Author: ac185

PCB + Safari [Andy]

Posted on by ac185

‘Sup?

I’ve said this so many times to Albert, one of the DIT students, that now he’s started saying it back.

I can’t believe we’ve already made it to my fourth post! A lot has happened, from too many PCB printing attempts, to forcing the capricious, stubborn rotary encoder to do its job, to an elephant randomly showing up to our safari campsite. 

Albert, Melissa, Shreya, and I on the stairs after a day of design.

 

Technical Updates

The travel incubator has continued to be our primary focus in the past couple weeks. As a refresher, this project is to make a device that can transport babies within and between hospitals while maintaining an optimal temperature for the baby. Hypothermia is a major contributor to infant deaths, and we hope to help prevent it with our device.

The first major development since the last time I posted has been the printed circuit board (PCB). It was a long and not-very-straightforward process to get it done, but it was also super fun! A special shout-out to Albert, who helped immensely with every step. Below is the process that we undertook to translate our board design from a computer file to a working PCB:

 

Step 1: With a laserjet printer, print the PCB design onto gloss paper

Step 2: For about 5 minutes, iron the design onto the copper

Step 3: Let it cool, and peel off the paper. The PCB design should now be transferred onto the copper. If you manage this in less than 5 attempts, then you did much better than us!

Step 4 (very satisfying): Make a concoction of salt, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide to dissolve all exposed copper. Notice the yellow color of the glass epoxy exposed by the reaction that took off all the copper.

Step 5 (difficult): Drill holes for the pins to allow for the connections of all the different components that will be attached. Luckily, Albert was there to ace the precise drilling required. My depth perception ranges from atrocious to non-existent, so this would have been an impossible task on my own.
Step 6 (satisfying): With steel wool, scrape off all the ink to reveal the shiny copper below!
Step 7: Lots and lots of soldering to attach all our sensors, displays and controls!
The components have steadily migrated their way onto the PCB. Sometimes, though, they temporarily migrate their way back off as we troubleshoot, rewire, and ask the board nicely to please, please work this time. The rotary encoder (button that allows for both pushing and turning controls) was especially prone to this.
The green dude in the middle there is the mastermind of this whole operation: an Arduino Mega. It controls all the components. We designed our PCB specifically to be able to plug him in directly.

This picture here shows the testing of one of the most important components of the circuit: the voltage regulator. This makes sure that our Arduino only gets 12 V, which is its recommended limit, while our heaters can still receive 18 V from the same source. Without this regulation, the Arduino might cough up some smoke and never turn on again, embarrassing and discouraging myself and several other engineers.

Right now, all the components are securely attached to the PCB, and the main remaining design goals involve the physical layout of the various sensors and control components in the actual incubator box. Luckily, Shreya has been spearheading this side of the project, designing and re-designing critical pieces like the control/display module, as shown below.

The three holes here are for control of the device, a status light to alert clinicians about different conditions, and a reset button that will allow for a reset of the system if anything goes wrong. 

On the software side, one of the most difficult challenges has been wrangling the heart rate/blood oxygen sensor to actually output useful data without completely crashing our Arduino. The processing involved with blood oxygen measurement is especially intensive, so for now, we’ve prioritized a stable heart rate sensor and left out blood oxygen. One possible solution we’re considering is to use a separate Arduino to handle only that sensor so that nothing gets overloaded. 

I won’t pretend that our sensor was in constant lock-step with my fitness watch, but some basic testing showed that it got pretty close! (Although not pictured, the sensor was secured to a finger on my left hand with Shreya’s hair tie).

This shows the input power plug, the power switch, and an indicator LED to show that the device is powered on. 

 

Although it feels like this box is constantly a week from being finished, it’s getting close enough to taste it (not that any component of the finished product would be particularly tasty). This is especially due to all the work Shreya has been doing on the physical side, assembling the box and designing housing components. 

The direct next steps are to plug everything in and do heater testing with the finished product. Additionally, there is still more iteration to be done on the control panel, as well as some final touches like handles, and other necessary human factors features. 

I’m sure I sound like a broken record going on and on about this travel incubator, but let me assure you that there are other projects in the works, as well! One of these projects is designing an adaptable syringe housing for an automated syringe pump so that it can work with the full range of syringe sizes that might be needed. The picture below shows some ideation and a rough prototype that I made to secure the back part of the syringe and allow it to be pushed by the machine.

