Engineers at Futura are developing malaria treatments using an iterative design process and simulation tool called MalariaMed. Students practiced this process by running multiple iterative tests of simulated malaria treatment designs, recording the results, and analyzing the data to identify the strongest design. The best design would minimize drug resistance and side effects while keeping costs low, without increasing the malaria parasite population. After analyzing all their results, students selected one design to submit to their project director for feedback on how to further improve their treatment design.

1. FIGHTING DRUG-RESISTANT MALARIA

2. NSEI 1.5.2 HOMEWORK
After-Hours Work:
Read a short article to learn about a real engineer.

3. Read the Daily Message and record notes of
important points and deliverables. (5 min)
Open and re-pin Daily Message Notes
• Add today’s date and subject of the message
(Designing MalariaTreatments) at the top of
the note.
• Add (Copy/Paste) summary of deliverables
and/or important information under heading.
NSEI 1.5.1 WARM-UP

4. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Watch a video describing the four steps ofThe Design Cycle and then review how to conduct
iterative tests in MalariaMed. (10 min)
The Design Cycle video
(~2 min).
You are entering the Design
phase of your internship.
Futura created this video to
illustrate The Design Cycle
and how it relates to your
malaria treatment designs.

5. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
In the Build step, engineers
create a design. In many
cases, engineers build or use
models rather than the actual
product, so they can make
quick changes to their designs.
For example, in this internship,
you are using the MalariaMed
Design Tool to build a malaria
treatment.
In the Analyze step,
engineers carefully
examine test results.
They consider how well
the test results address
the project criteria and
identify areas that need
improvement,
sometimes by
comparing them to
other versions.
Based on their analysis, engineers
return to the planning stage. They
think about what they can change in
their design to better address the
criteria in their next iterative test. In
this way, engineers progress through
The Design Cycle multiple times.
In the Test step, engineers run the tests to get their results; these outcomes will help engineers figure out
how well their design works. MalariaMed is a model that allows you to test how your malaria treatment
performs when treating all the different malaria patients who get sick over ten years, without actually
testing real people or waiting for ten years to pass.
In the Plan step, engineers think about
the project criteria and make a plan for a
design that addresses those criteria.

6. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Let’s discuss the definition
of iterative testing.
Do you remember hearing or
reading the term iterative
testing or iteration?
The design process involves a
series of tests in which the
results of the most recent test
influence the changes made
to the next test.
Iterative testing is testing with a purpose,
each result gives engineers the information
they need to rebuild their designs.
This type of testing is called iterative
testing. Each test influences the next
test; tests are not random.

7. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
These tables will help you remember the strategies you have used as you try
different designs.
On the MalariaMed Data sheet, each Plan-Build-Test-Analyze section represents a
different iteration, or version.
Have available your
MalariaMed Data.
The data tables are extremely
important for tracking different
versions of the design.

8. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Version number:
You will be doing many
iterations, or versions,
during the Design phase, so
it is important you keep
track of each one.
Number the versions as you
go.
If partners are testing
separately and then sharing
data, you need to
communicate the
numbering to your partner
so you do not both have
Version #4.

9. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Plan section:
You should write about
the design you will build
and test in this section.
For example, you could
write about what variable
you will change in this
version to better address
the criteria.
Do not rush through
your iterations - change
variables in a deliberate,
systematic way.

10. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Build section:
You will record the drug
(Drug A, B, or C) and
dose for each day of the
treatment.
If you do not use drugs
for all seven days you can
cross out the extra days
on the data sheet.

11. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Test section:
Here, you will record
your results.
In MalariaMed, the results
of a design are shown by
selectingTest.
The results (in the top
right corner of the
projection) are recorded
in the table.

12. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Analyze section:
It is important to write
ideas in the Analyze
section as it will help you
understand where your
design was successful, and
where it could be
improved.
Think about how well the
test results address the
project criteria and
identify areas that need
improvement.

13. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Next Plan section:
You should determine
which criteria need to be
better addressed and,
move to the next section
of the data sheet, write
about the changes you
plan to make in your next
iteration.

14. NSEI – 1.5:THE DESIGN CYCLE
Making connections betweenThe Design Cycle and MalariaMed.
You will use MalariaMed and the data sheet to help
progress through The Design Cycle.
You will have to think about all of your test results
to figure out an optimal malaria treatment.
• The Analyze section is where you’ll think about
what worked and what did not work in each
version.
• This is whyThe Design Cycle is a circle—
because each Analyze section leads to the Plan
section for the next version, or iterative test.

