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.

 

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!