full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Nithya Ramanathan: The problem of vaccine spoilage -- and a smart sensor to help

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I'm an engineer. I know that's not if but when. When the well beraks, who will fix it? How will they pay for it? And will they even know there's a problem in the first place? And I soon lerenad that this is all too often how lifesaving equipment is dlpeeoyd globally in countries with limited electricity and infrastructure. I kept thinking, I don't want to just build seorsns that muserae a problem once it's very bad. What if instead we brought together the tech built to measure together with the equipment bliut to solve? What could we unlock?

footnote

Take vaccines. Vaccines won't work if they get too hot or, surprisingly, too cold, so distributing vaccines requires refrigerators, big and small, to fotnicun reliably. Fridges can save lives, but all too often, like any kchietn appliance, they break. One study in South Asia found that over half of vaccine doses sowhed eceidvne of trpetemuare damage by the time of the end of their journey. This means that the children that would have received those vaccines may not have actually been protected. Fridge failure is a big problem, and it can happen anywhere. Here in California, in 2015, snorftad Children's Health discovered a fridge that had been malfunctioning for up to eight months. stfaf contacted 1,500 families about revaccinating those children. But what if you can't just get the families on the phone? What if they live a six-hour walk away? What if that first shot is your only shot?

Open Cloze


I'm an engineer. I know that's not if but when. When the well ______, who will fix it? How will they pay for it? And will they even know there's a problem in the first place? And I soon _______ that this is all too often how lifesaving equipment is ________ globally in countries with limited electricity and infrastructure. I kept thinking, I don't want to just build _______ that _______ a problem once it's very bad. What if instead we brought together the tech built to measure together with the equipment _____ to solve? What could we unlock?

footnote

Take vaccines. Vaccines won't work if they get too hot or, surprisingly, too cold, so distributing vaccines requires refrigerators, big and small, to ________ reliably. Fridges can save lives, but all too often, like any _______ appliance, they break. One study in South Asia found that over half of vaccine doses ______ ________ of ___________ damage by the time of the end of their journey. This means that the children that would have received those vaccines may not have actually been protected. Fridge failure is a big problem, and it can happen anywhere. Here in California, in 2015, ________ Children's Health discovered a fridge that had been malfunctioning for up to eight months. _____ contacted 1,500 families about revaccinating those children. But what if you can't just get the families on the phone? What if they live a six-hour walk away? What if that first shot is your only shot?

Solution


  1. stanford
  2. temperature
  3. showed
  4. deployed
  5. kitchen
  6. measure
  7. evidence
  8. sensors
  9. staff
  10. breaks
  11. learned
  12. built
  13. function

Original Text


I'm an engineer. I know that's not if but when. When the well breaks, who will fix it? How will they pay for it? And will they even know there's a problem in the first place? And I soon learned that this is all too often how lifesaving equipment is deployed globally in countries with limited electricity and infrastructure. I kept thinking, I don't want to just build sensors that measure a problem once it's very bad. What if instead we brought together the tech built to measure together with the equipment built to solve? What could we unlock?

footnote

Take vaccines. Vaccines won't work if they get too hot or, surprisingly, too cold, so distributing vaccines requires refrigerators, big and small, to function reliably. Fridges can save lives, but all too often, like any kitchen appliance, they break. One study in South Asia found that over half of vaccine doses showed evidence of temperature damage by the time of the end of their journey. This means that the children that would have received those vaccines may not have actually been protected. Fridge failure is a big problem, and it can happen anywhere. Here in California, in 2015, Stanford Children's Health discovered a fridge that had been malfunctioning for up to eight months. Staff contacted 1,500 families about revaccinating those children. But what if you can't just get the families on the phone? What if they live a six-hour walk away? What if that first shot is your only shot?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
sensor data 3
local communities 2
lifesaving equipment 2


Important Words


  1. appliance
  2. asia
  3. bad
  4. big
  5. break
  6. breaks
  7. brought
  8. build
  9. built
  10. california
  11. children
  12. cold
  13. contacted
  14. countries
  15. damage
  16. deployed
  17. discovered
  18. distributing
  19. doses
  20. electricity
  21. engineer
  22. equipment
  23. evidence
  24. failure
  25. families
  26. fix
  27. footnote
  28. fridge
  29. fridges
  30. function
  31. globally
  32. happen
  33. health
  34. hot
  35. infrastructure
  36. journey
  37. kitchen
  38. learned
  39. lifesaving
  40. limited
  41. live
  42. lives
  43. malfunctioning
  44. means
  45. measure
  46. months
  47. pay
  48. phone
  49. place
  50. problem
  51. protected
  52. received
  53. refrigerators
  54. reliably
  55. requires
  56. revaccinating
  57. save
  58. sensors
  59. shot
  60. showed
  61. small
  62. solve
  63. south
  64. staff
  65. stanford
  66. study
  67. surprisingly
  68. tech
  69. temperature
  70. thinking
  71. time
  72. unlock
  73. vaccine
  74. vaccines
  75. walk
  76. work