3D Printing, data analysis (Excel), cytotoxicity assay, VICON systems, MATLAB, materials testing, OnShape, SolidWorks, biosafety

My eighth grade science teacher had just returned from a year off from teaching due to a horrific car accident that took his leg. Personal anecdotes, many of which involved his experience in the accident and recovery, were dispersed within each earth science lesson. From his stories, I learned about the advanced technology that allowed him to return to the daily activities of his life before the accident. Despite the loss of a limb, he remained a volleyball referee, a camping enthusiast, and an excellent teacher. However, his prosthetic leg had its limits. There were days he came to class in pain from the phantom limb or frustrated by his inability to blend in with a crowd. While I was amazed by the capability of technology in his prosthetic leg, the need for improvement was clear. This was the first time I considered biomedical engineering as a career, with the ultimate goal of developing technology to further enhance the lives of patients.

My STEM education has helped me develop critical problem solving skills to tackle issues without a clear method or solution. My education has also given me practice communicating clearly and effectively with teammates and across disciplines.

One project in my Fabrication and Experimental Design class was to manufacture a dice cube as a class. The class was split into three teams of four, with each team responsible for two cube sides, one laser cut and one machined, with a CAD model and engineering drawings showing the connection between sides.. In general, my cube side team worked well together, but we had a few disagreements. All of our team members focused on different aspects of the engineering drawing, which caused some conflict. It was difficult to work through our conflicts because only one person can work on a drawing at a time and social distancing was enforced. We struggled to articulate the changes that the person working on the document needed to make. Peer-review steps and class discussions helped settle any disagreements. We attended laser cutting and machining appointments with professionals in the Project Development Lab. It was challenging to coordinate with other groups in the class about the pips and screws because all of the teams were working on different aspects of their sides at different paces. To make the pips uniform across all six sides, we worked together with the other groups to revise the method to be applicable to all sides. Working with technicians was very important in the production process because the student knowledge of the machines was limited, so the help from the PDL technicians was greatly appreciated.

I will begin by admitting that I do not have the entirety of my life planned out. I cannot foresee the obstacles that will undoubtedly arise, nor the means by which I will overcome them. I know what my values are and where my passions lie at the moment, and I can predict the path I will take to achieve my current goals in the future, but I cannot be certain of where I will be professionally, geographically, or emotionally in the next two years, ten years, or fifty years. However, I will proceed with the summary of my academic and professional future as I see it now.

I am majoring in biomedical engineering, with a specific interest in prosthetics. I am working towards a minor in legal studies. Legal studies classes benefit me by enhancing my liberal arts education and by elevating my understanding of ethics for my career in engineering. I am the secretary of the Bucknell Society of Women Engineers, I participate in e-NABLE, and I am a member of the Grand Challenge Scholars Program. With the Bucknell Society of Women Engineers, I connect with my peers, introduce young girls to engineering, and communicate with organizations looking to hire engineers through SWE. Additionally, participating in e-NABLE, an organization that designs and builds prosthetic arms and hands for kids in the community and around the world, provides me with practical experience regarding prosthetics and patient-based problem-solving, as well as client interactions and project management. With GCSP, I can explore the most prevalent global engineering challenges today through entrepreneurship, service learning, global perspectives, multidisciplinary coursework, and research.

As a biomedical engineering student, my motivation and hard working attitude are now supplemented by technical skills acquired from various projects. I’ve worked with the VICON system in the biomechanics lab to collect marker data, process it in Excel, and design and present a final poster on the effects of pace on lower limb kinematics. I’ve performed a cytotoxicity assay to test the viability of ABS for an implantable medical device. I’ve also created a manufacturing portfolio with multiple CAD models and the extraction and modeling of a tibia and fibula from a lower-limb CT scan. Additionally, I have experience using MATLAB for basic modelling and computation. I look forward to further developing my technical skills.

As for what I hope to achieve in my life, I will say with confidence that my future career will be directly or indirectly involved in the improvement of the lives of others. While I do not have concrete plans for my future, I am positive that I will use my growing broad range of skills to integrate a team of specialists in different fields to solve medical problems. Regardless of where my time at Bucknell leads me, I am certain that in the future I will maintain my unrelenting incentive to experience more, challenge myself, and make a difference in the world.

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Bioinstrumentation, Calculus I/II/III, Developmental Psychobiology, Differential Equations, Fabrication and Experimental Design, Fundamentals of Biomechanics, Fundamentals of Biomedical Engineering, Introduction to Engineering Computing, Introduction to Molecules and Cells, Materials Science, Modern Physics I/II with Lab, Organic Chemistry I with Lab

The skills that have been most important in my education and extracurricular projects include communication, problem solving, adaptability, creativity, and self-motivation.