Hello everybody, thank you for tuning in to my final week of blog posts! 

This week saw so many positives, as it felt like we finally began to see the fruits of our labor come to be. We’ve worked very hard on our model, and I am personally so happy with the work we’ve done, and hopeful for where we can take this prototype in the future!

To refresh you all from last week, we had two primary areas of concern to address before we prepared our model for the showcase: Our most pressing need was to find a new material for our cyst, as our model’s version was much too soft, and not able to be readily detected within our gel. We left off by developing a cyst made of the same silicone material as our fatty breast tissue, encased in a balloon to ensure movement.

Additionally, the main issue with our fibroadenoma was the inability to move it in tissue, as typically these lesions are relatively mobile in tissue. Following some more brainstorming, we ended up using reusing one of our prior findings from developing our cyst. We ended up using the same Ecoflex 00-30 silicone material, but instead enclosing it within a balloon to ensure the same relative movement you would expect from a cyst. These two lesions are often described as very similar in most qualities, including movement within the tissue. The main distinction between the two is the density of each of the masses.

With our findings and new lesions at hand, we had our clinician meeting this past Wednesday at the OEDK. Much to our chagrin, they were very impressed by the new models of these lesions! They had said that these two lesions actually happened to have the most tactile accuracy of all aspects of our model thus far. That being the case, we had one more step that we needed to take: scaling our model up to have a full model at hand.

Following our clinician meeting, we spent the rest of Wednesday combining all components of our model to present a larger, half-scale model for the showcase. To be honest, I was quite a bit nervous about how this final prototype would turn out, as it wasn’t until that day that we had attempted to upscale to this degree. Fortunately for us, our model came out great! We were able to successfully suspend all lesions within our fatty tissue and a model ready to showcase.

Note: You may not be able to see me in this picture. I am not the tallest so I got blocked out in the back haha…

Thus, we presented our model and celebrated its completion alongside a cookie-making night and some special times with my fellow colleagues. It felt so liberating to see this project come to life, and I am so grateful to have learned so much. This internship has helped me become a better thinker, a better engineer, a better listener, and as a whole, a better person. Getting to work alongside so many gifted individuals and different perspectives has absolutely left an impact on my life. And I am all the more thankful for it.

Thank you for joining me in this journey!

~Philip DuBose

Hey everyone! Thanks for coming back for another week of blog posts! This week saw great progress with our model, plenty of fun with my fellow interns, and a reminder of a very valuable life lesson that I almost lost sight of.

Let’s start with the lesson: a reminder to not be reluctant to change. More specifically I suppose, a reminder that every path doesn’t have to be linear: sometimes it takes a single step in another direction to realize how to get to where you want to be. This lesson manifested itself, in our woes of 3-D modeling. 

To be blunt, Rhino was not working. Every single time it felt like progress was being made on the model, it seemed like there was just one command, or one exception in the software, that would prevent the model from looking how we wanted it to look. In all honesty, I am not very well-versed in 3-D modeling, so I was spending hours watching tutorial videos and perpetually entering commands in the software to seemingly no avail. The thought crossed my mind to change platforms and start over, but it felt like if I did, all my prior effort would’ve been wasted. It was foolish pride, but I wondered what would have been the point of all of those weeks of hard work, just to change everything in the end? 

As we reached the 4th of July holiday, I figured it would be good to keep working on the model during the break. Rhino is a paid platform, so I wouldn’t be able to work on the files on my personal laptop without purchasing an account. That’s when the option presented itself again to make the switch and start anew. Every single Rhino course on YouTube just so happened to have recommendations for courses on another platform on the side: Blender. I had heard of Blender before as an animation software but never knew that it had capabilities for 3-D modeling for 3-D printing. As Blender is free software, I finally decided to download it, just to see if maybe it had any insight to help me understand Rhino better. And just like that, the amount of progress I had made in Rhino in 3 weeks with Rhino, I made in just over a day in this new platform!

For me, this platform was much easier to use, and effectively it made our model look much better too. When we met with the clinicians this past Wednesday, they were big fans of how the model looked on Blender, they were very much in support! The same could be said about the texture and consistency of the BrickinTheYard gel silicone material we experimented with last week. That being the case, it looks like this is the material we are going to stick with from here on! 

Our next move is to experiment with tumor design, developing a suspension mechanism for all the different lesion types, and figuring out how to incorporate thickening back into the model, as the BrickInTheYard silicone does not capture the same effect as the eco-flex when construction is added. As far as the lesion types, we’ve developed a 3D-print for a fibroadenoma, and have all of our hard lesions (made out of air-dry clay) ready to go. We’re currently brainstorming materials for making a cyst and hope to have an idea by next week. 

The suspension mechanism has caused us a bit of trouble, as the silicone is not fully curing around our lesions. For some reason, the materials seem to inhibit the curing process, so we’ll be experimenting next week with different ways of preventing this inhibition. Finally, to figure out thickening, it seems as though we’re going to have to incorporate both types of silicone: Ecoflex 00-30 and the BrickIntheYard gel, to capture that effect. Dr. Taylor had suggested the idea of maybe partitioning the model into separate portions, and finding out a way to combine them all together in our final product. We’ve found that the two silicone materials do in fact stick together, so we’ll be experimenting with this throughout next week!

