taller than Kilimanjaro!) that erupted and left behind a crater almost 12 miles in diameter. As we traveled down and into the crater, every view seemed to be more beautiful than the last. We were also able to stop and get a much needed hot chocolate at the only coffee truck-shop in the entire crater (seems like a good business!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was an incredibly surreal experience to witness animals I’ve seen in nature documentaries in their vast, breathtaking natural habitat. From elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, buffalo, hippos, more lions, and even a rhino, we were lucky enough to see it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a short 1 hour drive to Kiliminjaro, we took a quick flight back to Dar Sunday night just in time to get some sleep and prepare for next week. Here in Dar, each week seems to top the last! With that said, I truly cannot wait to see what the next month has in store for us.

Thanks again for joining me on my blog… Asante Sana!

 

…also here’s a photo of Aryun and I stopping to get our new favorite snack, kitumbua, on our way back to our hotel in Arusha