Five MBAs and a Baby

Friday, March 6, 2009

by Gale Wiley

Kilgali, Rwanda -- A tiny preemie was moved from a $20,000 incubator to a $300 Rwandan-built incubator designed by Rice engineers and marketed for the last week in this tiny country by Rice MBAs.

The child, dubbed "Baby Kigali " by the five-man Rice team, spent the night in the prototype incubator which represents the first of a potential production of as many as 900 incubators for the Rwandan market alone.

"Baby Kigali" in the Rice Incubator

Thousands more incubators -- all made by local manufacturers -- could be sold across Africa and other developing countries.

"But there's lots of work to do yet," said one team member. "The incubator needs to be thoroughly tested by the Rwandan certification agency. Doctors and nurses already asked for design modifications they'd like to see."

Four Teams

The MBA students came to Rwanda as part of Marc Epstein's class to study firsthand how to bring Rice bio-med technology to Rwanda, if possible using Rwanda labor and management to create and sell those products.

The students divided into four five-person teams and were tasked with developing a viable business plan for a specific product.

The students are developing business plans for three prototype products that were tested in African clinics and hospitals last summer by undergraduate interns that were part of Rice’s Beyond Traditional Borders program.

The teams are organized by product -- the low-cost neonatal incubator team, a diagnostic lab-in-a-backpack team, a plastic dosing device for liquid medicines team, and micro-nutrient supplements.

For five days the students worked day and night, meeting with doctors, nurses and Rwandan health officials in clinics and hospitals across Rwanda.

The incubator team spent much of its energy getting their incubator built using Rwandan materials and craftsmen.

The backpack team has a commitment from an NGO for 80 backpacks. Medical officials in Rwanda expressed interest in backpacks that could be tailored for specific needs and diseases.

The 20 students return Stateside next week, many of them flying out Wednesday.