Episode 8- Interview with Will Moyo

In this episode we talked with Will Moyo an Bioengineer from Zimbabwe. Will is the Engineering Innovation Design Studio Manager for Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies.

We discussed:

• Will’s background and the kind of work she does now
• What is Bioengineering and what training she received to get there
• What motivated her to pursue a career in Bioengineering 
• Invention education and how its used at the Design studios where she works 
• What are Design Studios and training offered there 
• What Will does on a day to day basis in her role 
• The different kind of funders who support their work 
• The need for support and investment in inventions, innovation and education for long term success “Funding people to fail”
• Challenges associated with innovation and global health technologies in an African context 
• What is Will's favorite part of the work that she does 
• The value of impactful work and seeing effort come to fruition
• What public health means to Will 
• Everything is Public Health!
• Is Will Shuri from Black Panther??? 
• The importance of medical devices and access in public health 
• The Importance of investing in education for health so as to improve  health outcomes 
• The need to train engineers and technical workforce practically so they know how to work with biomedical equipment in the real world 
• Other African countries where the model of design studios are currently being implemented
• Who makes a good Biomedical engineer?
• What it takes and good skills to have in the field 
• The different kind of stakeholders Will and her students get to work with 
• Regulation and standardization for medical device design and invention in African countries
• Challenges and frustrations from working in education and invention and innovative work in the global health technologies space
• How their program was able to generate income for themselves by being innovative at the beginning of the pandemic 
• What does Will know now, that she wishes she knew earlier
• Words of Wisdom 
• Resource plugs 
• Tips of reaching out and getting opportunities in the field