Visit to Portugal: Student Innovator under EA RILab working on the ‘Matibabu Innovation’ – Non-invasive Malaria diagnosis Kit” visits Portugal to improve the Design of the Device
Matibabu is one of the projects under the RAN Innovation Acceleration Program(RIAP). The Matibabu is a pocket-sized hardware device that uses a beam of red-light to detect malaria parasites in tissues. The technology is simple to use, non-invasive, low cost and does not require blood drawing devices making it viable in primary care settings in hard-to-reach areas where the microscope is not accessible in many such contexts.
The Team led by Nathan Tumuhamye, Director RAN Eastern Africa Resilience Innovation Lab have gone for a visit in Portugal to interact with Pedro Gomes, Creative Director and Design Manager. The Design Manager has promised to refine the current Matibabu prototype to ensure that it is used for a pilot in the next 5 month and then mass production in one year if the idea works well.
The target of the Design team is to come up with a product with 95 percent sensitivity in detecting malaria, which portable and cost effective. The Matibabu Team nd Director of EA RILab were able to meet with Prof Carlos of University of Coimbra to discuss the best magnetic components for the Technology and were very impressed with the research he had conducted regarding the product. The meeting was held at Physics department – University of Coimbra which is the oldest University in Portugal and the fifth oldest University in Europe (725 years)
Objectives of this visit to Portugal largely included;
• Discussing detailed information regarding the existing prototype, challenges in the iterative processes of the Design , Science and Mechanics of the device
• Evaluate what the next steps are for our collaboration in developing the non-invasive malaria diagnostic tools
• Understand what other collaborations RAN can pursue with the Design Lab in Portugal beyond supporting the ‘Matibabu’ team
In pictures
