Viability of sawdust briquettes for rural Ghana

The growing demand for solid fuels in the developing world has begun to place enormous pressure on natural resources with an especially heavy toll on the forests of sub-Saharan Africa. The main energy sources for much of the developing world are scavenged wood and charcoal. These fuels contribute heavily to indoor air pollution causing 1.6 million deaths annually. In this study we look at the possibility of using waste sawdust from the timber industry as a potential fuel source. We saw that under modest pressure (achievable using hand presses) one can make a durable sawdust briquette capable of withstanding manufacturing, transportation, and final use. These results show promise in the field of biomass briquetting; we can see that high pressure methods that require costly capital investment are not necessary to create a reliable fuel from biomass waste.Mechanical Engineerin

Characterizing the Application of Design Ethnography Techniques to Improve Novice Human-Centered Design Processes.

Design is a central, distinguishing feature of engineering, requiring the development of technical solutions to societal problems. Successful design solutions must not only be technically sound, but also well-adapted to the context and culture in which they will be used. However, the most commonly used methods for eliciting and characterizing stakeholder preferences do not typically reveal critical stakeholder and contextual information. Through the studies described in this dissertation, I explore the use of design ethnography during front-end engineering design phases to capture both stakeholder preferences and contextual knowledge to inform engineering design decision making. Design ethnography is a set of primarily qualitative data collection and analysis techniques that have been adapted from the field of anthropology to augment the engineering design process. Studies from the fields of human-computer interaction and product development have demonstrated that design ethnography techniques are cost-effective and lead to more successful products. However, the design ethnography literature lacks critical understanding of the major barriers and factors that influence design ethnography success, methodologies for synthesizing and applying design ethnography data, best practices to engage with stakeholders, developmental trajectories of novice to expert skill acquisition, and case studies of how design ethnography has been implemented in diverse settings. The studies detailed in this dissertation employ a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods to address these gaps in the literature. Through this research, I have characterized novice design ethnography implementation strategies and identified internal and external factors that affect design ethnography execution; investigated correlations between information processing ability and the quality of product requirements developed; established a framework for evaluating and directing design ethnography stakeholder interviews; developed a case study within a global health design context; and interpreted the findings within a theoretically grounded model to represent novice to expert development. This body of work informs strategies and processes for engaging with stakeholders and understanding broader contexts in design work to improve design decision making within both design professional practice and engineering education.PhDMechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133391/1/imohedas_1.pd

Students’ perceptions of the value of stakeholder engagement during engineering design

BackgroundHuman‐centered design approaches promote and facilitate comprehensive understanding of stakeholders to inform design decisions. Successful engagement with stakeholders is critical to favorable design outcomes and requires skillful information gathering and synthesizing processes, which present unique challenges to student designers.Purpose/HypothesisOur study sought to answer the following research question: What factors influence design teams’ perceptions of the value of stakeholder engagement during design decision‐making?Design/MethodDuring a capstone design experience, we conducted four semistructured group interviews with seven capstone undergraduate student design teams and collected their design reports. We analyzed the data across teams to identify factors that influenced teams’ perceptions of the value of stakeholder engagement.ResultsTeams perceived stakeholder specific interactions to be more useful when they prespecified a goal for the interaction, interacted with stakeholders who had specific subject matter expertise, or ceded control of the decision‐making process to stakeholders. Students perceived interactions to be less useful when information gathered varied across stakeholders or when information was not directly applicable to the design decision at hand.ConclusionsThe factors this study identified that influenced students’ perceptions of the usefulness of stakeholder interactions elucidate specific challenges students encounter when engaging with stakeholders. Students could benefit from pedagogical structures that assist them throughout design‐related engagement with stakeholders and when applying the information gathered through engagements with stakeholders to design decision‐making.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163394/2/jee20356.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163394/1/jee20356_am.pd

Discrepancies between clinicians and rural healthcare workers regarding referral procedures based on blood pressure measurements

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135394/1/ijgo246.pd

Preliminary clinical assessment of a task‐shifting device for subcutaneous contraceptive implants

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/170261/1/ijgo13791_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/170261/2/ijgo13791.pd