Every journey has a beginning and an ending, what matters the most is what one has been able to accomplish when the journey has come to an end. All sorts of emotions are present at the end of a journey, some joyful ones others sad ones. My personal journey has been one that has a joyful ending, I didn’t want it to end but at the same time I cant help the to quench the feeling of hope that have for my country. I would like to believe that my coming here was not a coincidence, neither is it something that’s supposed to be beneficial only to me. I believe my coming here is for the benefit of millions. I have had fun, I have enjoyed my stay, and mostly grateful for the knowledge and skill imparted to me for the past 7 weeks. I appreciate the friendship and networks that have spark up from this place, from my fellow Africans from Tanzania to everyone we met in the United States. I would like to believe, for most of them this marks the beginning of friendship that will transform the world.

I write my blog with ease knowing that 99% of all that was required from my team has been delivered; we have been able to build a device that applies negative pressure on a wound helping it to heal faster. The device required that we should be able to apply negative pressure between negative 70 mmHg – 150 mmHg and we have been able to do that. It was also required of us that the device should cost less than $200 and we have built it for around $150. It is lightweight, weighs less than 10 pounds and it has a battery life that lasts more than 12 hours before it gets recharged. In addition, our device has an alternative power outlet which you can use to charge the battery or just to power the device. It also has three Light Emitting Diodes “LED” to convey different messages, The Blue LED blinks when the pressure being applied is lower than the required 70mmHg, the Yellow LED blinks when the reservoir is full, and this runs concurrently with the buzzer which makes noise once the float switch closes. There is also a Red LED which blinks whenever the device is operating on battery and the battery is low.

All in all, I can say that I am proud of the work that we have been able to do; we just did not do much pressure testing as we wanted but we did carry out some. Moving forward, I intend to make a replica of the device in Malawi, and hopefully implement it in our hospitals upon consultation with the required authorities

SEED is a great a platform for us engineers to develop our skills and become more relevant in society. I appreciate all the partners and sponsors for making this platform available, their impact is felt greatly. I have learnt so much from our professors Dr Hunter and Dr Wettergreen, their humility and ability to communicate knowledge is top class. During our daily morning meetings I always looked forward to how they would ask questions. they asked the same thing I wanted to ask but more intelligently. I have learnt that skill.

Now that my SEED has germinated, there is no telling how far I can go. I mean who knows, I could be coming back to America SOON. Until next time