Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Transitioning Technologies from Labs to LDCs Workshop at Rice University's Institute for Global Health Technologies.

The workshop was an excellent opportunity to learn about some great new health point-of-care diagnostic technologies, point-of-use water purification technologies, and also many of the regulatory hurdles that must be overcome to get products to market, as well as the many groups whose purpose is to support those working toward this goal. Besides the excellent presentations, discussions, and networking opportunities, there was a very impressive poster session highlighting the research and technologies that have been developed by the undergraduate students in Rice University's Beyond Traditional Borders initiative.

Here is a look  at some of the many interesting, exciting, and useful technologies and designs being driven from this group. This past summer, many of the students traveled overseas to test and collect feedback on their designs. In speaking with the students during the poster session, there was no absence of the understanding of the value of feedback from the users on the ground. It was inspiring to see this next generation of engineers, global health professionals, and scientists implementing what they've been learning in the classroom into practical tools targeting some of the world's most pressing challenges.

Take, for example, the Diagnostic Lab-In-A-Backpack, the OB/GYN Backpack, and the Community Health Outreach Backpack. The students have collected feedback on a wide variety of things, from making the stirrups in the OB/GYN pack more comfortable, to making the microscope in the diagnostics pack lighter and cheaper while maintaining high quality. Current students are going to be spending the next few month filling orders for some of the backpacks. For instance, one student is working on building 14 more backpacks to be sent to St. Gabriels Hospital in Malawi, following this past summer's field test there.

Photo is thanks to Rice University Magazine.