Four students embarked to Ghana Thursday to test and demonstrate an infant heartbeat detector they developed which could reduce newborn infant deaths in developing countries.
The team will visit Kumasi, Kranka and Synyani in the west African country to show their device to physicians and midwives to determine its usefulness and get their feedback on how it could be improved.
The mechanism quickly recognizes if a newborn's heart is beating. Without this kind of technology, sometimes midwives set aside depressed and nonresponsive babies, thinking they are stillborn.
The Tech students have been working on the project for two years. Brooke Smith, who graduated in spring in biomedical engineering, says the device had to be portable, durable, inexpensive and simple enough for an untrained person to use.
"I’m so excited," she said this week. "We've come so far. Now we take it to a developing country, work with them and hopefully make their lives better."
Besides testing the detector, the students will interview people about other medical devices they might need.
Smith is joined by biomedical engineering majors Samantha Stewart and Elizabeth Moore and Nana Manteau, who is majoring in psychology.
The four students, who will be in Africa for two weeks, belong to the International Business Ventures Enterprise. Robert Warrington, director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies; Anne Warrington, senior lecturer in the SBE; and Michael Neuman, chair of biomedical engineering, are their advisors.
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