About Us
We are Texas Engineering World Health, a student organization that aims to create innovative, low-cost medical solutions for low-middle income countries (LMICs). One of our goals is to provide the next generation of biomedical engineers and researchers the technical skillset to design medical devices while aiming to make healthcare accessible and effective for those who need it most. As an organization, Texas Engineering World Health hopes to tackle the social inequities regarding healthcare by building cost-effective equipment that does not rely on consistent power supply.
Each year, we choose a select a few projects to help improve the lives and healthcare of those in LMICs. This year, we have had the opportunity to have 7 diverse projects that tackle different aspects of healthcare in LMICs:
Autonomous Transportation and Search and Rescue via Drone
Transportation of medicine and medical goods in and to developing areas is very difficult for a multitude of reasons (A few being harsh terrain, political turmoil, high costs, etc.). With this project, we hope to create a drone that moves both with a pilot and autonomously. |
Low-Cost Transportable Incubator for Preterm Infants
Children who die within the first 28 days of birth suffer from conditions and diseases associated with lack of quality care at or immediately after birth and in the first days of life. With this project we want to focus on making a low cost incubator that is not dependent on consistent power supply, will make transporting preterm babies easier and their transition to surgery a smoother process, and remedy skin irritation from electrodes. |
Water Filtration
Much of water contamination in developing nations is due to bacterial contamination in waterborne pathogens, traditional pathogens, and MDR pathogens. Many infections brew due to infectious diseases from unsanitary conditions, so onsite water treatment is crucial. While not much work has been done in water or equipment sterilization, we hope to change that with this project through a coagulation and adsorption based approach, and membrane filtration. |
Low-Cost Pathogen Detection
Infectious diseases represent 45% of all diseases and 26% of all deaths globally. The gold-standard for pathogen detection is often time intensive and requires expensive laboratory resources – which is not available in the developing world. The goal of this project is to design a low cost diagnostic technique to detect a pathogen (e.g. malaria, TB, etc.), similar to how an at home COVID test works. |
Promoting Gentleness in Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery Through Data-Driven Skill Assessment and Haptic Feedback
40,000 congenital heart surgical operations are performed annually, but the complication rate is 84.1% and the postoperative death rate is 12.8%. With this project, we hope to develop a simple, low-cost surgical skill measurement and real-time feedback device that can also be used in developing nation settings. |
EEG Analysis and Material Design
The goal of this project is to attack two problems dealing with EEG materials and EEG data analysis. The electrodes of the EEG dry up over time and are sensitive to noise in data. The solution to this problem must stick to the scalp well to get an accurate reading but also remedy the dryness problem mentioned previously. Furthermore, this project aims to work on making progress on EEG data analysis and accessibility in LMICs. |
Machine learning informatics using portable point of care ultrasound and model deployment in a developing nation clinic:
Point of care ultrasound is used for identifying cardiac disorders and is currently limited by accessibility. With this project, we hope to take data from point of care ultrasound and train machine learning models on a portable ultrasound; thus, making an effort to make it more accessible to the developing world. |
How You Can Help!
Your contributions fuel our organization! For at least half of these projects, we will need to make a physical prototype and your donations will help us purchase parts for prototyping. Furthermore, we submit 2-3 of our projects to the Engineering World Health competition, which requires a large entry fee for our prototype submission and professional feedback on how our devices can be improved. Lastly, your contributions help keep student membership dues low and thus member participation levels high.
We are so grateful to each and every one of you as your donations allow us to make a global impact each year. For more information about our organization, please email austin.tewh@gmail.com or look at our website texasewh.org.
When it comes to transporting goods (medicine, equipment, etc.), "last-mile delivery costs" are 28% of the total cost.
As of 2020, almost three-quarters (74%) of the world population had access to a safely managed water source. One-in-four people do not have access to safe drinking water.
The typical normal heart rate for babies ranges from 100bpm to 15bpm
At birth, a baby’s body contains approximately 300 bones. However, there are 176 are actual bones, and the rest are all hyaline cartilage models that develop into bones as the child grows.
A signal travels along the alpha motor neuron in the spinal cord at 268 miles per hour, the fastest transmission in the human body.
Martin Couney proved that the incubators saved lives and opened the first premature infant statin in 1943 at the Cornell Hospital in New York.