Duke University Model Makers for You (D.U.M.M.Y.)

This project spun out of my freshman design project. We were tasked with engineering a solution to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), the leading cause of the approximate 300,000 annual maternal deaths worldwide. PPH treatments are readily available in high-income countries due to widespread hospitals and trained medical professionals. In the U.S. medical professionals are trained with highly-expensive, complicated models that simulate PPH. We aimed to decrease the price of these dummies tenfold, and to make them D.I.Y., so that they would be globally accessible. We collaborated with engineers in Uganda to design such a dummy, and we presented our results at the Rice Global Health 360º Conference at Rice University in March of 2019. The project taught me about designing medical devices for low-income settings, and about the lack of accessible medical devices in these regions. Death rates are astronomically higher in these regions, and it is unconscionable that these regions do not receive adequate medical when so many are in need.

Hours: 350 (estimate)

Instructor: Prof. Ann Saterbak

Start: Aug 2018

End: May 2019

Resident Assistant

As a resident assistant, I’ve had the ability to talk about engineering better medicines with my residents. I set up various events for my residents, many of which were educational. For instance, I sponsored an event to attend a lecture on using genomics to improve personalized medicine. I also helped residents find biomedical research opportunities and to access on-campus resources that support students in difficult STEM classes.

Hours: 250

Supervisor: Alicia Santana

Start: Aug 2019

End: March 2020