Becoming a Grand Challenges Scholar: Final Reflections

I greatly benefitted from the overall GCSP experience because it stretched me to pursue a greater range of experiences that have ultimately made me a well-rounded engineer with a practical and global orientation. From the start, GCSP immersed me in interdisciplinary courses that challenged me to view technological advancements through the lens of social, economic, and ethical impact. For example, in FSE 150, the Future Solutions Project on gene editing for curing colorblindness and my GCSP Theme Paper on regenerative medicine solutions to degenerative diseases revealed to me the rapid progress of CRISPR and stem-cell-based tools, yet also the range of moral and socioeconomic implications of having access to such technologies. Similarly, in SOC 334, I probed into how digital technology is reshaping workforce dynamics and family structures, reinforcing my understanding that technology is never neutral — it always has broader societal implications.

Along the vein of desiring to engineer within the broader societal context — partnering with real people to solve real problems rather than creating theoretical or "toy" inventions — I found the GCSP program naturally guiding me to fulfill my Social Consciousness competency through the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program. While on the Vietnam Shrimp Farming team, I truly witnessed the importance of conversations in human-centered engineering: for example, I learned to communicate the value of a complex device that integrates many elements of water quality data by focusing on illustrations of impact that any shrimp farmer or investor could understand — such as a sudden pond die-off. This lesson on the centrality of communication was most strongly reinforced through my multicultural experience in Vietnam, where my interviews with local shrimp farmers, fieldwork, and experiences even shopping and walking around a country I had never been in before gave me insight into not only economic and technological constraints, but different cultural mindsets. 

The ability to create measurable, pitchable value is what I see defines the GCSP competency of Entrepreneurial Mindset, a principle I saw reinforced in FSE 301 and specifically in my work with Out There Social Club, where we developed accessible social events for students. Engineering leadership extends beyond technical expertise—it’s about fostering meaningful human connections—and by structuring this as a sustainable business model, we unlocked a level of scalability and impact that would have been otherwise unimaginable.

Above all, determining a GCSP theme and articulating my mission for personalized medicine was a key factor in motivating me to seek out my first research experience in biomedical engineering with Dr. Christopher Plaisier, which begun a chain of research opportunities in that advanced my career goals of developing tools for increasing precision and predictability of patient treatment outcomes:

• Working on developing a breast tissue phantom model for early cancer detection in the Ladani Lab sparked my realization that engineering goes beyond functionality — it demands precision, accessibility, and robustness in real-world conditions — leading me to pursue work with more direct clinical ties while keeping the curiosity of exploring novel and non-invasive approaches at the forefront. 

• This goal was perfectly encapsulated by my work in the Medical Microrobotics Lab at Mayo Clinic, where I expanded my research focus to magnetic microrobotics for targeted therapies, contributing to both experimental and theoretical advancements in gut microbiome sampling and immune cell delivery. This experience solidified my understanding of how medical technologies must balance technical feasibility with manufacturability, measurable patient benefit, and regulatory considerations. 

• Yet simultaneously, this work convinced me that advancing patient outcomes requires more investment in the basic science of reconstructing higher-resolution models using data from existing instruments, both optically and physiochemically. Thus in the Pressé Lab, I have synthesized my previous experiences into experimental design and computational modeling of biological dynamics, developing Bayesian inference and machine learning methods to analyze gut microbiome population kinetics. This experience has shown me that even the most advanced biomedical devices are only as valuable as the data they produce and the models that interpret them.

I look forward to being part of the continuing community of Grand Challenges Scholars, taking into all my future pursuits carrying its core mission into all my future pursuits — engineering solutions to pressing challenges that humans face on an individual, community, and global scale. May this generation of engineers, and specifically those who have been equipped by the GCSP program, apply interdisciplinary knowledge, multicultural awareness and collaboration, and a service-oriented heart to advance research that addresses meaningful questions and generates innovative solutions with clear value to end users.