Hi y’all! I can’t believe it’s been over 8 weeks since I arrived in Nairobi! My project at Medevice has been moving along; I have had to do a lot of troubleshooting for my breadboard and code and I am still having difficulties getting my pulse oximeter to accurately calculate R and SpO2, but I am optimistic that I will be able to make it work this week. In addition to making changes to the breadboard and code, I edited and printed a new CAD design for the photodiode and LED housing to better align the photodiode and LEDs. I have learned that coding circuit prototyping both take a lot of iteration and patience, especially since I have minimal testing equipment. I didn’t have a lot of experience with circuit design beyond the labs in my undergraduate curriculum, so this summer has definitely been a learning experience for me. My goal is to finish troubleshooting my circuit this week so that next week I can test it and compare its performance to a medical-grade pulse oximeter. On Monday, I also had a fun break from my routine as Medevice was hosting a panel about the role of AI in health technology. It was interesting to hear the panelists’ opinions on how AI can be ethically incorporated into healthcare solutions. I also got to be the photographer for the event which was fun (and was the reason I am not pictured in the group photo).
After three weekend excursions in a row, it was nice to stay local this weekend. On Friday after work, Colin, Katherine and I went to Sarit mall for dinner. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain during our walk to the mall, so we arrived cold and soaking wet. We tried a Mexican restaurant, Fonda’s, and for a country with virtually no hispanic population, the food was great! I had tortilla soup, a lamb barbacoa taco, and a beef birria taco followed by some gelato from another shop in the mall. On Saturday, two of my coworkers, Doris and June, took us to Toi Market, a sprawling outdoor market selling mainly used clothes and household items such as cookware and bedsheets. While the sheer volume of stalls and numerous vendors trying to pull you in to purchase their items was a bit overwhelming, we had a great time browsing for clothes. In particular, I loved the stalls with giant mounds of T-shirts being sold for KES 100 (77 cents) as it was fun to dig through and see what gems you could find. I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and finishing up preparations for my upcoming weekend trip. I’m a huge UFC fan (mixed martial arts), so I will be traveling to Abu Dhabi to do some sightseeing and attend the UFC fight night on Saturday night. I’ve never been to the UAE or watched a live UFC event, so I’m excited to kill two birds with one stone on this trip! Until next time!
