My favorite part of electronic prototyping is stripping wires. There is something very soothing about stripping wire after wire- first making a slight incision that just goes through the plastic covering and then removing the piece of covering entirely, leaving behind a small exposed bit of copper. At my high school in India, there was always a shortage of wire cutters- and we learned how to use scissors instead, or- rather unhygienically, our teeth. At Rice, we have plenty of wire cutters and strippers- allowing me to settle into the comfortable routine of using handy, precise, modified scissors for all my wire needs.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to cut and strip some wires at the DIT Design Studio to make a basic LED circuit. The design studio was still in its very preliminary stages. Apart from the supplies Matthew and I brought over from the US, we had two utility knives, some pliers and screwdrivers from the assembly of the 3D printers, and Julia’s personal toolkit with a wrench, hammer, and screwdriver. No wire cutter or stripper, no scissors, and I really did not want to use my teeth unless it was a last resort. So, I picked up the utility knife. I used the blade to make the small incision and yanked the plastic covering out with my fingernails. Not the most appropriate tool to use, but it worked, and it was kind of fun!

This reminded me of the time that I had to cut a foam block to prototype something in my GLHT 201 (Introduction to Global Health Technologies) class at Rice. There was no saw or utility knife in sight, and a scissor was not going to cut it, the block was way too thick. I picked up a box of toothpicks and a scissor. Using a toothpick as a nail and the side of the scissor as a hammer, I made small holes along the line I wanted to cut. At one point, the makeshift hammer missed the mark and the toothpick went through the skin of my finger. I immediately discarded this hazardous endeavor and changed gears- I opened the scissor so that it looked like a knife and used it to complete the job, which was made remarkably easier due to the perforations I had made with the toothpick.

These seem like small, almost obvious substitutions, but in the past weeks, as the design studio continues to grow and become more stocked with supplies, I have learned how to use our limited resources for a variety of different purposes. With just a (rather flimsy) utility knife, hand-drill and screwdriver, the interns and I reproduced the CleanMachine, a GLHT 360 device that we hope to get feedback on. I learned that a screwdriver can be used to puncture plastic and foam, and a drill can be used to cut off whole pieces of plastic and wood, and with enough force and the right angle, a utility knife can cut through nearly anything within reason. These methods are not the safest, nor do they give us the best results. However, armed with safety goggles and gloves, I have learned to think laterally, look beyond the obvious use of tools, think on my feet, and adapt to circumstance.

 

I realize that I am so fortunate to have the immense resources of the OEDK at my disposal when I am at Rice. For so many other universities around the world, like DIT, these resources are not something they can take for granted. The other day, Julia and I visited the woodworking workshop in the hope that they would have a saw to help us cut some wood. After looking around for a saw unsuccessfully, we met someone working there and requested him to help us. He could not find a saw either, so he took us to his worktable and used a hammer and chisel to cut the wood. I was surprised that there were no saws readily available for use at a wood-working workshop- at the OEDK, I wouldn’t have to think about their availability. Perhaps we are so used to having the most appropriate, super-specialized tools for every task that we often forget the myriad uses of the most basic tools? I realize that as we continue to innovate medical devices in low-resource settings it is important to think of these various uses while creating devices that are truly self-sustainable.

As the design studio becomes more populated, we have begun to buy tools, and now we can use the “correct” tools for the “correct” purposes. This will save us time and effort during prototyping. However, I can’t help but think that while working within constraints, we learn to empathize, look beyond obvious solutions, and truly make sustainable innovations in low-resource settings. As I spend more time with the DIT Interns, I have observed that they think about things and the uses of tools differently than I do. A lack of resources does little to faze them in achieving their eventual goals. There seems to be a spirit of “jugaad”- an untranslatable Hindi word that refers to the spirit of ‘making do’ with the given resources or using innovative hacks- the use of the ‘duct tape’ to solve almost every problem, ubiquitous in developing nations. When we eventually do needs finding research here, we have been told to look for the duct tape- find the makeshift solutions so that we can help create permanent ones. But I can’t help but wonder- those makeshift solutions are often so creative, innovative and practical. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we did not incorporate a bit of this spirit while designing our technologies?