Week 2 has been a period of growth, both for me and for our project. With my team, we finalized our design criteria; we brainstormed and evaluated potential solutions; and we realized we are not restricted to making the Steribox, well, a box. However, perhaps the most important growth came not in our design, but in our approach.

Something I’ve observed in all of my global health classes and experiences is the emphasis on a “horizontal” transfer of resources and ideas. It is an integral part of any approach to improving healthcare at the grassroots level. Accordingly, when we created our design goals and objectives, we wanted to make sure they were in line and came from those who will use our device, and thus “usability” became an important criteria. However, a “horizontal” approach cannot end here.

This week was marked by workshops and lectures about biosocial and human factors engineering, microaggressions and user-centric design. We also met again with our collaborators from Houston, Tanzania and Malawi. Through all of this, we started to see how a “horizontal” approach meant that all of our design criteria had to be inspired from those who will use the device. This meant “sustainability” should not just encompass locally sourced materials, but also the ease of maintenance and reproducibility. “Efficiency” was no longer the rate of sterilization of masks, but also the dosage of UV light which optimized recycling. Our entire perspective suddenly shifted as we began thinking beyond what we had in front of us.

Once we had our design criteria, we started brainstorming for potential solutions. Among these, we had everything from oil drums and frisbee-shaped UV lights to triangular prisms and UV curtains (credits to Vanessa for the drawings!).

We all hitchhiked off of each other and added unique perspectives to each idea. After brainstorming, we evaluated our solutions, again keeping in mind all of the lessons we had learned throughout the week. By the end, we had two main mechanical designs that we wanted to prototype. While we will be doing the majority of prototyping throughout week three, I’m going to leave a few sneak peeks at our initial low-fidelity prototypes (click the gifs to play them!). I’m excited for where this project is headed!

 

— F