Scale-Ups Phase 1 Fellow, Shawn Wen, is just back from Nepal where she explored business partnerships and conducted a focus group for PortaTherm, the low-cost, electricity-free incubator she has been working with for more than a year. The focus group explored the ease-of-use for health workers to prepare the phase-change material packets needed for PortaTherm. Her results were surprising - what she imagined was burdensome was well-received by health workers for its flexibility. Read blog.

For Kwami Williams and the MoringaConnect team, the past month has been full. They have incorporated as a LLC and pursued purchase orders while deepening ties with the start-up and agribusiness sectors in Ghana. Meanwhile, they continue work on their motorized Moringa seed sheller and have made a list of oil presses to source. With Kwami and MIT student Chandler Johnson working in Ghana this summer, MoringaConnect cofounder Emily Cunningham has been managing US operations. Read blog.

Global Cycle Solutions, developing the MultiCrop Thresher in Tanzania, has new faces on its team including Hope Gabone, MultiCrop Thresher Project Manager and Liaison Officer, and Project Engineer Godfrey Mwinama. Joining them for the summer are April Zhu (D-Lab alum and rising senior from Wellesley), and Elliot Avila (rising senior from MIT- left forground). In July the team headed into the field with a commercial thresher and Elliot's prototype, while they worked on a prototype developed by local innovator Bernard Kiwia in the shop. Read blog.