Research Update- My First Research Project!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to write about things that are currently happening with the research I’ve been conducting over the past year.

I began working in a medical device research lab starting September 2020. I honestly wasn’t interested at all in the medical field (so I thought) when my friend mentioned she was pursuing research with a professor at our university. I loved the idea of getting involved with research, not necessarily medical devices, but more so robotics. I thought it would be a great way to make my resume more enticing to recruiters and a way of pursuing engineering, similar to how it would be in “the real world” versus a classroom setting.

I then reached out to multiple professors explaining my interest in the research they were conducting and asking if I could be of use. Neither of the two robotics professors responded back to me and I was pretty devastated for a bit, but I figured I could just join a robotics club and it would be fine (which I did, and it has been going fine like I imagined). I had a few interviews with different professors, and ultimately chose to join the same medical devices lab that my friend was in. She always had great things to say about her experiences and I really enjoyed getting to meet with the professor during the interview, so I figured I would give it a shot.

I quickly joined my first project within the lab that consisted of testing multiple supraglottic airway devices. When I first learned about the project I was very intimidated and nervous to mess something up especially it being a paid position and having no medical background. Once beginning on the project, I grew to love the experimental aspects of the given tasks, along with discovering the reasons as to why some devices were superior to others. I met more graduate students in the lab, and grew to love the colleagues I worked with. I worked on the project for about four months, and the project resurfaced so that we would write an article that would be published in a journal. As an undergrad student, the thought of having my name on published work was (and still is) very exciting to me. From this research project alone, I now have my name as an author in two separate articles in engineering journals that are currently both in review to be published.

Honestly I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for my first research project. The professor is so active when it comes to the students in his research lab: sending out internship/ networking opportunities, having weekly lab meetings, and ensuring you have the tools to allow you to get a job after graduation. This really opened my eyes to different types of engineering besides robotics, and allowed me to explore my newfound interest in the medical industry.

Supraglottic Airway (SGA) Devices

-Also, within the above website my bio, and more info about other current projects can be found.

Thanks for reading (: