Fifth Full Day of Work

To cap off a rather productive week from each team, Friday was spent finishing up projects, giving presentations, and working through problems. Read below to find details from each team!

Prosthetics Team

Today the prosthetics team had the opportunity to give a short presentation on the topic of 3D printing and its potential applications for the hospital. There were about 10 hospital staff members present including the members of the prosthetics workshop (shown in the picture), hospital engineers, an orthopedic surgeon, and an occupational therapist. Overall the presentation was well received and generated a lot of quality conversation between our team and the hospital staff. The hospital staff seems to be interested in the possibility of buying a 3D printer to use, but they understand the amount of time and effort that would be needed to properly use them. Ultimately the hospital wants to put the care of the patients first and if 3D printing can help them accomplish this then they want to explore this option in the future.

-Ryan

Electrical Team

TJ and I spent the day building up the test solar system that will run at 48 volts. We had fun thinking through a math problem that involved solving two equations with two unknowns. Yeah, we were geeking out! We took a break to watch the guys give an amazing presentation on 3D printing to INF staff. Dr Deepak then asked if I could take a look at a broken X ray machine. I was hopeful I could find an easy fix but no such luck. TJ finished building the test system while I locked through a service manual on the X ray machine still hoping to find a fix. We look forward to church tomorrow and some downtime. We hope to do some more work on Sunday to finish the system.

-Dereck

Wheelchair Team

Today the team secured a local metal supplier that can be used to manufacture our wheelchair. After analyzing all the options the team purchased the best materials for the wheelchair design. If you look closely, strapped to the top of the our taxi is the first look at our wheelchair. Although it may not look like much now, the team is eager to build a working prototype from these materials when we return to the U.S.. Before this trip, prototyping seemed to be a job for the distant future. However, in the past week the team has exceeded all expectations. Dr. Van Dyke even quoted that this trip has been “wildly successful.” Today we were able to present INF staff Meghan, Dhan and Rawanta the design we will begin prototyping from and they were as eager as us to begin building. As the week comes to a close our prayer is that all our efforts working alongside INF will continue to make a “wildly successful” impact on the disadvantaged people of Nepal.

-Harrison