Low-cost baby warmer built entirely in Nepal to help combat infant hypothermia.
MIT D-Lab class
Community partners
- National Innovation Centre
- Mahip KC and Sandip Gautam
Country
Nepal
Student team
MIT students unless otherwise noted.
- Daniel Rodriguez Rodriguez, Master in Design Engineering ‘25, Harvard University.Daniel is a biomedical engineer turned designer with a focus on improving health, wellbeing and quality of life.
- Hiroki Ogasawara, M.S., Engineering and Management (System Design & Management) ‘26. Hiroki is pursuing Master’s degree in Engineering and Management, focusing on product strategy and management combined with the experience of mechanical engineering in the industry before MIT.
- Marco Arias, Mechanical Engineering ‘26. Marco is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in design and manufacturing for human-centered products.
Problem framing
After our initial meeting with NIC, we highlighted three key areas that would stand to benefit the most from our help: heater reflector manufacturability, uneven heat distribution, and side panel durability. From these, we decided to pursue the side panel durability since this was the most pressing issue for NIC and the main problem preventing them from taking an improved version to market.
Cultural and/or market context
Infants are most vulnerable in the first 28 days of life, the neonatal period. There are 35 neonatal deaths every day in Nepal, and between 63 and 85% of newborns develop hypothermia]. In Nepal, rural healthcare facilities often use outdated and unmaintained equipment to keep babies warm, like electric heaters, filament bulbs, and burning coal, which pose significant health risks for newborns.
The National Innovation Centre, a non-profit organization in Kathmandu, Nepal, created Nyano Nani, a low-cost infant radiant warmer (nicknamed ‘baby warmer’) to serve the low-resource communities in Nepal. At the start of this project, NIC had deployed more than 90 units of V1 of its baby warmer to health posts and primary health centers across more than 45 districts of Nepal, thanks to crowdfunding and government funding. Health posts represent 54.9% of birth rates, while primary health centers represent 2.9%; their next target customers are private health facilities and hospitals, which represent 29.9% and 1.8% of births, respectively.
Competitive analysis
Nyano Nani V1 has competitors in the field, mainly inducing ones from international.
- Babytherm 8004 / 8010 - Drager. - 3000 USD
- Lullaby (prime and normal) - G.E. - 3000 USD
- Tiana-S by SS Technomed. - 457 USD
- NWS 101 by Phoenix. - 950 USD
Our competitiveness comes from its local procurement, servicing & maintenance. The price per unit is 650 USD, which targeting customers pursuing an affordable and reliable product.
Solution including technical details
We tackled the load concentration by elongating the panel clip designed by Delft and tested the system’s usability by comparing it to an alternative mechanism we developed based on sliding down the panel. Results suggested to continue with Delft’s design. To tackle the panel slamming problem, we reduced the dependence on friction and added space for adhesive bumpers on a prototype that passed preliminary durability testing.
Hand-off to partner, next steps
We recommend NIC to find an equivalent component in Nepal, perform user testing with local nurses, and subject the system to the fatigue associated with the expected use of a 2-year period. Regardless of design mechanism, we also suggest NIC to implement a supply chain for the fabrication and installation of polycarbonate to substitute the original acrylic material, and to plan the transition of the manufacturing method to injection molding with resin molds.
Contact
Macauley Kenney, D-Lab: Design for Scale Instructor