The slit design low-fidelity prototype (yellow and black thing on the right page of the notebook) was constructed with failed 3D printed parts and masking tape to approximate a slit that can accommodate all syringes, big or small.
We have also developed other designs, like the cone section design (left two images) that stops the end of a syringe of a wide range of sizes. We also developed a stacked cylindrical openings design that I’m dubbing the “snowman” (right two images). It allows each syringe to rest and be stabilized and level.
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As for the gastroschisis bag, there are more bureaucratic challenges than physical ones, but I’ll be sure to fill y’all in about the patent drafting process as we begin it next week!

Another notable event in the past couple weeks was Saba Saba Day, an international trade fair. Saba means seven in Swahili, so the event takes place in the weeks surrounding July 7th. DIT, our host university, had several exhibitions that we got to see, including a natural gas powered car, leather processing sample products, and some exciting startups led by current and former DIT. I bought a 3D printed phone holder from a 3D printer company called Swahili DMakers and a bar of sea moss soap from another company started by a DIT student called Hadhaha.

In this picture, I’m holding a 3D-printed arithmetic training device. Educational products are the specialty of Swahili DMakers.
Miscellaneous Updates
The 8-floor ascent has never felt easier! The elevators have been working well the past few weeks (:
In a wondrous feat of engineering, I cannibalized a water bottle to create the funnel pictured here. In spite of that, I manage to spill water from the big jug almost every morning. Clearly, the design is not completely idiot-proof.
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Last weekend, we had the unforgettable experience of a safari in the Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti National Parks. It was hard to choose what pictures to show, but I’m sure Shreya and Melissa’s blogs will fill in the gaps, especially the hippos and zebras!

Baboons live in giant troops. If you zoom in, you can see a baby riding a mom like a horse!

Serengeti lions seem to alternate between naps and disapproving stares.

This elephant showed up to say hi at our campsite on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater.

Buffalo and his bird friends.

We were really lucky and got to see a cheetah on the move!

Gazelle, portrayed by Shakira in the critically renowned film, Zootopia. (We didn’t hear this one sing, though. It might be camera-shy?)

Of all the safari animals, these ones are the most outrageous. Who gave them permission to elongate to such extreme proportions?

Warthogs are much cuter than I expected!

These fellas have been skipping Leg Day their entire lives and it shows. Yikes.

Maasai village with a stunning backdrop.

 

International engineering collaboration: a Canadian in our safari tour group and I constructed a Tent Home Theater System with a phone, a travel pillow, and two borrowed hair ties. We then stuffed seven people in one tent and suffered through the first 20 minutes of Grown Ups 2, before choosing unidentified animal sounds to put us to sleep over Adam Sandler’s comedic genius.

Speaking of movies, Shreya, Melissa, and I have had several long and uninspired conversations about what movie to watch for movie night. We need your help! If you’re brave enough, please leave a comment with recommendations of a movie to watch! If you prefer to lurk (as I would), or are reading this from the future, then that’s okay too! I’m just glad you’re reading (:

Two more weeks of engineering and adventure, and two more blog posts to satisfy the cravings of my cult following! 

Until the next one (July 25th, mark your calendars!)

Andy

Visting Hospitals and Zanzibar [Andy]

Posted on by ac185

Mambo!

(That means “hi/how are you?”. The standard reply is “poa”, which means “cool”.)

Thanks for sticking around for the third edition of my blog! A lot has happened here in the past couple weeks, so let me fill you in!

Technical Updates

With the travel incubator, we’ve continued to do heater testing with a bunch of different setups. The main thing we’ve focused on is the physical layout of the fan, material layers, and lid. We’ve learned that airflow control is extremely important for heating, and also that even within a small volume, temperatures can vary significantly depending on whether you’re close to the top or near the middle of the incubator, because hot air rises. During our testing we managed to fry one of the heating elements we were using (Figure 1). We also did some preliminary testing on thermal insulation (Figure 2) for whether it would improve the heating efficiency of our system, and it worked to make our heating coils noticeably hotter.

Figure 1: We now know that our heating elements should not glow. This is a sign that mistakes have been made. 

Figure 2: Lining the incubator box with insulatingmaterial to trap more heat.

Beyond physical testing, we improved the software side of the incubator to read data from a heart rate/pulse oximeter sensor, along with expanding the display’s functionality to include control for both fan and heater systems. Our current thicket of wires is shown below (maybe we can consider it a form of modern art?). Luckily for us, we won’t have to look at this chaotic little disaster for much longer. I spent most of today designing a printed circuit board (PCB) to which all the necessary components can be soldered

 

Figure 3: “Saltatory Cacaphony”
                  Andy Corliss, 2025.
                  Jumper cables on various electrical                    components.