15. NSEI – 1.5: TESTING MALARIA TREATMENTS
Practice iterative testing using MalariaMed to systematically test your designs and document
your test results on the data sheets. (20 min)
You will work in MalariaMed to complete
several iterative tests.
You will work with a partner as
design pairs.
Each design pair should
complete and record several
iterative tests.
Make sure to record all results…
—even the bad ones—
…because you can and should
learn from versions that don't work
as well.

16. NSEI – 1.5: TESTING MALARIA TREATMENTS
Think about which criterion
you will prioritize, or think is
most important, and design
tests focused on strongly
addressing that criterion.
Take a few moments to plan with your design partner about what strategies you
want to test first.
Criteria:
• Minimize the percentage of
the malaria population with
high drug resistance:
• Minimize patient side effects:
• Keep treatment costs low:
Constraint:
• Avoiding an increase in the
malaria parasite population

17. NSEI – 1.5: TESTING MALARIA TREATMENTS
Carefully record your Plan and
Analyze information on the data
sheets – Use as many as needed.
You should not rush through your
analysis or planning steps.
The more versions you test, the more
data you will have to analyze, and the
more information you will have when
identifying a strong design.
Test your malaria treatments by using the MalariaMed Data Worksheet

18. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Analyze your data so far and select one design to submit for feedback that best addresses the
project criteria. (10 min)
Let’s reflect on your iterative testing and share successful strategies you used or
problems you had while testing.
1. Did you notice any particularly successful strategies when you were running your
iterative tests in MalariaMed?
2. Was one design strong for one criterion, but not the others?
3. Perhaps you think you have a great design already at this point, but we should
check in with your project director.

19. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Examples of MalariaMed Data. In order to identify your strongest design so far, you need
to compare all of the results for all of your completed iterative tests.
The constraint—preventing
an increase in the total
parasite population.
Does any of these versions
cause either
an increase or large
increase in the Total Parasite
Population field on their Data
sheets?
• Yes – Version 6
• Version 5 had no change

20. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Which version has the smallest
percentage of the malaria
population with high drug
resistance?
• Version 5, 54% with high
resistance to Drug A.
The smaller percentages of
resistance are better because
when more of the malaria
parasite population has traits for
high resistance, the greater the
chance these drugs won’t work
to cure malaria.
Criterion 1 – Identify which version is strongest in minimizing drug resistance.

21. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Which of these example
versions has the lowest
treatment cost for 1000
treatments.
The less a particular treatment
costs, the more patients can be
treated which potentially saves
more lives.
• Version 6, $3,000.
Criterion 3 – Identify which version is strongest in keeping costs low.

22. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
You will analyze your
data in this same way,
comparing all your
versions to identify the
strongest results.
The green circles are
around the best values for
each criterion.

23. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Typically, if one version had
more results that were
strong, it would be easy to
identify; however, in this case,
Version 6 might appear to be
strong, but interns must
consider the constraint.
Version 6 fails to meet to
the constraint because it
resulted in a population
increase.
Thus, if we had to choose between these two versions, we’d have to selectVersion 5.

24. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
You can also use the criterion
you identified as your priority as
another way to help identify your
strongest design so far.
You will need to hear what else
the project director has to say.
You will use this process to
identify your strongest design to
submit for feedback from Ken.
You may notice that there is no “perfect plan.” In order to more strongly address one
criterion, you’ll have to make sacrifices in addressing the others.These are trade-offs between
designs.
You should review all of your versions and eliminate any that resulted in a population increase.

25. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Design partners analyze your data to select your strongest design.
Use green highlighters as you
analyze your data and discuss
the pros and cons of your
results as you work to
compare versions and identify
the strongest design.
Evaluate data of all the
versions you have so far by
circling the best result for each
criterion in green, and by
crossing out versions that
caused an increase in the total
parasite population.

26. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Submit your designs in Futura Workspace.
You can only submit one design per
design team, so you should choose
one device to use for your
submission.
1. Return to the Futura Workspace
and open the MalariaMed Design
form in the inbox.
2. Double check your data entry
before selecting SUBMIT.
3. You must complete and submit
this form before the end of the
workday,
Note: If the second partner submits a design
after the first, the last submitted form is the only
one viewable in the internship coordinator’s
Futura Workspace.

27. NSEI – 1.5: ANALYZING DESIGNS
Mark the version you submitted.
Draw a star on your MalariaMed
Data sheets next to your
submitted version.
Based on the feedback you will
receive, you will be making
revisions to this submitted
design.
Drawing the star will help you remember which version you submitted so you can use the
drug types and doses in this version as a starting point for your next iterations.

28. NSEI 1.5.2 HOMEWORK
After-Hours Work:
Read a short article to learn about a real engineer.