Duke-Makerere team claims first place in Rice360 design competition

HOUSTON – (April 17, 2024) – On April 12, NeoNest, a team of undergraduates from both Makerere University and Duke University, took first place at the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies’ annual Global Health Technologies Design Competition for an innovative warming mattress designed to keep infants warm during transport to hospitals in Uganda.

NeoNest team members Vivian Arinaitwe, Joseph Okileng, Sophia Singer and Saajan Patel were awarded the competition’s $5,000 prize for their design. The award-winning innovation addresses the need for a rugged, low-cost infant warmer that maintains a safe body temperature for infants during ambulance transport to hospitals in Uganda. The device uses locally sourced materials, including an adapted “Jerry” can with insulation and an electronically warmed water mattress that maintains temperature for up to three hours.

The 2024 competition included 24 teams from seven countries: Bangladesh, Uganda, Canada, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and the United States. Participating universities included Achievers University, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Clemson University, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Duke, Federal University of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Malawi University of Business & Applied Sciences, Makerere University, Queen’s University, Rice University, University of Calgary, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas at Austin and Washington University in St. Louis. All teams presented designs for low-cost technologies that addressed global health challenges in resource-limited settings.

Team NeoMates from Georgia Tech received second place for its device design to safely speed up the labor process and lower the risks of neonatal sepsis during difficult births. The $3,000 prize went to team members Anushka Chalmeti, Callie Dahlke-Baumann, Safa Ghaya, Siya Kannan, Eeman Uddin, Natalie Van Slyke and Millicent Warner.

Rice’s own Team CoreNeedle took the $2,000 prize for third place for their realistic, low-cost, reusable breast cancer biopsy training model. Team members included Celeste Wang, Shivani Kulkarni, Philip DuBose and Yiyi Yang.

This year the prize purse was increased to $13,000 through the generosity of additional donors, including the Rice360 Advisory Board members and Rice alumna Ning Li ’97 who contributed for the second year.

The Crystal Sea Award, a $1,000 prize for the project that best expanded innovation in materials sciences or digital innovation, went to Team Vector Vigilantes from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, marking the second year in a row the university has won this award. Team members Tonmoy Chandro Saha and Mahian Kabir Joarder developed a mosquito tracking and identification system that uses crowdsourcing and a deep learning model. The system helps identify outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses and assists authorities in assigning mosquito-fighting resources to appropriate areas.

Team Lappi of Penn took home the $1,000 prize for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. The team’s innovative lip and palate prosthetic interface is designed to improve feeding for infants with congenital conditions such as cleft lips and palates. Team members included Ravikiran Ramjee, Ryan Lim, Andrea Urdaneta, Serena Carson and Camilla Whitesel. This award recognized teams for addressing diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the design process.

This year, the People’s Choice Award was given to the team that won over a third of the record-breaking 300,000 unique votes cast: Team Clot Custodians from Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology in Tanzania. Team members Florence Barnabas Sakaya and Vicky Amon Mausa won the $500 prize for their innovative design to measure postpartum bleeding to detect hemorrhages.

Rice360’s annual Leadership in Global Health Awards were presented to both Leith Greenslade, the founder and CEO of JustActions, and Nuttada Panpradist, a biomedical researcher and engineer from the University of Washington, the competition’s keynote speakers. Li also spoke as the presenter of the Crystal Sea Award in honor of her grandfather. All three speakers provided insights about the future of global health and innovation.

– by Carrie Noxon, a technical writer at the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies.
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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/1st-Place-Winner-_-IMG_2670-cc32568766f4779a-scaled.jpg
CAPTION: Saajan Patel (left) and Sophia Singer, representing NeoNest, a team of undergraduates from both Makerere University and Duke University, that took first place at the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies’ annual Global Health Technologies Design Competition. (Photo by Esalee Andrade-Guerrero/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/2nd-Place_IMG_2681-e637900d6e305dd6.jpg
CAPTION: Eeman Uddin (from left), Siya Kannan, and Safa Ghaya, representing team NeoMates from Georgia Tech received second place for its device design to safely speed up the labor process and lower the risks of neonatal sepsis during difficult births. (Photo by Esalee Andrade-Guerrero/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/3rd-Place-Winner_IMG_2660-c32427b894db1c26.jpg
CAPTION: Team CoreNeedle from Rice University ⎯ Phillip DuBose (from left), CelesteWang, Shivani Kulkarni and Yiyi Yang ⎯ won third place for their realistic, low-cost, reusable breast cancer biopsy training model. (Photo by Esalee Andrade-Guerrero/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/Crystal-Sea-Winner-_IMG_2694-2-7853cd3a1d5bd25b.jpg
CAPTION: Crystal Sea winner, Mahian Kabir Joarder pictured with Dr. Ning Li ’87.
(Photo by Esalee Andrade-Guerrero/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/DEI-Winner_IMG_2656-7c080fdc29ba599d.jpg
CAPTION: Serena Carson (from left), Camilla Whitesel, Andrea Urdaneta, Ryan Lim and Ravikiran Ramjee representing team LAPPI from University of Pennsylvania, took home the competition’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Prize. (Photo by Esalee Andrade-Guerrero/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/Peoples-Choice-Winners_Clot-Custodians-e8b942b61fd46941.jpg
CAPTION: Florence Barnabas Sakaya (left) and Vicky Amon Mausa, representing team Clot Custodians from Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology, won the People’s Choice Award. (Photo by Esalee Andrade-Guerrero/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/240412_360_Fitlow_023-156ca9c16c6f8c11.jpg
(Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/240412_360_Fitlow_023_V2-57b78fa281107adb.jpg
(Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

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