India Child Education - Visiting Agastya Headquarters in Bengaluru

(Sorry for the late post. We had some technical difficulty with the blog! This blog documents the first two days in Bengaluru.)

We arrived at Bengaluru early morning and checked into the beautiful Elanza hotel. After a quick nap and a delicious breakfast, we arrived at Agastya’s headquarters to meet with Mr. Thiagu, the COO of Agastya, and Mr. Laxminarayan, Agastya’s supply chain lead. Joining us by video was the team from Agastya’s campus including Mr. Nitin, the head of the campus.

Meeting with Mr. Thiagu and Mr. Laxminarayan

Gabrielle, Xi Xi, and Inseong took the lead in asking about Agastya’s mission, current operations, educational philosophy, and impact assessment. We learned that Agastya uses three methods for assessing their impact: testing, anecdotes, and questionnaires gauging confidence and competence. Many of the questionnaires and surveys are created by the Indian School of Management, although they are not directly involved in collecting the data or writing the reports. Mr. Thiagu says that Agastya aims to transform students’ ways of thinking, encouraging systems thinking.

We also wanted to know more about the challenges in the Indian educational system. We learned that absence rate has decreased significantly in the past decade, and financial reasons are no longer a major contributing cause to absences among students. However, we also learned that teacher absence is still a challenge and a sensitive subject.

In terms of prototyping the local manufacturing process, we worked with Mr. Laxminarayan to source all the materials that we need. In particular, Mr. Laxminarayan is finding Indian sources for our solar panels, batteries, and lift-off hinges. We transferred over the mechanical and electronic design files, as well as our bill of materials, with the hopes that under his expert eye, we may be able to find cheaper or more appropriate components for our Indian manufactured BrightBoxes.

With our questions about Agastya answered, and having equipped Mr. Laxminarayan to help us with manufacturing, we closed the meeting and took a taxi to lunch. We spent some time exploring the exciting city of Bengaluru and celebrated New Year together as the best ADE team, ever. NBD.

Happy birthday Nick!

Food Processing -- Crunch Time

Day 4:

For the beginning of the day, the technical team worked to remedy a few production errors that were preventing built machines from being sold to customers. After that, we spent most of the day building a new grater, which we hope to bring with us on our weekend trip to several villages in the area. The manufacturing process was complicated by a number of issues with broken tools, but we were able to get a lot done and are on track to complete the machine in time. We also had a visit from our painter, who put a beautiful coat of black paint on the presses that we have in inventory.

The tech team working on grater parts in the ITTU shop

For the business team the morning started off by talking to Deborah, fighting through the constant banter that came from the technical team who was trying to drag her into the shop. The business team used the time with Deborah to cover necessary items that need to be sorted out before we go visit our clients this weekend in the villages where our machines are deployed. We also took some time to look at our pilot study cash flow, adjusting our pricing and sales & production schedules to fit our current status while taking into account more realistic projections.

Buying cassava from a streetside vendor to test our prototype grater

Trying to push for higher rates of production while our team is in Ghana, the business team jumped into the shop and learned how to make the heads for the graters. Getting out of the sun for a bit, the business team worked with Asante to reach out to a potential partner to help us with importing our motors. Subsequently, the business team had a discussion with Deborah over the M&E plan to look over what work has been done and get her thoughts on the advances. Overall it was a full and productive day, and it looks like we actually have a chance to sleep early tonight.

Day 5:

Today was a very long and hectic day at ITTU. The team rushed to finish our prototype grater so that we could bring it with us on our trip to the villages tomorrow. We needed all hands on deck to complete the necessary parts, so for today our whole team was in the shop. After a flurry of cutting, bending, welding, grinding, and painting, we have an almost-functional machine. We brought most of the parts with us to the SMS guest house for the night and Deborah will pick up a few more from ITTU on her way to meet us tomorrow, so we can finish up assembly in the villages tomorrow night.

Our business team, getting more experience with fabrication

Assembling our prototype, using some new jigs and fixtures

At times when the tech team was figuring out what else needed to be done and how the business team could help, the business team lasered in on the CRM. The main focus in improving our CRM was configuring the interface in order to make it easier for Deborah to interact with. After seeing how the different components of the system relate, the business team linked tables in the system using unique keys and simplified the steps in order to record data taken from our customers.

Our freshly painted prototype, next to an unfinished grater

Global Health (Vietnam) - Day 2

MTTS Tour

We spent the morning at MTTS, Design that Matters' manufacturing partner for Firefly newborn phototherapy and the partner who will take the Otter newborn warmer to scale. Greg (MTTS's CEO) gave us a great tour of their facility, which is housed inside a large villa that happens to have a lot of manufacturing going on inside. They have a couple of research and design rooms, a couple testing rooms, and multiple manufacturing rooms for soldering PCBs, assembling parts into products, and quality testing. It was great to see how they make Firefly and learn about the other newborn care devices that they are making.

