Our Crowdfunding Groups
New Stretch Goal!
Thanks to the help of our donors, Texas Engineering World Health was able to achieve it's original goal of raising $500 within 24 hours! Our team is incredibly grateful for the support we have received thus far. With the $500 that we raised, our team will be able to build a prototype of the incubator and cover the Engineering World Health Design Competition submission costs. Now we are setting a stretch goal of $1000. With another $500, TEWH will have the funds to send some of its members to the BMES Conference should our project win 3rd place or higher. The additional support would also allow our team to build another iteration of our prototype, which would help increase our success in the competition, and help pay for our website's server space.
What is Texas Engineering World Health?
Texas Engineering World Health (TEWH) is an engineering organization here at the University of Texas at Austin. Our mission is to design robust and cost-efficient medical devices for use in developing countries. Each year, we start a project from scratch. Our team, consisting of students from various majors, performs its own research, develops marketing strategies, and builds prototypes for each project. At the end of the school year, we submit to design competitions such as Engineering World Health’s Design Competition.
Our past projects have included an audiometry mobile application to test for hearing loss, sensor glasses to aid the blind, and a low cost patient monitor. In 2015, Texas Engineering World Health won 1st place in the nation with our low-cost patient monitor. This year we are making an incubator that cures jaundice in newborns in developing countries.
What is Jaundice?
This year, TEWH is building an incubator to cure newborns plagued with neonatal jaundice. Neonatal jaundice, also known as hyperbilirubinemia, is a disease that results from the buildup of bilirubin – a protein byproduct of hemoglobin degradation. This buildup is caused by the baby’s inability to excrete the excess bilirubin, and this results in symptoms such as yellow skin, yellowing eyes, and sluggishness. Without proper treatment, jaundice may result in lifelong disabilities or death.
The disease is very common in newborns and easy to treat in the developed world. Phototherapeutics - exposing the newborn to a wavelength of 390 nm - can break down the excess bilirubin into products that can then be processed by the newborn. It is therefore shocking that in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, neonatal deaths due to hyperbilirubinemia exceeded 80,000 in 2010.
In fact, 3.9 million infants die within a month of birth in the developing world, 25% of which die due to heat and water loss. In response, TEWH is building a low-cost incubator for hospitals and clinics in developing nations. Our design, equipped with bili-lights, proper air circulation and temperature controlling systems, and other technologies will be able to reduce the mortality rate of infants significantly.
How does funding help TEWH?
Funding allows TEWH to achieve its goals. The prototype lies at the core of our spending costs, as the equipment and pieces necessary to build an incubator are costly. For instance, the framework of the incubator will require special materials as well as modifications via laser engraving and shop work. Electronics for the incubator, humidifier technology, and the need to make the final product robust will also increase the costs of our incubator. Finally, funding covers Engineering World Health Design Competition submission costs.
Let’s change the world!
TEWH strives to improve the lives of those in need while providing an outlet for undergraduates to grow as engineers and professionals outside of the classroom. Our current funds however, hold us back from achieving our mission. With your help and our organization’s dedication, we will be able to make a meaningful impact in the developing world.
With $5, you're making a noticeable impact on our project. You'll get a shout out on our Facebook and Twitter!
$10 will get us different supplies, assorted electronic components and sensors, and the bili-light LEDs necessary for our incubator. You will receive a spot on the donor wall of our website!
With $25, you've just bought us a microcontroller! The microcontroller is crucial to maintaining and operating our incubator, and we can't design our project without it. For this donation, you will receive a personal email from us here at TEWH.
With $50, you've provided us with the materials for building the casing and the power supply for our prototype incubator. As it's intended use is in the developing world, the incubator must be rugged and robust to continue functioning, so we need to invest a lot into this portion of our project. For this amount, you will receive frequent email updates on our progress after every general meeting.
Wow! With $100, you'll have paid for a complete iteration of our prototype, as well as the necessary testing. This is truly incredible, as we'll need to run a lot of tests to make sure that the incubator is as safe, robust, and efficient as possible. Your name will go on the back of our TEWH T-shirt, as a reminder for your contribution.
For $300, you have fully paid for our project submission to the Engineering World Health Design Competition. For this enormous contribution, your name will be put on the final prototype. Thank you.
