lemelson engineering internship
ABSTRACT:
How do we train engineers to transform learned material into functional, appropriate solutions for their communities?
background.
The Lemelson Engineering Internship at DIT is the Tanzanian arm of the multi-national Rice360 Global Health Technologies Summer Internship Program. It is an 8-week engineering design program that gives students first-hand exposure to design for health in resource-limited settings. Each year, students are selected from each of the Rice 360° Invention Education workstream affiliated institutions (Rice University, Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology, Malawi University of Science and Technology, University of Malawi- The Polytechnic, University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan) to attend the program. Students either stay at their university to host other students or travel to other host institutions’ Design Studios for an international and interdisciplinary experience.
The program aims to expose 'undergraduate students from all disciplines and majors first-hand exposure to health care in resource-constrained settings. In partnership with clinics, universities, and organizations working in low- and middle-income countries, the internships allow students to tackle global health design challenges in a real-world setting.'
As manager of the DIT Design Studio, it was my responsibility to create and enact a custom program towards the program's goals in Tanzania.
course goals.
At the end of the internship, students should be able to
Operate core rapid prototyping tools to fabricate given part.
Understand and implement methods steps of design thinking.
Evaluate and defend core design requirements from research insights.
Design & fabricate a functional solution to an identified problem in their community.
course outline.
course in action.
- Technical Skills Workshops (TSW)
To ensure students have the creative confidence to use all the machines in the makerspace, the course began with technical skills workshops where students learned fabrication skills through a series of increasingly challenging problems. A discipline-agnostic program,all graduates of the Lemelson Internship were able to.
Use CAD software to create 2D and 3D models.
Code simple sensor switch with Arduino.
Solder a circuit with 5 components.
Wire a simple circuit on a breadboard.
Operate a 3D printer and lasercutter
2. Human-Centered Design Thinking
After technical skills workshops, students also learned in human-centered design thinking methods and mindsets.
These classes covered a wide range of topics including desktop research, interviewing skills, writing a problem statement, brainstorming, concept generation and selection, writing design objectives and evaluating prototypes.
3. In-situ Needfinding
Students visit local hospitals and engage with clinicians, staff and patients to identify problems. Through direct observation and interviews, students take note of pressure points impacting healthcare workers' ability to serve patients.
These observations are taken back to the design studio where they apply Human-Centered Design and fabrication skills to create functional solutions to the problems identified. Lower hanging fruit, such as simple repairs are also conducted in the spirit of supporting clinicians' work.
4. Soft Skills Training
Development of verbal and written communication skills is a critical component of the Lemelson internship. Interns were required to write weekly blogs and integrate feedback from a professional editor to improve their writing skills. Students honed their verbal communication skills during presentations, demonstrations and peer critique sessions. Every day of our TSW week began with students presenting their solution to the creative prompt given the day prior to the entire class. The latter part of the course included peer critique sessions where students demonstrated their progress on final prototypes and received feedback from their classmates. This encouraged class-wide participation and engaged students to offer evidence-based justification for their design decisions.
impact.
3 cohorts run | 5 hospitals impacted | 22 students trained | 30+ prototypes developed
