We are moving right along in the summer. As I write this, we are already in our fourth week of the internship.

We started off last week by 3D printing some more and finishing the calibration process for the printers. We calibrated the X, Y, and Z motors as well as the hot end/extruder. James and I had a pretty difficult time – our extruder seemed to have a mind of its own and would sometimes retract the filament when we pressed extrude.

On Tuesday, we also attempted to avoid the disappointing Tropical Storm Bill. We were only at work for two hours and in that time got our project assignments and started research. We left work at 11, but Tropical Storm Bill never really showed up… hmmmmm.

For the rest of the week, I worked with Harrison and Hanna on the APGAR scoring project. We are tasked with developing a device and/or method that will help with the accuracy, communication, and recording of APGAR scores at Queen Elizabeth’s Central Hospital (QECH) in Malawi. I’m looking forward to see what we end up doing because at this point, the possibilities seem endless. Last week, we spent most of our time researching and attempting to more clearly define the problem. Toward that end, we’ll be Skyping the QECH interns this week and hopefully speaking to a nurse or neonatologist from a hospital here in Houston to learn more about the process of APGAR scoring.

Until next week (actually, later this week)!

Whitney