Thandi's Project Page

Who:  Hi, I'm Thandi! I was born in Colorado but grew up in Indiana for 11 years before moving to South Jordan, UT. I like to play Animal Crossing and get attention.

My scientific/engineering interests:  I have a very strong passion for public health— my parents migrated from Malawi, the 8th poorest country in the world, and I thereby became acquainted with one of the worst HIV/AIDS epidemics in history. It was and still is very upsetting— it is, in short, very unfair that such a disparity exists in our very advanced world. I decided I wanted to be an engineer to be able to create accessible and sustainable technologies that could help marginalized people.

Academic goals:  I am a mechanical engineering and health, society, & policy double major. I will be continuing to work with my ACCESS lab to hopefully manufacture the world’s first fully biodegradable feminine hygiene pad. After graduating, I would like to attend law school.

Career goals:  In the future, I would like to engage in work that directly benefits marginalized communities, addresses injustices in our current systems, and establishes equity in as many forms of life as possible.

SHERO’s mission is to eliminate barriers to menstrual hygiene by creating the world’s first completely biodegradable pad. One of the defining factors of a pad’s sustainability is its shelf life. In order to test our pad’s shelf life, we determined we would need to create mini samples of it to be put in adverse conditions. Our samples were two layers of biodegradable material-- the topmost and bottommost pad sheets-- each cut into 1.5x1.5in squares. In order to adhere them together, we utilized a hot melt adhesive (HMA). The HMA, which resembles hot glue, needed to be applied in controlled amounts; however, we did not have the factory equipment to execute the task. The solution was to create a silicone mold that acted like an ice cube tray. This way, we could pour our adhesive into the tray while hot, wait for it to cool, and extract equal-sized solidified bubbles of adhesive that could be melted again. Using Solidworks, we were able to model a 114.3mm x 114.3mm x 9.55mm prism with extruded 6mm diameter domes on its surface. We then 3D printed it and poured a silicone mix over it to create our final tray.

SHERO: Adhering Sustainability and Feminine Hygiene with Hot Melts Download SHERO: Adhering Sustainability and Feminine Hygiene with Hot Melts