MTTS

After lunch and some rich and delicious Vietnamese coffee, we reviewed the Bill of Materials for Otter with Greg and MTTS Production Manager, Steffen Reschwanmm, then went to an injection molding manufacturing plant, who may do some outsourcing work for MTTS in the future. We learned that it would be possible for Otter to be manufactured there.

Injection molding manufacturing plant

On the way back to the hotel, we enjoyed looking at the different vendors and scenery. Hanoi has streets designated to different categories (i.e. electronics market street). We look forward to exploring the city and surrounding area through the week to learn more about how to advance the Otter project!

Global Health (Vietnam) - Day 4

In the morning, our team met in the hotel lobby to discuss the plan for the day before walking a few blocks to MTTS. At MTTS, we launched into a design review of the Otter Warmer concept with Greg, Steffen and Chloe Nguyen, an MTTS Fellow. Our discussion began with a double-layer plastic bassinet, and ended with a single-layer bassinet. Their ideas of ways to reduce cost and materials cut the cost of materials by nearly 1/3!

We examined the single layer
bassinet prototype during our meeting

After a quick lunch and another dose of thick, creamy, local coffee, most of the team went to the tertiary (national) hospital, National Obstetrics Hospital, also called C-hospital (because they do a lot of C-sections) near the city center. A second smaller team worked with MTTS to discuss the bill of materials and brainstorm ways of reducing costs. Our hospital visits and interviews from yesterday gave us more confidence and preparation, enabling us to make the most of our short hospital visit today.

As we walked into the NICU at Hospital C, doctors and nurses stopped writing their notes at the nearest long-table to make room for our hour-long interview. In a small room across hall, we could see at least 20 newborns in cribs, incubators, or phototherapy devices. When looking to the right down the hall, we observed that all of the rooms were packed with babies receiving some sort of treatment or under observation. This hospital takes care of an average of 160 babies per day, not to mention many of these babies had been referred by other hospitals who could not provide the level of care needed. Considering the nurses and doctors were constantly running in and out of the room, we were deeply grateful for the assistant director’s time!

So many babies in many different rooms!

We saw some babies being treated by Firefly!

Co-design session with the doctor!

Food Processing -- Enter Suame Magazine

Day 3:

Today was our first day of work at ITTU, and it was a packed one. After an early breakfast and a quick stop en route for fresh fruit, we arrived at the facility. ITTU is located in Suame Magazine, a dense market full of vendors selling tools, parts, and services related to vehicles and manufacturing. Here you can find everything from socket sets to motor oil to an extra shovel for a multi-ton backhoe.

We greeted three of our fabrication partners who were in the shop today, William, Francis, and Bwotchi, and set out to work. While our business team unpacked and organized the tools and machine parts we had brought with us from Olin, our technical team was debriefed on our current product inventory levels and a few production difficulties that had cropped up recently. Once we were up to speed and settled in, we moved on to our planned tasks.

The technical team spent the next few hours working with ITTU’s sheet metal tools, making sure that we are set up to make accurate and repeatable cuts and bends as we move forward. The team also created a prototype chute of the newest design and improved on some manufacturing processes we had previously struggled with at Olin.

While the technical team stayed at the shop, the business team went along with Deborah and Asante through Suame Magazine in order to get materials for fabrication. After back and forth trips between shops, we were able to get sheet metal we needed from one shop, have it cut by another shop, and buy fabrication supplies from a third. Between shop trips we were able to make friends with the shop workers ending our Twi (widely spoken among Ghanaians)/English interchange with epic selfies.

When we arrived back at ITTU, we all grabbed a short lunch and hurriedly rushed back to work. The technical team went straight back to the machines, and the business team held down fort at our workroom in ITTU. After drafting up contracts for our customers and sales representatives, the business team had a conversation with Asante about actionable steps to successfully import our motors from China. Immediately after narrowing the options with him, we acted upon the first one and set back out to pace through Suame Magazine. Getting back to ITTU, the business team took a jab at helping the technical team with fabrication, hacksawing some parts in preparation for tomorrow’s tasks.

We worked right up until ITTU closed for the day, then took a tro tro back to the SMS Guest House at KNUST. It was a very full and exhausting day, but we can’t wait to get back to work tomorrow!

Food Processing -- Maadwo from Ghana!

Day 1:

A view from the tarmac at the airport in Accra

After months of preparation we are finally in Ghana! The team converged in JFK from across the U.S. (Alejandro - DC, Ben - Boston, Cullen - San Francisco, Luke - Orlando) to board our redeye to Accra, the capital of Ghana. There we met with Giulia who came in from Rome.

