Hi everyone! I am starting my fifth week here at Medevice. At the end of the week, we will be pretty much at the halfway point of our experience. This past week at work, I spent the majority of my time working on the SolidWorks for my preliminary prototype. After many hours of trial and error and many, many technical questions to ChatGPT, I have completed my first upper-level solo design, and I couldn’t be more proud of the way the 3D rendering turned out. Dealing with curved geometry was a whole new beast that required an astute level of attention to detail and patience. Not even joking, I think in the ~20 hours I spent on this design, I have learned more about SolidWorks and all of those fancy buttons than I did in an entire semester of CAD design fundamentals. This week genuinely challenged me, and I appreciated that. I had to put my limited skills to the test and emerged as a stronger CADist. My next goal is to print it using the 3D printer at work to get an idea of how the geometry feels and perform some functionality tests. If this printer doesn’t have a fantastic tolerance level for the fine geometries, then I may be able to collaborate with the design studio at Jomo Kenyatta to print some higher-quality designs. We are also still working hard to find a suction machine to test prototypes with.
I have been working on reaching out to connections I have made in the past at VCU for their insight. I have worked closely with orthopedic surgeons, and I figure it will only make my research more robust if I get the state-of-the-art in American orthopedic ORs. I have also been reaching out to companies that make solutions for this exact problem to get a benchmark for currently available remedies. I want to take all of the research I conduct and whatever products I can source and make something that is realistic for lower resource settings, such as Kenyan hospitals. I also want to develop a troubleshooting tree diagram for technicians who can’t seem to figure out why the suction machine isn’t working great; I have found that the suction machines may not be performing up to the clinicians’ standards simply because they are not used and cared for properly.
Weekend life was fun this week. Emma, Jasmine, and I went adventuring to the Nairobi art gallery and the National Museum of Kenya. There was a ton of info and art to look at, keeping us entertained for our entire Saturday. We also had the opportunity to hang out with some of the other Rice students. We also ate at this restaurant called CJ’s, which we concluded was very similar to the American restaurant BJ’s. It was really good and satisfied my craving for a Chick-fil-A sandwich. It was a great week, and I’m looking forward to sailing through the halfway point of our summer experience! I hope everyone else is enjoying their time. Miss you, family!
