A few weeks ago, I was knee-deep in the OEDK, 3D printing molds, fiddling with adhesives, and sketching prototypes on whiteboards late into the night. Now, I’m writing this from my new apartment in Nairobi, Kenya, where I’ve just started my internship!!
Hi everyone! I’m Saumya Chauhan, a rising junior at Duncan College majoring in Biosciences and minoring in Global Health Technologies. This summer, I’ve packed my bags (and a whole bunch of prototypes) and moved to Nairobi as part of the Rice360 International Internship to work on some amazing global health design projects! I’m incredibly excited to be part of a program that’s all about bridging the gap between innovation and impact, by working directly with the communities and clinicians our designs are meant to serve.
For the next two months, I’ll be working at Kenyatta University’s Centre for Design, Innovation, and Engineering (CDIE), collaborating with students from Kenya and around the world on medical device innovation. We’ll be diving into design workshops, needs-finding in clinical spaces, and collecting real-world feedback on the technologies we’ve helped create. I’m here to learn, ask questions, and build partnerships grounded in context and co-creation.
Alongside working on a new host-site project here in Kenya, I will also be gathering testing feedback on two Rice360 technologies. I will get to see two of our designs in action: Uterus Universal, a training model for endometrial biopsies that I helped develop back in Houston, and a neonatal gastroschisis bag. I’ve spent the past semester troubleshooting technical challenges and imagining how these tools might be used in the field. Now, I get to test them in that very context! I’m excited to see what holds up, what needs to change, and how we can improve based on insights from users.
I’m also eager to learn how to adjust to a new environment: navigating Nairobi traffic (matatus will be an adventure), trying my hand at cooking with local ingredients, and picking up bits of Swahili – so far, I’ve “mastered” jambo (hello), karibu (welcome), and asante sana (thank you very much). I’m excited to improve on technical skills like 3D modeling and woodworking as well.
There’s so much I’m looking forward to! I’m excited to keep exploring Nairobi, to ask more questions, to gain many diverse skills, and to keep building connections that stretch beyond this summer. It’s all still ahead, and I can’t wait to see where it leads!
More updates (and photos!) soon,
Saumya ☀️