Engineering on a Mission By Mary Spiro People living in developing countries often have challenging problems that engineers and scientists can solve. But it takes people, time, and money to make these solutions a reality. In June 2011, Jeannine Coburn, a PhD student in chemical and biomolecular engineering, and two biomedical engineering graduate students, travelled to Tanzania in Africa as part of a pilot for the Global Engineering Innovation projects program. Coburn is a student in the laboratory of Jennifer Elisseeff, professor in the School of Medicine’s ophthalmology department and an INBT affiliated faculty member. Although working in a remote African village had nothing to do with her own graduate research where she is developing tissue engineering methods to repair or replace cartilage damaged by arthritis, Coburn said she’s always wanted to participate in an engineering outreach program. “I have volunteered with Habitat for Humanity (which builds homes with low-income families) and I feel it is important to give back and share your skills.” Coburn learned about the opportunity to travel to Tanzania through ophthalmology professor Sheila West of the Dana Center of Preventive Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. West has joint appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health and, through the Center for Global Health, leads the Partnership for the Rapid Elimination of Trachoma. Trachoma is an eye disease caused by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. “Dr. West noticed that the women in the villages where she was working expend a lot of physical effort to grind the corn into flour using a multiple step process, first cracking the corn with a large mortar and pestle to separate the shell from the meat of the corn followed by grinding with stones to make their traditional dish called ugali,” Coburn explained. West thought it might be more efficient if the corn could be ground with less effort, perhaps through bicycle-powered means. Coburn, along her colleagues Iwen Wu and Kristen Kozielski, spent several weeks at Hopkins perfecting a prototype for a human powered flourmill. The three women then travelled to
Tanzania, piggy-backing their trip on one of West’s trips to the trachoma clinic. During the team’s two-week stay, they were able to recreate the device using local materials and train a few people on how to make it. “We found that we could obtain everything we needed to build the bicycle-powered mill,” Coburn said. They did encounter a few challenges. For example, the pine used in the prototype was much softer than the extremely hard wood from the eucalyptus trees in the region. “It also took us some time to modify the corona-style mill we used to acquire corn flour instead of corn meal,” she said, “but the team was able to accomplish their goal of building a workable model.” Now, Coburn said, the program will accept more students to tackle more problems. Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology has obtained university funding to support three engineering mission teams composed of two to four students at a variety of international host sites. Teams will have two mentors: one from the Johns Hopkins faculty and one from the host site. Together, they will develop budgets, time lines and project plans to address a problem identified at a host location. Once teams, mentors and challenges are defined, the team or team leader will travel to the site to further evaluate the challenge and design constraints. Returning to Baltimore, the teams will meet to further research the challenge and brainstorm potential solutions. The Global Engineering Innovation projects program gives Johns Hopkins’ graduate students and select undergraduates an opportunity to investigate and tackle engineering challenges in the developing world. The JHU School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) will be consulted so that students will be aware of the social and political atmosphere that may impact utilization and potential distribution of the engineering solutions. Coburn, who had not been overseas previously, found the experience enlightening and encourages those curious about her adventure or the application process to contact her. She can be reached at jeannine.coburn@gmail.com. n
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