 

We also had the chance for a couple hospital visits. Last week, we bajaji’d to Amana Referral Hospital to introduce and get feedback on our projects with teams of doctors. There was lots of interest in the gastroschisis bag, with one doctor asking when she’d be able to use it in a clinical setting. Right now, the project is in the patent and manufacturing stage, so it won’t be too long before the gastroschisis bag is in use!

Several doctors in the pediatric section of the hospital were interested in the travel incubator project, and they brought insights that we haven’t even considered, such as making a single incubator that can fit multiple babies inside. We have been brainstorming around this idea while we continue to pursue the single-baby model. 

The second hospital visit was today, at the Aga Khan Hospital. We met with a neonatologist named Dr. Yaser Abdallah, and he was admittedly skeptical of both the gastroschisis bag project and the travel incubator project. While there is a clear need for gastroschisis bags in Tanzania, he believes that the best way to get these bags is to import them. As for the travel incubator, he believes that the vast majority of babies should be cared for via Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), in which the baby is held by the mother on her chest for maximal skin-to-skin contact. While it was a little difficult to hear that he didn’t think our projects would make an impact, Dr. Abdallah’s perspective is extremely valuable and we will continue to consider the points he brought up. 

As for the syringe pump, we got a hold of different syringe sizes to test with and have begun iterating different 3D printed designs to be able to adapt to these sizes. As I type this post, one of the DIT Design Studio 3D printers is spending its Friday night hard at work on a dummy device casing that we’ll be using to house our prototype iterations.

Figure 4: (left) 3D printed syringe guide above a standard 60 mL syringe  (right) syringe pump prototype: the top view shows the different protrusions that are meant to house and guide the syringes.

Next week will involve rapid prototyping of different syringe guides for the syringe pump, and fabricating and assembling the PCB for the travel incubator. We’ll also likely have another hospital visit. There’s lots to do, and somehow we’re already halfway through! Time really does fly when you’re having fun 🙂

Miscellaneous Updates

I think it’s critical to share that I spelled out RICE at a beach resort in the Kigamboni district of Dar es Salaam. Photo credit: Shreya (she was very patient, even as I wasted countless attempts flailing into illegible shapes)

Equally important is my success in an eating challenge at the Grand Restaurant in which I won a t-shirt. Photo credit: Melissa

Shreya and I watched the season champion deciding match of the Tanzanian premier league a couple days ago. What a rowdy experience!

Hopefully Shreya and Melissa can provide some better pictures of the monkeys we saw in Jozani Forest, Zanzibar this past weekend. All I have to offer is a selfie of dubious quality.

 

Me (basketball star) dunking on Prison Island tortoise (embarrassingly bad defender) in Zanzibar. Photo credit: Shreya, Hoop credit: Melissa

Melissa said that Zanzibar’s waters look like Taco Bell’s Baja Blast. She’s onto something.

The most surprising thing about Stone Town, Zanzibar, was the copious amounts of stray cats. They were everywhere, even in the lobby of our hostel!

Thanks to everyone who made it this far! Either your attention span is commendable, my writing is extremely engaging, or you’re being forced to read this against your will.

In any case, I’ll post again in two weeks, so be ready!

Until then,

Andy

 

Travel Incubator📈📈📈[Andy]

Posted on by ac185

Technical Updates

We really hit the ground running in the first weeks of our internship! We started with orientations and refreshers on some foundational prototyping skills: 3D design in SolidWorks, 3D printing, laser cutting, printed circuit board design and fabrication, and soldering.

Figure 1: I think I might need to work on my posture.
        Then, we moved on to our host projects. One project that we’re taking on here is an automated syringe pump, a device that’s meant to inject liquid medication in precise quantities over time. Although there is a functioning prototype, our goal is to expand its use to be able to accommodate more than just one size of syringe. Our focus for this project next week will be to acquire all the syringe types we need so that we can begin physical design iterations.
         The second host project, the one with which we’ve spent the majority of our time with so far, is a travel incubator. The purpose of this device is to transport babies within and between hospitals while preventing hypothermia. So far, we’ve focused on the heating method and the sensing and control systems that go along with it. This has involved plenty of jumper cables, bread boarding, and silly mistakes that probably could have been avoided if I didn’t have the memory of a baby goldfish. I’m very glad Shreya just took a class about Arduinos in Italy a few weeks ago as I would have been significantly more helpless alone.
Figure 2: Arduino interface for controlling the travel incubator. The top panel is the code editor and the bottom is the temperature sensor outputs.

