Day 15: MIT Make in India

Day 15: MIT Make in India

Today was another day of attempting to ideate. The Shower Washers wanted to visit the hospital again so that we could have more conversations with the people that work there and possibly the patients. We went in the morning but could not find the superintendent. She was apparently not in office. Then we decided to go check out the market where people were selling many vegetables and fish. Unfortunately we didn’t get a ton of information out of the vendors. What I did learn is that with the extra fish they catch, they simply freeze them and sell them again the next day. 

We then finally managed to head back to the hospital where we found out the superintendent was looking for us and then was now busy in an emergency. After that rather useless trip in the heat, we came back and had lunch. 

Then Aishwarya, Duncan, Aarooran, and I decided to head to the hospital again. Aarooran, with his broken Malayalam (which was actually pretty decent) managed to get ahold of the ECG technician. We had a great conversation (well at least Aish and Aaroo did while Duncan and I kinda stood there and wanted for translations) with Preetha (notes in Evernote) and learned a lot about the ECG process.  Some issues that she brought up were that the ECG suction cup clamps were quite painful and inefficient (we tried on our hands, quite painful if you think for more sensitive areas). Also the records were all kept with notebook and pen, and there was a lack of privacy curtains. Also, the disposal of syringe needles could be more safe and quick and hygienic. 

The suction cups on the ECG machine

After this very productive visit, us four came back home and spent a good amount of time ideating and talking about different problems we could focus on. We narrowed it down to the ECG suction cups, privacy curtains, computerized data entry, syringe needle disposal, and a soap and towel holder. We split up the research that we needed to do to move forward and before we could delve in, Raj came and talked with us. His idea of ideation was focusing on more simple problems that we face in our everyday lives and a lot of useful information. 

I took some time to calm down from this slight frustration, and luckily we all had decided to go on a walk to the bridge and lake. It was a relaxing walk and we all tried to skip rocks. Of course, I sucked and all the guys were great. Oh well. 

The very interesting mannequin we saw on the walk over.

We came back and had dinner. We then celebrated Rhuthwik’s birthday! There was ice cream and cake. We of course played some cards, some bluff, Presidents, Spoons, and almost Go Fish. 

Then late at night Aishwarya, Jaspreet, Swapnil, and I stayed up talking. We talked about MIT and how its liberal and the different dorms and such. I finally went to sleep at 3am.