Outside of work, we’ve had so much fun! I’ve really been able to connect with many of my colleagues, getting to better know the SEED and international interns over lunches and just hanging out. By nature, I tend to be a pretty introverted person, but everyone has been so welcoming, and it has let me come out of my shell quite a bit!  We played basketball as a group on Saturday and had a fantastic time. I played basketball in high school, so this served as a bit of a throwback to my peak competitive days!

We also went to a soccer game on Saturday! In my humble opinion, we were by far the most hype people in the audience. We made it on the jumbotron and may even be used in promo material for the Houston Dash! It was such a good time, and I really felt as though I connected with my fellow interns. 

We’re starting to enter the final stretch here! We’re only two weeks out from the end of the internship and our final showcase. It truly has been amazing to see how this project has progressed, and I look forward to seeing our final product come to life! Thank you all for sticking along for my journey so far, and for tuning into this week’s blog post. Hope to see you back here next week!

Hey everybody! Thanks for tuning in for another week of blog posts.

From now on, I promise I’m going to refrain from using this same cliche every week, but it’s insane just how fast this project has been moving. We are already 4 weeks in, meaning we’re halfway through the internship already! I feel like I’ve met so many new faces and have gained so much valuable perspective in such a short amount of time. It’s hard to fathom being in such a lucky position, but I am so thankful to be here!

To start, let’s talk about our project status. Diya and I have made a lot of progress on the breast cancer model this week! We had our first in-person meeting with the MD Anderson clinicians this week to mark our progress. It went really well! For one, the clinicians approved of the low-fidelity 3D mold we had printed out. We managed to capture a good general layout for the proportions/general layout of the model, which is going to be very helpful in the long run for prototyping! Additionally, perhaps by a stroke of good luck, we “purposefully” came across a discovery in prototyping our initial model that may prove to be a feature we keep throughout. When we poured our silicone into our mold, we were worried about the silicone sticking to the PLA plastic. So, we put a small piece of construction paper around a corner of the mold, in hopes of being able to easily pull the silicone out. Instead of remaining on the outside of the paper, the silicone actually ended up enveloping the paper. After managing to get the silicone mold, we felt around the paper edge and were intrigued by the texture. We brought this to the clinicians, and it turns out that the texture is quite similar to the thickening of breast tissue around lesions! 

One thing the clinicians also noted about our prototype is the general model material is much too stiff in comparison to actual breast tissue. This being the case, we’ve been brainstorming/trying out a number of materials to see if we can capture a more realistic texture. Silicone, so far, has definitely been the way to go, with the most accurate (in our opinion) being a soft silicone gel produced by BrickInTheYard. That being said, we’ll keep brainstorming ideas!

Finally, we’ve been working on our 3D-print mold for our model, and while progress has definitely been made, this has been quite a struggle for me. I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like whenever we’ve been on the cusp of breaking through and finally designing the mold exactly how we want it to look, there’s always some exception in the Rhino platform that prevents us from taking that next step. Nevertheless, I suppose that’s just a part of the design process! Perhaps, that happy accident will rear its face once again and pave the way forward.

Outside of work, we’ve been having a lot of fun. Many of the International Interns have just made it to Houston, so it’s been fantastic to get to know them! We went to an escape room on Friday, and I can proudly say that my team escaped! The car ride over was fun too, as we bonded over our favorite songs and artists, with the music bumping full volume all the way there and back. Afterward, we shared some laughs and stories over a meal at Chipotle, a great way for the average college student to cap off the night!

Thanks so much for tuning in once again! Hope to see you back here for next week’s update!

Hi everyone, it’s Diya again, with another week of blogging!

Starting of with work updates: 

• Team PuMPED: This week we wrapped up brainstorming, morphing, screening, and scoring. We also thought through the details of our top solutions and made detailed sketches. Then, Mina started working on CADing the form factor. Parnika and I worked on trying out a different pump – a diaphragm pump instead of peristaltic and figuring out how to change the motor speed with a potentiometer. We also worked on getting the pressure sensor to work with the help of Mr. Joe Bailey, an electronics engineer at Rice360. Hopefully by next week’s prototyping session, we will be able to integrate a motor of our choice and even some components of the pressure sensing system along with an almost complete form factor! 
• Breast Cancer Project: We ordered and tried out a lot of materials this week and showed them to the clinical mentors and MD Anderson. They gave us more insight into how our models were still too hard and how to model some of the lesions. Phillip has been working on using Rhino to make a 3D mold for the breast. Meanwhile, I’ve been researching and ordering materials that we’ve tried out. So far, the most successful materials for the general fatty tissue of the breast has been Ecoflex Gel (the one with the lowest shore hardness) and a silicone rubber we found from a company called BrickInTheYard. However, I still think these are a little harder than fatty breast tissue which almost feels like it’s filled with fluid. I have some more ideas for materials that I will order over the weekend. This is probably the most challenging part of creating our model so progress on this part has been a little slow but hopefully we can get more success soon! On a positive note, we have tried many of our ideas for creating the lesions such as masses, thickening, and fibroadenomas and modeling these has actually been much more successful! The MD Anderson clinicians especially really liked how the thickening felt! We’ll be continuing this process of trying out materials next week! 

