Speeches Shim
As the novel coronavirus spread through Danang City, Mai and three of her classmates from the Danang University of Technology gathered at their university’s USAID-supported Maker Innovation Space to discuss how they could leverage their creativity, diversity, and engineering know-how to protect their community from this deadly virus.
“We had to do something to fight COVID-19, now nurses and doctors are using our innovation everyday," said Mai.
The team started their design process by asking doctors to share their challenges running a busy hospital. They learned that busy healthcare workers in Danang and other parts of Vietnam are struggling to safely distribute hand sanitizer to their patients and staff. While industries around Danang began producing hand sanitizer, the team decided to strengthen the community’s COVID-19 response by building a low-cost automatic hand sanitizer dispenser for their local hospital.
Dr. Thanh’s ability to help transform his students into public health innovators is a testament to his ability to coach young people to combine their creativity and technical skills to bring real value to their communities.
Since 2017, Dr. Thanh has collaborated with the USAID Building University-Industry Learning and Development through Innovation and Technology (BUILD-IT) Alliance, implemented by Arizona State University. Through this collaboration he has led three cohorts of the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program and hosted a Global EPICS project with Vietnamese and American students working side-by-side in Danang.
“By applying the EPICS process to their designs, we leverage our creativity and expertise to build something meaningful," said Ngo Dinh Thanh.
To sustain service-learning on campus, Dr. Thanh infused the EPICS service-learning process into the mission of his Maker Student Club. Through the Maker Club, students like Phan Thi Mai have the space, supplies, and guidance they need to quickly respond to their communities' engineering needs. As the Maker Club grows from an after-school activity into a community asset, Dr. Thanh continues to coach his students and peers to focus their designs on community impact and spearhead meaningful innovations in times of crisis.
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