Eduscope

Wat het doet

The EDUcation microSCOPE Rig, crafted from 3D printed and off-the-shelf components, gives East African students hands-on design and manufacturing experience of digital microscopes, while simultaneously improving access to microscopy in Healthcare Education.

Je inspriatie

Together with the Red Cross in Kenya, we investigated ways to promote STEM education in low-resource settings. We identified a crucial gap: inadequate access to microscopy in education due to high costs and a scarcity of spare parts. This gap is particularly critical in East Africa, given its high disease burden and limited medical resources. Concurrently, we noted the emergence of local maker spaces like I.O.Me in Mombasa, where young people explore 3D printing and digital technologies. The Eduscope Rig harnesses these makerspaces, offering a comprehensive practical project that in turn significantly enhances healthcare education.

Hoe het werkt

The Eduscope Rig serves as an educational and design platform, integrating off-the-shelf components like a Raspberry Pi, camera module, and microscopy lenses with 3D printed parts. This setup enables students to build a digital microscope capable of live streaming, capturing images, and recording videos of magnified specimens. Beyond fostering hands-on learning in optics and digital imaging, its modular design atop an aluminium 2020 profile supports easy adaptation and repair, ensuring sustainability in educational settings. By encouraging students to explore different configurations and validate design ideas with the rig it fosters the development of improved and tailored digital microscopes. Next to that, digitizing the microscope provides a cost-effective solution by allowing multiple students immediate access to real-time specimen visuals. This digitization also facilitates seamless image sharing and integration with various digital tools and platforms.

Ontwerpproces

I started on the Eduscope project for my graduation project, aimed at developing a low-cost, locally manufactured digital microscope in collaboration with the maker space I.O.Me 001 in Mombasa, Kenya. My journey began with a 3-week field research trip to I.O.Me 001, where I collaborated closely with the students on refining the Eduscope prototypes. Beyond technical improvements, I observed a critical gap: the lack of educational resources guiding students in optics, microscopy, and digital microscope design. Coupled with challenges like the Eduscope's complex part count and unreliable marketplace suppliers, sustaining the project in a Makerspace setting posed significant hurdles. From these insights emerged the concept of the Eduscope Rig, anchored on an aluminium 2020 profile for its structural integrity and modularity. Through iterative design and numerous 3D prints, the Eduscope Rig evolved into its current form. The Eduscope Rig now stands as the cornerstone of the Eduscope Project and the focal point of the STEM initiative aimed at enhancing access to microscopy education in East Africa. It serves not only as a practical tool for building digital microscopes but also as an educational platform, empowering students with hands-on learning experiences in STEM disciplines.

Hoe onderscheidend is het?

The Eduscope Rig stands out due to its unique combination of educational focus, modularity, local manufacturing capability, integration with digital tools, and impact on STEM education. Unlike traditional digital microscopes, which solely serve as a microscope, the Eduscope Rig integrates seamlessly into STEM curricula, providing hands-on learning opportunities in optics, digital imaging, microscopy and design practises. Through its local manufacturing approach in maker spaces, the Eduscope Rig empowers local engineers to create impactful solutions for their communities. This not only lowers costs but also nurtures a sense of ownership and pride within the community. By fostering the education of local engineers and enhancing local medical expertise, particularly crucial in settings like East Africa, the Eduscope Rig contributes significantly to community development, healthcare and sustainability.

Toekomstplannen

While the Eduscope Rig is already in use at I.O.Me 001, its impact will be enhanced through several steps. First, making the Eduscope Rig's documentation open source will allow the project to expand to other maker spaces and educational settings worldwide. Secondly, running multiple pilot workshops will help iteratively improve the Rig and its integration into STEM education, with updates shared in the open-source environment. Together, these steps will foster the creation of local engineers and local medical professionals, crucial worldwide and especially in East Africa where communities need to become more self-reliant.

Premi