Duke-EWH Summer Institute

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Explore a new culture!

Practice skills learned at university!!

Have a tangible impact on a low resource community!!!


The DHT Lab has partnered with the non-profit Engineering World Health (EWH) for almost a decade to offer a program that allows undergraduate and graduate students from universities all over the world to participate in a two-month immersion experience in understanding and fixing equipment in low-resource settings. 

The first month students live with a local family, immersed in the culture and preparing for their hospital experience. Technical and language education is combined with labs and hospital workdays to prepare the students to fix everything from blood pressure cuffs and autoclaves to incubators and ultrasounds. 

During the second month, teams of two students work at an EWH partner hospital and live at a new homestay. Work is varied and changes year to year, however it usually includes: equipment repair and maintenance, creating equipment inventories and conducting need-assessments. Throughout, students stay at the hospital and get the chance to learn about health care in the developing world and the culture of the community.

To date, EWH participants have repaired almost 6,000 pieces of medical equipment approximately worth 12 million dollars (approximating each fix to be worth $2,000), greatly impacting the lives of people living in developing world communities.

Currently, we run two programs:

The application deadline is February 7, 2014, and financial aid is available through EWH for those who qualify.

For current Duke Students: both programs are offered through Duke Engage (Nicaragua | Tanzania).