The EWH Summer Institute is an opportunity for engineering students to gain hands-on repair and design experience while providing support to hospitals that serve people in poor communities of a developing country. Open to students of engineering, physics and chemistry, the EWH-Duke Summer Institute begins with a one-month stay in Nicaragua, Tanzania or Rwanda in which students live with a host family. Mornings are spent learning Spanish, Swahili, or Kinyarwanda and French, while in the afternoons participants receive three hours of technical training in the operation and repair of medical equipment. Day trips to the country's breathtaking natural features punctuate the experience and give volunteers a time to bond.
After the one-month training, each student travels to his or her host hospital. Students work repairing and installing badly needed equipment. Whether they’re working on an infusion pump that helps treat a tiny infant, or an ECG that will aid in diagnosing someone’s grandfather, each student-engineer makes a difference in patients’ lives.
- Schedule and costs for the Tanzania program
- Schedule and costs for the Nicaragua program
- Schedule and costs for the Rwanda program
The application materials can be downloaded here. The deadline to apply for the coming summer is January 27th, 2013.
