Engineers help Malawi infants
In summer 2015, Virginia Tech mechanical
engineering graduate student Ashley Taylor,
a native of Fort Chiswell, Virginia, was on a
transatlantic flight home from her third trip to
Malawi. She was unable to rest, still thinking
about what she had seen.
While touring the neonatal ward at Domasi
Rural Hospital in southern Malawi, her group had discovered
that doctors faced a big problem
in keeping infants alive – keeping
them warm.
Lack of reliable, consistent
electricity meant that some babies died during cold nights in the
neonatal unit.
"
munity feedback. Based on local suggestions,
the pod became a basket-like device with a
natural look.
Taylor said a key lesson was learning how
crucial it is to incorporate the community in the
design process, to "make sure that we’re not
just parachuting in with a cool solution, but that
I think that Virginia Tech is really
working on expanding that definition and making sure we don’t put
a box around the definition of what
people think engineers are.
Knowing that mechanical engineering principles could underpin a solution, Taylor had a
thought: A group of undergraduate students
could tackle the issue of neonatal hypothermia.
Before the plane had landed, Taylor had her
advisor, Kevin Kochersberger, associate professor of mechanical engineering, on board to
help. Together, they set in motion the development of a passive warming device they later
called the “baby pod.”
The next year saw Taylor mentoring six
undergraduates who adopted the baby pod
for their senior design project. Employing only
materials readily available and inexpensive in
Malawi, the team devised a prototype built
primarily from PVC pipe with chicken-feather
insulation.
Because a group of Ugandan mothers was
available to give quick feedback, the team
turned to them for its first test. The mothers
gave thumbs up but noted the pod’s lack of
beauty and suggested it be covered in fabric, so
Taylor’s group made the change.
Unfortunately, when Taylor returned to Malawi this past July to unveil the pod, the negative reaction jolted her. Because of the pod's
shape and use of chitenge — the local fabric
— what immediately came to Malawian minds
was a child's coffin.
Humbled by the misstep, the team scrapped
the design and intensified the gathering of com-
it is a community-led thing.”
Taylor, whose master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and public health come from
Virginia Tech, is currently working
on her doctoral degree in the Department of Engineering Education.
Taylor’s work in Malawi has not
only immersed her in international
development projects that help
women, but also enabled her to be
a role model for younger women in
the male-dominated field of mechanical engineering.
An engineer with a focus on
public health, Taylor said she has
faced her share of detractors who
don’t believe she fits the mold of
what an engineer “should” be. “I
think that Virginia Tech is really
working on expanding that definition and making sure we don’t put
a box around the definition of what
people think engineers are.
"As a female in engineering, I
learned that I have to be authentic
about what I’m passionate about,” Taylor said.
“It’s important to know yourself, know what
you’re excited about, and really chase after
that. If we’re not authentic, we’re doing a disservice not only to ourselves, but also the world
in which we live.”
Melissa McKeown