Graduation Internship
3D Sierra Leone

During my graduate internship, I did an internship with 3D Sierra Leone. 3D Sierra Leone is a Dutch project founded in 2018 with the goal of improving prosthetic facilities in low- and middle-income countries. In collaboration with the 3D Lab at Radboud UMC in Nijmegen, a 3D lab has been set up at Masanga Hospital in Sierra Leone. From this hospital, 3D Sierra Leone makes arm and lower leg prostheses for people with amputations there. To be able to help more people with a prosthesis, my assignment was: To design a 3D printed prosthetic socket and suspension system of an upper leg prosthesis for people in Sierra Leone.
During this project, I collaborated with a Technical Medicine student. We tested the fabrication of two different prosthetic sockets using 3D scanning, drawing and printing. 

We tested different sockets and suspension systems on two test subjects in the Netherlands. Then we also tested on two test subjects in Sierra Leone. A choice was made for one of two prosthetic socket designs. These will now be tested on a longer-term basis.