On the van ride from Accra to Kumasi

We were greeted in Accra by Asante, a member of the ADE Food Processing team, and Sammy, our longtime friend and driver. We then hopped in the bus and drove to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. This will be our base of operations for the next two weeks. We grabbed dinner at the Engineering Guest House and made plans for the next day. After over 24 hours of travel, on New Year’s Day no less, we called it a night and went to bed.
Harmattan is dust blown off the Sahara into West Africa

Day 2:

Today marked our transition from travel mode into the full hectic excitement of the trip. After an early breakfast, the team hunkered down in the lobby of the KNUST School of Medical Sciences Guest House to plan out the next two weeks. After refreshing ourselves on big-picture trip goals, we sorted through the tasks we hope to accomplish and compiled a preliminary itinerary. It’s definitely going to be a packed few weeks. We’re very excited about all we can get done and as always are ready for whatever coming surprises will surely tweak our schedule.

After we settled on a tentative schedule, we were joined at the Guest House by Deborah, the leader of our venture in Ghana. She debriefed the business team on details of the venture that had changed since our last Skype conversation, while the technical team hammered out a few grater design tweaks so that we can put the most recent model into production with our fabrication partners at the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) tomorrow.

Once we had finished meetings we decided that since it is a federal holiday and ITTU was closed, today was a good day to go out and experience some of Kumasi first-hand. We took a tro tro (a minibus taxi) to Kejetia market, the largest market in continental Africa. It was an unforgettable experience full of colors, smells, and movement, and we returned to the Guest House ready for dinner and bed.

Piles of gari at a vendor's stall in Kejetia market

A lane lined with fabric stalls in Kejetia market

We saw a monkey!!

Puerto Rico Asset Value -- A day with the community

We began our day by heading back to Combate’s villa pesquera. We talked with Mickey again and also made two new friends, Waldemar and Anibal. They told us about their diving practices and experiences (both good and bad), as well as their motor maintenance. Speaking with Mickey confirmed what we had begun to suspect the day before; there was a miscommunication when we spoke of motor failure. What they defined as motor failure was when the machine failed because of age, while we also meant to ask about human-caused errors. Waldemar gave us more details about the death of the fisherman who they named the villa after. He told us that although the villa fishermen are now aware of the dangers, he believes a diving safety class could help new fishermen. He also mentioned his concern for newer, younger fishermen who might not be completely aware of the how dangerous scuba fishing can be. Anibal gave us a detailed breakdown of the cost of his motor maintenance.

To our surprise, Mickey brought food that his wife had made for us! He brought a surtido, a sampler, which includes carne frita, pez frito, chicharrón de pollo, sorullos, bolitas de queso, and bolitas de mofongo, with mayo-ketchup. It was delicious. Like, you have no idea. It’s probably not the healthiest meal out there, but we put our concerns for calories aside in the name of good food. Mickey brought us live carrucho (queen conch) to show us how he extracted it from the shell. This gave us a better picture of how he works when fishing under water, which is valuable context for us to have. He also let each of us try a bite of raw carrucho (queen conch), and gifted us two conch shells for us to keep.  

While half the team was off in Puerto Real, Jamey, Paulina and I stayed at the Villa and waited for Guillermo to return. He had been out fishing with lines, and brought back quite the assortment of fish, including a lionfish that had been pulled up by line from 200-250 feet. Talk about decompression issues! While we were waiting for Guillermo to finish up his work at the villa, we went with a few other fishermen to dispose of the guts that had just been cleaned from the catch. There are large predatory fish that swim close to the docks expecting this. Mickey even brought a line for us to try to catch them. Unfortunately even with all of the expert help from the fishermen, these fish were too savvy to be tricked into biting the hook. It made us realize how hard it really is for fisherman to make a consistent living; if the fish are not able to be caught on a certain day, the fisherman do not make money. Fishing is not a regular nine to five job with a consistent wage. The weather and fish behavior essentially dictate fishers’ ability to make a living. Eventually we got to talk to Guillermo a little bit more about his diving practices before leaving to get dinner at Andy’s house.

With our work for the day done, we headed over to Andy’s house for dinner. Andy had prepared a carrucho dish for us, and it was amazing! It had been soaked with oil and vinegar, and served with olives as well as slices of plantain and onion. We then spent several hours talking with Andy, his wife, and his youngest son. It was a great opportunity for us to experience and understand how important carrucho is here in Combate. With carrucho being the main target for fishermen here, it is crucial in ensuring fishermen make enough money, which is why they are willing to risk their health and life scuba fishing for them.

Although we did not accomplish all that we had initially set out to do that, we actually learned quite a lot we hadn’t expected. We now have a clearer understanding of the relationship between fishermen and their motors, and know that we need to work on how we ask fishermen our questions. We are also incredibly grateful for how much the fishermen have welcomed us into their community (and even their homes).