Purdue I2D team visits Eldoret

Purdue University’s Innovation in International Development (I2D) Lab was launched in March 2015 with the announcement of seed funding for designing and testing innovative yet appropriate solutions for communities in low and middle income countries. Of the ten proposals supported in the first round of seed grants, seven were in partnership with AMPATH or related entities. Last month, a delegation of grant recipients traveled to Eldoret to meet with partners and begin testing their innovations.

One of the innovations included Chad Jafvert, Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, and John Howarter, Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, to work with Maji Safi International, AMPATH's safe water business enterprise, to test a medium-scale slow sand filter capable of producing around 200 liters of safe drinking water per day. This medium scale filter may serve to increase the product line of Maji Safi International and provide an alternative for drinking water treatment for entities such as schools or community centers as pictured right at St. George’s School.

Other funding recipients that visited AMPATH in June included Jennifer DeBoer, Assistant Professor of Engineering Education, who is partnering with the teachers at the Tumaini Children's Drop-in Center to pilot a new educational model; and Jacqueline Linnes, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, who has proposed a low-cost nucleic acid diagnostic platform for point-of-care detection of the most common sepsis pathogens.