Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! Our fourth week was amazing, and marked a shift from the brainstorming/designing phase of our projects to the prototyping phase! The week involved finalizing designs, testing materials, presenting our projects at a health conference, and even speaking with local street vendors to purchase industrial-grade materials. Twende!

In terms of designing, we spent the earlier portions of the week drawing printed circuit boards (PCBs) for our devices. The PCB of a device is used to electrically connect its components, so that they can work together. It was very interesting to not only learn how a circuit board works, but to actually build one from scratch! We also spent time simulating a heating system for our transportable incubator. We discussed many methods of controlling the internal temperature, ultimately settling on a heated-blowing system using a fan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we already made initial prototypes for the gastroschisis bag, we moved on to testing the materials. There are a variety of plastics to choose from, and different ways to seal the bags. We created many combinations of materials and sealing methods and conducted water leakage testing.

Something I’ve realized at this point in the internship is that engineering is a very multidisciplinary field, regardless of what type of engineer you are; our devices have mechanical aspects, electrical aspects, and software that all work together under the guise of a biomedical issue. Some of our projects involve more of one field than others (gastroschisis bag is mostly mechanical, NICU temperature sensor is mostly electrical and coding-based), but all fields rely on each other to some extent. That’s why engineering is so complex and has many applications, but also why it can be challenging!

 

On the last two days of the week, we attended the 2024 MUHAS Scientific Conference, where we heard from distinguished health professionals on their various research projects. We were also able to present our projects on behalf of NEST360, and speak with local medical students and faculty/lecturers. It was a great learning experience, and a way to see what innovative research people are doing!

 

Over the weekend, we visited Kariakoo Market, one of the largest and busiest markets of East Africa, to find materials for building our hardware. I was amazed by how vibrant and packed the streets were, with vendors selling produce, clothes, accessories, automotive parts, electrical devices, construction materials, furniture, and pretty much anything else you can think of! We talked with a few shop-owners, but didn’t end up buying anything that day. After that, we spent time walking through the entire market and trying some local snacks!

Overall, week four was very productive and eventful, and I’m glad that we’ve made a lot of progress in the first half of the program! Hopefully the next four weeks don’t go by as fast, but are just as significant.

Tutaonana baadaye,

Aryun

 

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! Last week was packed with amazing activities, from visiting neonatal surgeons in national hospitals to commemorating the expansion of NEST360 initiatives in Tanzania to showcasing our projects to the President of Rice University and advisory board members! There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll get right into it!

We started the week by visiting Muhimbili National Hospital to get feedback on our projects from pediatricians and neonatologists. As the largest hospital in the country, Muhimbili often receives patients from referral hospitals in surrounding regions, so it has access to the most resources and surgeons. As such, we wanted to speak with doctors from this hospital first, as they could give us a broad idea of the areas in which the most support is needed.

We spent three days receiving general advice on all four of our projects (low-cost gastroschisis bag, neonatal temperature sensor, infant transport incubator, and phototherapy machine). The feedback was extremely constructive, ranging from the intricate mechanisms and features of the designs to which materials would work best. There are many factors we hadn’t initially considered, and the doctors advised us to keep the end user – the patient – in mind during all phases of the engineering process. Suran and I quickly learned that our ideas needed to be taken apart and put back together, over and over again, to make an efficient and sustainable product.

We’ve made lots of headway incorporating the feedback of the doctors, and we already have an initial prototype of the gastroschisis bag that resembles a commercial one!

 

Later in the week, President DesRoches of Rice University, several Rice360 advisory board members, and representatives of NEST360 arrived in Dar for the NEST360 Phase 2 launch!

The launch celebrated the past 5 years of improved neonatal health outcomes due to collaborations between local hospitals and NEST360. It also marked the beginning of new partnerships and technological expansion, with NEST360 committing another 5 years towards increasing accessibility to medical technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ceremony was nationally televised, and government officials even spoke at the event to endorse the efforts of the collaboration!

 

 

 

On Friday, the visitors from Rice University came to DIT to witness a showcase of the design studio and all of its current projects. It was a privilege to show the work that we’re doing to members of the Rice community and give them a glimpse into our day-to-day. After lunch, we said goodbye to our friends from Rice, and just like that week two was in the books!

 

 

 

 

 

Well, almost. The weekend brought its own adventures, namely beach soccer! We took a short ferry to a nice beach with some of our friends from DIT and our mentor, Joel. We set up some sticks as the goals, and ended up playing until there was no more sunlight. I was quickly humbled by the terrain and the skills of the DIT students; playing in the sand is harder than it looks!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed! It’s hard to believe that June is almost over; it feels like just yesterday when we landed here. Looking forward to more wonderful experiences. Stay tuned!

 

Aryun