Hello and welcome back to my blog! On our last episode, we had just figured out the heating elements for our incubator, had a basic display set-up, and had visited Bongoyo Island. Well, we’ve had a busy 2 weeks and there’s a lot to catch you guys up on.

In terms of work, we’ve made a lot of great progress with our incubator. We spent a lot of time figuring out the best set-up for the heating elements and testing out a lot of different options, but we finally found an arrangement that gets us up to 39 degrees Celsius in 20 minutes

using an 18V power source! We’ve incorporated 3 heating filaments, a fan, and a thermal insulation sheet.

Our controlling circuit has also multiplied to be able to set the temperature of the heaters, control the fan speed, show the values of all the different sensors, and we’re currently working on a pulse and SPO2 sensor as well. In the next few days, we’re going to be able to make a new box for the incubator and make a PCB from our Arduino circuit.

Also, last week, we had the chance to visit Amana Referral Hospital and get feedback on our incubator and the gastroschisis bag from doctors and nurses. We got a lot of really great insights that we worked to incorporate into our designs, and everyone seemed really excited by our projects.

But the incubator is not the only thing we have been working on. This week, we started on the syringe pump design. The project is almost complete; however, we were tasked with modifying the housing so that it can fit multiple sizes of syringes. We’ve been designing and 3D printing a lot of different pieces over the last few days to try and accommodate syringes ranging from a diameter of 0.25 inches to 1.5 inches.

And when we weren’t working, we’ve been having the time of our lives. These last 2 weeks have been so much fun. For our second weekend in Dar, we spent Saturday hauling our laundry to a laundromat and waiting for 4 hours for it to finish. Then on Sunday, we went to Kigamboni beach with our friends at DIT and spent the day swimming and trying to play kick shuttle, a game that Melissa brought that’s like soccer, but instead of a ball, it’s like a shuttlecock as pictured below (I was horrible at it).

During the 3rd week, it was my birthday, and everyone surprised me at dinner with cake. It was so sweet and fun. They have a tradition here where the birthday person gets asked questions like Who’s your best friend here? or Who’s your biggest opp here? and they feed a small piece of cake to that person.

Then our 3rd weekend was insane. We went to Zanzibar! Pictures could not capture how gorgeous it was. I genuinely did not know that the ocean could be those colors, definitely a giant step up from Galveston.

We got there Friday night and spent the evening exploring Stone Town, a world heritage site. Then we did a walking tour the next morning before heading to Jozani forest, where we did a nature walk and saw the endemic Red Colobus monkey. After Jozani, we headed up to Nungwi for the beach. The next morning, we went to Mnemba atoll for some snorkeling. The water was so clear, and we saw dolphins! They also gave us a fruit platter, and I have missed fruits so much; I really enjoyed that. Then, for our last day, we headed back to Stone Town so we could take a 15-minute boat ride to Chungu Island to see the endemic Aldabra giant tortoise. After the tortoises, we had a delicious lunch at the highest rooftop tea house (tea not included) in Zanzibar, then it was time to head out. It was such a fun trip filled with amazing experiences.

And we’re not done yet. This Wednesday, we went to the title decider of the Tanzanian Premier League (soccer) right here in Dar. The match was between the 2 biggest teams here, Simba and Yanga. All our friends here told us to root for Simba, but we accidentally ended up sitting in the Yanga section. The game was super fun and energetic, and Yanga did end up winning.

I can’t believe that we’re almost one month in, but I hope you guys will stick around for the rest of our adventures! Thank you for reading and see you next time.

Hadi wakati mwingine,
Shreya ♡

Hello and welcome back to my blog! These last 2 weeks have been nothing short of spectacular, both with the internship and exploring Tanzania.

The first few days of week 1, we did an insane amount of skill building, learning, and practicing things like SolidWorks, PCB making, laser cutting, and Arduino. My favorite was PCB (Printed Circuit Board) making, especially because of the unique way that they make it at DIT.

We first started by making the schematic in the software Proteus. After that, the schematic is printed on glossy printer paper, and then an iron (YES, AN IRON) is used to transfer the schematic to a copper sheet. Then it’s time to make the (literally magic) solution by mixing 1 cup of vinegar, 3 splashes of hydrogen peroxide, and 2 tablespoons of salt. Put the copper sheet in the solution and wait for a couple of hours to dissolve the unwanted copper. Then, after a bit of sanding, the PCB is ready!

After the skill building, we got to work on our projects, with our main focus these last 2 weeks being the incubator. We have made great progress on the incubator, having been able to figure out the heating system and code an Arduino to control all the sensors and heaters. Soon we’ll be able to put it all together for our first prototype!

Figuring out the heating system took a lot of trial and error. In total we tried 6 different heating elements, but found that they either did not effectively heat the entire area, did not dissipate heat properly, or had high power demands which is not ideal for a country like Tanzania. After some research into how refrigerators and heaters work, we tried putting 3D printer heating filaments into a copper pipe. We chose 3D printer heating filaments since they reach very high temperatures quickly and have a low power requirement. However they are very small, so they only heat a small surface area. Our hope was that by putting them in the copper pipe, the pipe would heat up very quickly and dissipate heat to its surroundings. After some trial and error with how to put the filaments into the pipe we finally got an arrangement that quickly warmed up our entire incubator.

For the Arduino in the project we are currently having it power 3 sensors, 1 heating filament, 1 OLED display, a rotary encoder to change and set the temperature, and an alarm. The first sensor is for the

baby’s temperature which will be in direct contact with the baby’s skin. The second is a non-contact temperature and humidity sensor for the incubator. The third is on the heating filament to check what temperature it is at. Our display screen shows the values of the different sensors and also has options to set the incubator temperature. The alarm goes off when the baby temperature leaves the set values and signify when the incubator is done “pre-heating”.

In between this work we grab lunch at a place super close to campus every day, and I found my new favorite food there. It’s called Wali Na Maharage,

basically just beans and rice but the rice tastes so good here. I’ve eaten it pretty much every day and the best part is it only costs $1!

After getting back from DIT, we try to explore Dar by taking a Bajaji (the Tanzanian version of a tuktuk/auto) to a new restaurant every night. Last weekend we even went to an island about 30 minutes away by boat – Bongoyo. It was so gorgeous and it was the perfect place to just relax on the beach for a couple of hours.

These last 2 weeks have been so amazing, I can’t wait to see what these coming weeks have in store for us! Thank you for reading and see you next time.

Hadi wakati mwingine,
Shreya ♡