       Right now, we have an Arduino setup that reads data from three different temperature sensors and displays these temperatures on an OLED screen. The screen is controlled by a knob that can turn and be pressed down for different inputs. The configuration also allows for the control of a 12V or 24V power source for the heating components. Finally, there is a buzzer and a light that can be used for status notifications and alarms.

       Today, we began controlled testing of the heating capabilities of our current design. The testing apparatus is shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3: (left) The current prototype testing setup. Four different sensors collected temperature data for 20 minutes of heating for each trial. (right) heating elements from 3D printers are attached to the coil, and air circulation is provided by a fan.
       The results of the testing so far are imperfect, but promising! We have been able to get our incubator up to a temperature of around 34 degrees Celsius, with the heating coil reaching a temperature of 51 degrees Celsius, after about 20 minutes of heating. By controlling the airflow better and potentially adding more heating elements, we will be able to achieve higher temperatures in less time. The progress on this project has been really exciting, and we’re pretty close to having a working prototype!

Miscellaneous Updates

       Last weekend, Melissa, Shreya, and I took a trip to the uninhabited Bongoyo Island a 30 minute boat ride off the coast of Dar es Salaam. We had a great time relaxing on the beach and I felt lucky to spot hermit crabs and some cool fish.

Figure 4: (left) View from Bongoyo (right) shell with legs
       We’ve explored a lot of interesting cuisine in our time here, as well, including Italian, Indian, Mediterranean, Mexican, and of course local Tanzanian dishes. Each night means a new restaurant to look forward to eating at! When the dishes are especially aesthetic, I have to make sure the camera eats first (Figure 5).📸😋
Figure 5: (left) Enchilada at Amigos, a Mexican restaurant
(right) Schwarma at Levant, a Lebanese place
       We’ve made ourselves quite busy here, but luckily I still had time to display a very important message on the OLED screen we’re using for the travel incubator:
Figure 6: Social Media Advertisement
Thanks for following along with my journey!
Until next time,
Andy
P.S.: We saw these cats at lunch one day and I thought they were cute.
Figure 7: paka wawili (two cats)

Greetings from Dar es Salaam! [Andy]

Posted on by ac185

Yesterday, my plane landed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania!

I’m Andy Corliss, a rising senior at Hanszen college studying bioengineering with a minor in global health technologies. I’m really excited for the chance to contribute to global health in a meaningful way through this program. 

The first project I’m working on is a low cost tourniquet training mannequin which my team last semester dubbed “Tourni-Kit”. We started it in the Appropriate Design for Global Health course in January 2025. The goal of this project is to improve access to life-saving bleeding control first aid training in a market where current models cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. 

By the end of the Spring semester, our team (Figure 1) had developed a working arm prototype that bleeds and stops bleeding at the appropriate pressure of a tourniquet being applied. In Tanzania, our primary goal with this project is to get feedback on this current prototype on how it can be improved. Additionally, there are several areas of improvement that we’ve already identified, such as durability to water exposure and consistency of the bleeding mechanism. Another focus area will be to ensure a prototype can be fabricated from locally sourced materials.

Team Tourni-Kit

 

Figure 1: Presenting the current Tourni-Kit prototype at the Huff OEDK Engineering Design Showcase in April 2025. Left to right: Katie Voong (currently in Malawi with Rice360!), Joanna Wei, myself, Naayaa Mehta, Justin Xia.

The second project we’re taking is the gastroschisis bag, which is a treatment for newborns with a birth defect that causes their intestines to be on the outside of their body. Although it is a treatable condition with high survival rates in the United States, the standard method of care there is too expensive to be implemented in much of Africa.

Previous Rice360 interns have developed a prototype designed to isolate and protect newborns’ intestines out of just two materials that can be fabricated in only about 15 minutes (Figure 2). Moving forward, there are two major goals to get this device closer to helping real patients. The first is to find a way to sterilize it and maintain this sterilization until it is used. The second is to develop an effective way to package it. Another goal to make the gastroschisis project a success is to ensure the materials can be locally sourced here at DIT.

 

Figure 2: Current gastroschisis bag prototype. A 500 Tanzanian Shilling coin (slightly bigger than an American quarter) is used for size reference.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll be planning other projects such as our collaboration with DIT students.

Although I was a little nervous initially, Joel, Cleria, Dr. Msumba, and everyone else I’ve met here have made me feel so at home even in the first 24 hours. I’m so excited to keep learning from everyone and I’ll make sure to share the highlights in this blog.

Stay tuned!

Figure 3: Keeping my Swahili Duolingo streak alive!