This week, we finished up the electronics teaching modules and then found a new project to work on! Dr. Moshi, one of the professors in the electrical engineering department, asked us to help review the proposed revisions for the new biomedical curriculum to be implemented in the fall.

This past year, I was one of 7 students on the Rice BIOE department’s Advisory Board. We surveyed fellow students, researched other schools’ programs, and wrote reports making recommendations for changes to our curriculum. Getting the chance to help improve DIT’s BME curriculum was super exciting, especially since our fellow interns have been telling us about its many weaknesses since day 1.

We spent a few days collecting feedback on the proposed curriculum from current and former students. Overall, they were pleased with most of the changes: reducing unnecessary modules from 12 per semester to 9, combining courses that didn’t have enough material to be stand-alone modules, and adding more practical content.

We then spent a day working with Dr. Moshi to better understand the content of the proposed curriculum and go over the comments and feedback we received from the DIT interns. The new curriculum should provide a better and more-well rounded education for future DIT students. However, many more changes will be necessary before it can be effectively implemented.

Many of the problems with the current curriculum seem to lie with lack of practical skills and fundamental knowledge. We anonymously surveyed more than 15 students and found some concerning results. Students overwhelmingly complained that the large number of modules “kept them busy” with unnecessary information rather than allowing them to focus on important core modules. They also told us that lecturers of biomedical courses often did not show up, and for some classes have only attended 1 or 2 lectures the entire semesters. This forces students to basically guess at what would be covered by midterms and final exams. Even when they did show up, there was no syllabus or course plan for the class, so lecture content was determined by the depth of the instructor’s knowledge rather than importance of each topic. They want more support, both in terms of money and instructor guidance, during their final year design project. And finally, students emphasized a need for practical experience in their coursework, from learning basic electronics skills to actually seeing and being able to take apart the equipment they are learning how to maintain and troubleshoot.

The new curriculum seems to alleviate some of these problems. The overall number of modules has been reduced, and hours have seemingly been set aside for practicals. We’ve also pointed out modules where the Rice troubleshooting course can be implemented and provided example circuits and teaching materials for learning practical electronics. However, instructors must be held responsible for attending lectures and actually communicating the knowledge that they’re hired to teach.

One method we suggested was to have instructors create course syllabi and schedules for the semester. This would also help students understand how much each subtopic is emphasized and provides a study guide. Finally, a syllabus would hopefully ensure that scheduled practicals actually occur as planned. We sent Dr. Moshi a few examples of Rice course syllabi, which we hope will provide a good starting point. Dr. Moshi seems excited about the new curriculum’s potential, but acknowledges that it’ll be a lot of work. He predicts that his fellow instructors will be resistant to creating the documents, so the responsibility to create and reinforce the syllabi may fall on him.

Dr. Moshi seems to be somewhat of a visionary in terms of trying to change DIT’s education system. He’s in charge of curriculum for 8 degree programs and recently attended a conference on active learning in Malawi headed by Drs. Matthew Wettergreen (current Rice engineering lecturer) and Ann Saterbak (former Rice professor and basically the creator of Rice BIOE). He came back from the conference with lots of ideas for improving the BME curriculum by implementing more practical project-based learning. Though he seems so stressed out already, I hope that he will be able to fulfill his dream of creating a more effective curriculum.

This past week was Week 5 out of 7. While we waited for a response from Muhimbili, we worked on the two projects we developed during Dr. Leautaud’s visit. For the electronics modules, we taught the DIT interns how each component worked, then how to use a breadboard, and finally how to assemble the circuit on a through-hole board. We also created some guidance documents on using a DMM, breadboarding, and soldering. As for the centrifuge safety switch, we successfully modified the two centrifuges we had available so that the motor only runs when the lid is closed. All we needed for each circuit was a small push button, epoxy, and some wire- a really simple but effective solution that will help protect future device users.

Watching the interns put these two projects together made me feel really proud! We were able to teach them some new skills and provide some more practical experience. The feedback for the electronics modules was especially positive; it seems that they would be an effective teaching tool if incorporated into their coursework or offered by the new design workshop.

While we didn’t receive a response from Muhimbili last week, we did get permission to visit Aga Khan. Our intern group was able to see more of the new facilities and talk to a nurse in the maternity ward. Aga Khan definitely has more resources than Muhimbili does, including newer facilities and equipment and a lower baby:nurse ratio. The two technologies that we’re especially interested in, phototherapy for neonatal jaundice and syringe pumps, are used frequently there, but the nurses rarely have problems with the devices. I’m glad that we were able to visit Aga Khan, whose maternity and neonatal care practices seem to be working well. If we get a chance to talk to a nurse or doctor at Muhimbili, I wonder what differences we’ll see. I also wonder how the DIT interns will view those differences, in terms of a potential workplace.

Though at times things have moved more slowly than I would have liked, I’m also surprised that the end of our internship is so near! There’s so much that we would still like to do here: get faculty feedback on the proposed OEDK space, help with curriculum revision, and visit Muhimbili again. But we’ve accomplished a lot too, from piloting the troubleshooting course to teaching the interns how to solder. Most importantly, we’ve developed strong relationships with the DIT interns and our supervisors. On Saturday, after our visit to Aga Khan, we had all the interns and Madam Kianja come over to our apartment for a lunch featuring Italian, Chinese, and American dishes. We had a great time and I hope that we can spend more time together outside of work before the end of the internship!

