Hello! Welcome to my blog, where I will be documenting my experience working with interns in Malawi in this virtual Rice 360 Summer Internship. Before jumping into the blog, I feel like I should first introduce myself. I’m Bhavya Gopinath, a rising junior at Rice University. I live at Wiess College, where I serve as assistant treasurer, and I am also part of the Rice newspaper, the Thresher. In my free time, you can find me hanging out with my friends or procrastinating by binging the most recent Netflix series (I try not to!). I’m majoring in bioengineering, with a minor in global health technologies. I’ve worked on different projects over the years, such as a capture assay to detect microbiological disease babesiosis, as well as an anal cancer screening teaching model. Through these projects, I’ve found that I really love the design process, so I’m really thrilled to have this internship opportunity. 

Right before the United States started to reckon with the grim reality of coronavirus, I was preparing for an entirely different summer. I was already starting to think about the essentials I’d need for Malawi when Rice announced its decision to shut down. I moved back in with my parents right after spring break. Living in New York, an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, I’ve seen the statistics and numbers of COVID-related deaths slowly climb in my hometown. I’ve seen family friends who are doctors in the city complaining about the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), like masks and face shields, that are available. Joining this internship has made me think of this pandemic on the global scale that it is—  if New York has this many issues with resource allocation in a dense environment filled with medical care, how is it in places like Malawi? 

On the first day of the internship, our team assignments were announced, and I was placed on Team PPE! I was thrilled to work with the team, but I also couldn’t wait to work on these prototypes — a unique and amazing part of this internship to me is that all these prototypes are COVID-specific and directly applicable to the current world climate. I have three other team members — Andrew from Rice University, Carolyn from Malawi Polytechnic University (Poly), and Yankholanga from the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST). They all are super kind and passionate about the project, and I’m really excited to get to know them more over the next few weeks! 

There are two projects we are focusing on — the first, developed at Poly, is a UVC light disinfection system to sterilize N95 masks for clinicians to reuse. Since normally these masks are single-use and disposable, UVC sterilization systems can make masks reusable for almost five uses. The prototype is extremely promising, but it’s still very expensive, so our team is considering ways to make the device (which usually fills a room) smaller such that there won’t be as many expensive UVC lamps needed in the design. The second prototype we are hoping to develop is a reusable face shield — a shield that can be mass-produced and made out of resources commonly available, while also being comfortable for clinician use. Trying to find materials that are soft on the face and comfortable but also reusable and easy to mass-produce has already been a major challenge and problem that we hope to address. Additionally, especially with our workshops this week on human-centered design, we want to make the prototypes as user-friendly as possible for clinicians. 

At Rice, I had only worked on designing basic, initial device prototypes from the ground-up through two different design projects. But with this internship, I now see and appreciate the nuances of developing initial prototypes and then focusing on making them cost-effective for mass production and use in developing countries. Researching and working with my team this past week, though, has also made me realize how reliant on technology I have become — how reliant everybody has become. I’ve become used to having classes and meetings while I’m sitting on my bed with the background sounds of my sister’s, mom’s, and dad’s own respective Zoom calls. Even in this first week of the internship, the importance of technology and WiFi, as well as its problems, have been amplified. On the first day, my teammates and I struggled for about an hour to get everybody on the same call with a strong enough network. It was only three days into the internship where my teammates and I could find a time to video call each other. 

Despite these challenges, I can already feel our team become closer individually, and I’m sure that will only continue! Meeting the team, the TAs, and the faculty members have been really special. I feel really lucky to be learning from and working alongside all these amazing, talented people. I’m so excited to see where this project goes, and I’m looking forward to talking more with different clinicians and stakeholders next week to get their thoughts about improving our prototypes! I really want to make sure to take in this experience, ask as many questions as possible, gain more confidence in my ability to develop these devices, and of course develop close friendships with my teammates and the other interns. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next five weeks!  

– Bhavya 🙂