Hello everybody! I am Stephen Kamande, a final-year biomedical engineering student from Kenyatta University in Kenya. For the summer, I am a SEED intern at the OEDK. Getting the opportunity to come to Rice University has been one of the privileges of my life, and I want to share parts of my journey over the next few weeks with you.
Living in Houston has been really cool - well, aside from the intense heat. Thank God for air conditioning! As we were taking the ride from the airport over to Martel College, we got a first look at how beautiful the city is. Funny thing is, we got kind of lost on our way, and the driver had a hard time finding the address. It was a very interesting way to kick off the program. The biggest adjustment I have had to make is the food, but the servery on campus has had a lot of options to choose from.
Night time views from Martel College
Having lunch with the gang
Walking into the OEDK for the first time was an incredible experience. Being an engineer at heart, I have to say it is one of the coolest places I have ever seen. Growing up, I was the kind of kid who would be bought a toy car, and within a few days, it would be dismantled as I tried to figure out how it worked. Having such a rich environment of tools and mentors who are so ready to help you is welcoming and inspiring. It makes it easy to quickly bring an idea from your head into your hands. It makes you want to do great things, or as we say, ‘make something awesome.’
We also got sorted into the various groups we will be working in for the rest of the internship. I will be working with Edwin Low and Penina Macha as part of Team AIR (Aspire Inspire Respire) - cool name, I know 😁 - and we are working on the Artemis High Flow Nasal Cannula.It is a medical device that provides respiratory support. My team and I started off by trying to understand what the previous team had been working on, so it involved a lot of poring over long lines of code, interviews, and deciding what we should focus on. A big thing that stood out was how we all have different perspectives, especially given we were all taught in different places, but we learned to listen to each other and collaborate effectively.
Going into the second week, we had a bit of momentum and a plan. Given the project had many potential areas for improvement, we decided to first focus on fixing the motor-valve assembly. We spent most of our time researching different solutions and eventually landed on some items which we were able to order. Now, as we continue testing our solution, we hope it will integrate well with the other components.
I fancy myself a bit of an architecture buff, and my gallery is now full of pictures of random buildings all over Rice. I am always up for taking a walk to explore new places, so the first week involved a lot of getting lost and discovering cool things around the campus. The most interesting thing I’ve come across has to be the piece of the Berlin Wall that is found on campus. We also visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where I saw dinosaur bones for the first time.
Piece of The Berlin Wall
My goal this summer is obviously to create an exciting prototype that will impress everyone. But more personally, I am really looking forward to learning how to use some of the machines I have seen around the OEDK, such as the laser cutter, and improving my networking skills. Another is to just have as much fun as possible. Until next time👋…
