Bringing Hopkins Solutions to the World By Mary Spiro
Global Engineering
“We had to answer
Innovation, a program
many questions,” said
sponsored in part by
biomedical engineering
Johns Hopkins Institute
senior Tobechukwu Madu.
for NanoBioTechnology,
“Are the people going
sent engineering teams to
to be able to afford this?
develop solutions to local
What shape is the device
problems in Tanzania and
going to take in order to
India during the summer
fit with other GCS products?
of 2012. INBT affiliated
We noticed that something
faculty member Jennifer
as seemingly easy as fitting
Elisseeff, professor of
an already assembled mill
biomedical engineering at
to a bike wasn’t easy! We
the School of Medicine, initiated the project to give
spent a week and still
The Cooling Cure lowers a baby's body temperature to prevent brain damage.
students international outreach experience. The teams learned to
couldn’t get it to work.”
Materials science and engineering master’s student Cem Onat
establish budgets, develop time lines and create project plans for
Yilmaz wrote of the team’s experience in an article for Epidemic
specific challenges.
Proportions, a publication of the Bloomberg School of Public
The team that went to Arusha, Tanzania continued the work
Health. Typically, female villagers haul their corn to millers in cen-
from INBT’s pilot engineering missions program started in the
tralized regions. With a bicycle-powered device, however, milling
summer of 2011. The goal of the Tanzanian project was to build
could be done closer to home.
a bicycle-powered corn mill that would produce flour suitable for
“A bike-attached corn sheller, unlike its diesel-operated coun-
the region’s traditional food staple—a dish called ugali. The previ-
terpart can reach out to them. With less cost to maintain and
ous year, pilot project team members built the device with locally
mobilize the machinery, processing 10-15 bags of corn with the
obtainable materials.
bike attachment becomes economically profitable for the entrepre-
Participants in the 2012 phase refined the design of the mill and
neur running the operation. This service increases the quality of
worked on a plan for mass production and commercialization by
life for farmers (and without industrial agriculture practices most
collaborating with a company called Global Cycle Solutions (GCS)
of the population is indeed dependent on their land and farming
founded by MIT graduate Jodie Wu. GCS seeks ways to incorpo-
practices) and helps reduce the need for regular trips to the town
rate bicycle or solar power into a variety of mechanical devices. The
center, saving money and CO2 emissions at the same time,”
team supported by INBT faced plenty of challenges while refining
Yilmaz wrote.
the prototype.
Photo by Will Kirk/Homewood photography.
Spring 2013 25