On a personal front, I’ve gotten some great insight from all the workshops this week about what type of classes I want to take next year. Although this is not finalized, I’m thinking that I still want to major in Bioengineering but I want to take a couple of classes that will help me learn arduino and electronics as I’m getting really interested in this skill in Engineering Design. I’m also going to start (this weekend) going through free Arduino and CAD tutorials so that I can self learn these skills as much as possible in the remaining 6 weeks of summer. I’m also going to take the learnings from our Resume Workshop to improve my resume and Linkedin/Handshake/12twenty profiles. 

Additionally, this week I got a lot of chances to interact with and bond with the international interns and SEED interns. All of us eat lunch together almost every day and discuss things outside of work. We’ve started talking about an internship party, playing basketball/soccer together, and other things that all sound super fun! Furthermore on Friday, all of us went to an Escape Room. This was a super fun experience even though we were unable to escape. I thought we worked pretty well as a team and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We also went to Chipotle for dinner after which was tasty and another fun bonding experience. I’m really looking forward to all the future chances to interact with all the interns! 

There’s so much to learn and so much exciting prototyping to do next week!
– Diya 

Hi everyone, it’s Diya again with a blog!

Wow, the second and third weeks of my internship have already finished. Time seems to be moving so fast perhaps because every single day, working 9-5, has actually been so fun. I genuinely have been looking forward to every new day at work as the progress we have been making on our projects is so exciting and I’m learning so much!

So during the beginning of our second week, I actually joined the SEED team working on the gastric suction project in addition to my breast cancer screening training model project. My teammates for this project are Mina, Parnika, and Precious. Thus our team name is Team PuMPeD! The gastric suction project was previously a capstone engineering design project by Team BellyTubbies. Our goal for this project in the summer was to simplify and strengthen the electronics of the current prototype and design a better form factor for the device. 

Here are the work updates on both projects:

1. Breast Cancer Screening Training Model: We wrapped a lot of important context research these two weeks and are almost done with our design criteria (need to get them checked with Dr. Taylor before finalizing). After a meeting with our clients from MD Anderson, we decided to work on the CBE screening training model rather than the diagnostic biopsy training model. The clinicians recommended that this model was probably a slightly higher priority for them based on the current needs in target countries. We also decided to have weekly in person meetings with our clinician mentors which would allow Phillip and I to go into their MD Anderson office and show them the models we’ve worked on that week. This would allow them to physically feel the mock tissue of our models and give us feedback. Because how the breast feels is hard to quantify, we resolved as a team that the most effective means of prototyping and iterating would be to get regular in person feedback from the clinicians. Thus we’ve also been working on learning Rhino to create a 3D printed mold for the breast and researching materials we can use to create our initial prototypes. We’ve placed some materials orders and these should be arriving early next week so that we can begin initial prototyping based on our current ideas. Our first in person meeting with the clinicians is on the coming Wednesday!
2. Improved Gastric Suction Device: Because I joined the SEED team one week later, I initially just worked on catching up on a lot of the reading and documentation for the project. After we got the previous team’s prototype from Dr. Nejad, we also worked on reassembling the circuitry and tubing in order to better understand the mechanics and electronics of how the device works. This was a really fun learning experience as we got to really “get our hands dirty” working with Arduinos and thinking through the fluid transport logic. After this, we had a big group brainstorming session and began morphing and screening our ideas. Hopefully early next week we can place some materials orders and get to prototyping!

In addition to working on projects, this week also had some other exciting events! As we concluded our orientation for our internship, the Malawi and Tanzania interns took off to their respective countries early this week. All of us showed up to the BRC Monday morning to send off the Malawi interns who were flying out first. We discussed sending each other pictures on updates from work and daily life from the 3 different countries the 7 of us are in this summer. Additionally, some fellow interns from Nigeria actually flew in on Wednesday, so it was very nice to have lunch with them and hear a little about their lives and take them on a campus tour. I’m excited to learn more about them and their experiences and to share mine! Hopefully we can continue to have lunch with them as this gives us some time to interact with them outside of work as well. 

Finally, I want to talk about the networking lunch that took place this past Thursday. My table really had some wonderful discussions and I came out of that lunch feeling quite inspired. I learned about the paths that several of the guests took to get to working in Bioengineering or Global Health. This was super interesting to me as these are the fields I am thinking of pursuing as of right now. It also made me realize how unique and special Rice 360 and Nest 360 are and made me feel very grateful for being at Rice and for the opportunity to be an intern with them. As a result of the orientation discussions and this lunch I am sure that I want to work in the field of global health to some degree, both as an undergrad and even sometime in the future. As a result of my two projects – one more Bioengineering and one quite Electrical Engineering, I’ve also realized that I want to take a couple of electrical engineering classes to learn how to do basic circuitry and electronics. In summary, hearing about the field of global health from so many amazing and accomplished professors, mentors, and guests has been very inspiring so far. 

Until next week! – Diya