T E A M Malawi at Virginia Tech

03/05/2026

Congratulations to the Drone Team and MicroMek!

From Blacksburg to the United Nations 🌍

A Virginia Tech team developed drone technology to safely collect water samples in Malawi, where a waterborne parasite puts nearly half the population at risk. The project earned a spot in a UN Food and Agriculture Organization incubator — and along the way, helped nine Malawian women start their own businesses.

🔗: https://loom.ly/Oht-MCI

12/07/2025

Curing with sound: Accelerating the development and translation of focused ultrasound technologies for human and veterinary medicine. Congratulations to the team in engineering for their continued advancement of focused ultrasound technologies through major grant awards!

Eli Vlaisavljevich, associate professor, biomedical engineering and mechanics
Adam Maxwell, research associate professor, biomedical engineering and mechanics
Shima Shahab, associate professor, mechanical engineering

Great picture of monitoring the bubble cloud in water!

Nine research teams received funding for innovative collaborations that will pave the way for large-scale, transformative research funding.

11/25/2025

TEAM Malawi founders, Dr. Penny Muelenaer and Dr. Andy Muelenaer, recently spoke with the School of Medicine regarding the transdisciplinary research our group does to advance global health. Thank you for being such important team science mentors as we tackle the UN SDGS, here and abroad!

11/18/2025

Malawian friends, please VOTE for our partners at MUST! Best arts university in Malawi and one of our strategic partners. THANK YOU!

Vote

10/15/2025

Vote for the future of healthcare! Tune in tomorrow as students from VT TEAM Malawi and MicroMek present their joint effort to revolutionize Water Sampling for Public Health, Agriculture, and the Environment at the World Food Forum in Rome! Go MadziTech! Follow the link to view and vote!

SEE MADZITECH PITCH AT 4-5:45 PM CEST, 10-11:30AM EST, at the FAO.
https://lnkd.in/erJVYKn6

MADZITECH GOES WHERE NO HUMAN CAN.

10/13/2025

This week the fourth year IKSP class from MUST and TEAM Malawi celebrate a new international publication titled, “Indigenous Knowledge and Visual Communication Convergence to Improve Wellness in Malawi.” Congratulations to lead authors Victor Kamwendo and Alexander Helden Nyasulu from MUST, and Prof. Martha Sullivan and Rachel Robinette from Virginia Tech.

10/06/2025

Amazing work by MUST’s IKSP graduating class of 2026! Thank you for the partnership!

09/18/2025

Congratulations Victor!

09/15/2025

We would love to take this time to celebrate some of our partners across Malawi. Our work is possible because of the strong partnerships with these excellent people and institutions on the ground. You inspire us!

Congratulations to MUST and the Bingu School of Culture and Heritage for opening a campus radio! Intellect on Air!

Congratulations to Victor Kamwendo for completing the first phase of revitalizing CBCCs in the rural west region of Lilongwe. We visited this site during our last student trip!

Congratulations to our colleague from Thyolo District Hospital, Ephraim Ziwoya, on continuing your graduate education at Oxford to work on water management systems!

Congratulations to the students of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices at MUST for your continued dedication to serving the public by utilizing your art skills to generate new public healthcare messages! Thank you!

Congratulations to the team at MicroMek for advancing 3D printing from recycled bottles, representing tech businesses across Africa, and continuing to push the production of radio transmitters and receivers in low resource areas!

09/05/2025

Thank you to Ida Puliwa Mwango, director of the Othakarhaka Foundation in Mulanje, Malawi, for speaking with our student group tonight at Virginia Tech. Thank you for sharing your Malawi success story and inspiring so many people by “passing on the kindness.”

06/20/2025

21 Young Women Graduate a Life-Changing Drone Tech Training in Malawi because of MicroMek! Check out the blog post with more on this great story of success!

The MicroMek Drones4STEM program received an overw...

06/05/2025

Day 10 & 11: Radio silence while we embarked on a visit to Liwonde National Park with time to enjoy the amazing protected landscapes that are unique to Malawi. We had a great safari ride in a Land Cruiser and by boat. Might save our time up close with the animals for another post! On Sunday, most folks went to Mangochi to visit Lake Malawi. As Ruth’s grandfather said, you haven’t been to Malawi if you haven’t been to the lake. The warm heart of Africa is the land of the lake.

Day 12: We returned to Blantyre by way of Zomba for happy shopping. Our last official stop on the trip was the city campus of MUST to meet with Vice Chancellor Malata and colleagues across the MUST administration and the Bingu School of Culture and Heritage. Thank you for your partnership across arts, technology, education, advocacy, and medicine in Malawi.

With a night and a home cooked meal with Ruth’s grandmother, we packed for the last time and made the long journey back to the United States.