Rice researchers and partners in Kenya win $2.5M for innovation-focused master’s program

HOUSTON – (July 22, 2024) – A team of researchers from Rice University’s Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies and Kenyatta University in Kenya have received a $2.5 million grant from the Lemelson Foundation for a first-of-its-kind graduate education program that aims to prepare students to be Kenya’s next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs.

The “Impact Invention” master’s degree program at Kenyatta is designed to deliver project-based learning focused on collaboration, needs-finding, product development, prototyping, engineering design and entrepreneurship.

The initiative addresses the need to enhance the ability of Kenyan universities to actively contribute to the country’s innovation ecosystem, in line with national priorities and the sustainability agenda of the World Health Organization (WHO). Graduate students in the “Impact Invention” program will develop local solutions to challenges outlined in WHO’s sustainable development goals.

“Graduate students in the ‘Impact Invention’ master’s program are provided practical skills that involve hands-on project design, entrepreneurship training and relationship building with industry leaders,” said June Madete, a principal investigator at Kenyatta.

The “Impact Invention” master’s program builds on a partnership between Kenyatta and Rice360, which previously established an undergraduate project-based engineering curriculum at the Kenyan university. The new program offers the next level of invention education, a transdisciplinary approach to preparing future innovators to identify problems and develop innovative solutions. The guiding framework for the program is informed by the approach to engineering education developed at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) and in Rice’s Global Medical Innovation Master of Bioengineering program. The new program at Kenyatta aims to further students’ engineering design skills along with teaching them the business concepts required to bring technologies to market successfully.

In addition to Madete, Kenneth Iloka is also a principal investigator on the grant. Spearheading the program from Rice are Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, professor of bioengineering and Rice360 co-director; Maria Oden, full teaching professor of bioengineering, OEDK director and Rice360 co-director; and Matthew Wettergreen, associate teaching professor of bioengineering, associate teaching professor at the OEDK and director of the Global Medical Innovation program.

The Lemelson Foundation award recognizes Rice360’s continued commitment to partnering with Africa’s leading universities to develop the next generation of local engineers and inventors to address global health challenges worldwide.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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CAPTION: (From left to right: June Madete, Will Moyo, Wambui Nyabero, Emmastella Gakuo, Phoebe Khagame and Khatuchi Kasandi) Judges of the 2023 Kenyatta University- Rice360 Design Competition Aug. 11. (Credit: Kenyatta University)

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CAPTION: Students of Kenyatta University working on their low-cost innovation during the 2023 Kenyatta University and Rice360 design competition’s boot camp. (Credit: Kenyatta University)

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CAPTION: June Madete leading a panel at the 2023 African Medtech Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. (Credit: African MedTech)

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