This week we finally got a chance to go to Muhimbili. We spent 3 days there working with the technicians and helping troubleshoot equipment. There are a lot of broken devices here! Much of it sits in the BME department’s main workshop, waiting for spare parts from dealers or other cannibalized equipment. If broken parts can’t be obtained or the device can’t be fixed, then it is “condemned”: stored in the courtyard for an annual public auction. Additionally, Muhimbili seems to depend on inconsistent government funding and donations from NGOs to obtain new equipment, unlike Aga Khan which replaces its equipment after 5 years. Thus, the hospital has many brands of the same type of equipment, but parts in those devices are not analogous with each other, resulting in even more machines collecting dust in the workshop. I wonder how this lack of functioning equipment affects Muhimbili’s patients, doctors, and nurses, and if there are any technologies that Rice and DIT students could develop to help.

We were also able to see some of the hospital wards, like maternity and the surgical ICU. Unfortunately, we found that we had yet another obstacle to overcome: while we were allowed to work alongside the BME department, we had not received authorization to ask doctors and nurses questions about neonatal and maternal care. We’ve now written and submitted yet another letter that specifically requests permission to do so, and I hope that it is approved soon.

While I’m getting more accustomed to the slower pace here, peeling back these layers of red tape is incredibly frustrating. My main goal for this internship is to learn about patient care in a low-resource setting. I hope to compare the standard of care, available facilities, and patient/provider needs here with those at the hospitals and clinics I will be trained at when I begin medical school in the fall. Of course, I expect that the technologies and resources in an American hospital would far exceed those at Muhimbili or Aga Khan, but I wonder if those advancements have any trade-offs that might be revealed when talking to healthcare providers here. Furthermore, I am really interested in observing patient care that occurs in a different culture and language.

On Thursday, Grant and I attended a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between Rice and DIT. We witnessed the principal of DIT sign the document and said a few words about our schools’ partnership. I’m excited to see what the internship looks like in a few years’ time! Hopefully, pushing through all of our current difficulties will pave the way for future interns here.

Finally, some bad news. We spent the weekend in Zanzibar, which was beautiful and lots of fun! But Gilden was right to be worried about my phone; it was stolen while we were there. 🙁 Sadly, my future posts will probably not have pictures. Note to future interns, especially wearers of pants for women: your pockets are not a safe place for your phone!!

As always, our week was quite eventful! Since we had finished all the troubleshooting modules, I was honestly feeling a bit frustrated going into the week. I’m the type of person who likes to plan things out and get things done, especially when responsible for a group of people, so not having any specific next steps was a bit stressful. However, Dr. Leautaud joined us at DIT from Monday through Wednesday, and helped us establish some more goals for the coming weeks. I also learned that I should be more patient, take things slower, and try not to stress about things that I can’t control. For example, we finally got a permission letter sent to go to Muhimbili, and ~yay!~ got internet working in our room.

Dr. Leautaud also brought the great news that Rice 360 has received a grant from the Lemelson Foundation, similar to the one received for Malawi (1,2), to further the Rice-DIT relationship and help establish a biomedical engineering design studio and practical workshop. Our DIT cohort was really interested to learn about the resources we have at the OEDK, and together we created a set of student and instructor surveys to help gather ideas for the new spaces.

We also came up with a few more projects to tackle: creating practical electronics modules and installable centrifuge safety switches. For these two projects, we walked the DIT students through the design process: defining design criteria, brainstorming solutions, and selecting the best one. The DIT curriculum only has 1 design project that is assigned during the final year of study, and it consists of pitching a solution to a problem, building it, and giving a functional demonstration. It seemed that they are not taught the processes of needs-finding, definition of design criteria, brainstorming, and validation of design criteria, so these exercises were a bit challenging. However, with lots of patience, we pooled together some good ideas and a shopping list for electronic components to buy in Kariakoo.

Kariakoo is a HUGE market that sells everything. Literally everything. The DIT students accompanying us on the trip took us straight to the electronic components shop, but we easily could have spent hours looking for the right place if they hadn’t guided us there. Seriously, Kariakoo was like a physical Amazon.com, without the search bar. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the streets because Gilden was paranoid I’d get my phone stolen, and kept it in his pocket for safekeeping.

On Saturday, Grant and I had a chance to visit Aga Khan, meet the head of the BME department, and tour some of their facilities! We will get a chance to take the group there in the next few weeks as well. Their current ICU is tiny, only 4 or 5 beds, but they are constructing a new building with an entire floor for the new ICU, complete with brand new equipment.

And finally, on Sunday we ended the week with a visit to Coco Beach! Though I only have Galveston Beach to compare it to, I thought it was absolutely beautiful. We even found a spot to do a little cliff diving! All in all, a very relaxing trip that provided some time for me to destress and think about what we’ve accomplished so far. “Pole-pole” (slowly, take it easy): adjusting to a slower pace of life has been different but definitely enjoyable.

We leave for Tanzania tomorrow! I’m both excited and nervous for the next two months. Grant and I will be the first cohort of Rice interns to go to Dar Es Salaam, so a big part of what we’re doing is establishing relationships to help future Rice 360 interns. We will also be receiving feedback on two technologies developed at Rice: the MaThermal, a maternal temperature monitor; and reusable ostomy bags for low-resource settings. Finally, we will implement a device troubleshooting workshop similar to one taught at Rice.

I’m so excited to be immersed in a new culture, and I’ve learned a little bit of Swahili in preparation. However, I’m also really nervous. Even though we’ve been getting ready for the internship for so long, I still feel a bit unprepared for the next two months. There’s so much to do, yet so much uncertainty in how we do it! But no matter what happens, I’m sure that it will be a valuable learning experience for me and really help Rice 360 in the future.

The title for this post is a play on words, a combination of “owl”, Rice’s mascot, and “allons-y, “let’s go” in French. Though I won’t be speaking any French this summer, I am definitely ready for all the new experiences I’ll have! Please feel free to follow this blog to see what I’ll be up to. So, let’s go – owl-lons-y!