About My Project

I have been interested in biomedical engineering since my sophomore year of high school. I decided I wanted to focus on this field in my I-Search research project sophomore year and later chose to use it as the focus of my senior project. Completing a senior project was a requirement of the Mathematics and Science Academy at Ocean Lakes High School. Two of the main sections of the project were shadowing a professional in a field of interest and creating a product based on that experience. In total, my project entailed 144 hours of work over the course of about a year. The results of my project are all documented on this Google Sites Page.

During my I-Search research, I interviewed Dr. Amy Throckmorton, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University. She later served as my mentor during my senior project shadowing experience. During my senior project, I wanted to explore how someone could use a degree in biomedical engineering since I am interested in going into this field. While shadowing, I saw how Dr. Throckmorton conducted her lab meetings, learned about ongoing projects which Dr. Throckmorton was working on, saw the various facilities which engineering students at Drexel could use, participated briefly in actual lab work, and interviewed many of Dr. Throckmorton's students. My time shadowing caused me to shift the focus of my product slightly to specifically address the lack of research in pediatric medicine. For my product, I created and delivered a presentation on this topic to the Future Health Professionals Club at Ocean Lakes High School. I hoped to encourage individuals who were interested in medical fields to consider pursuing careers in pediatrics.

My Why

Biomedical engineering is a broad field which combines principles of biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering in order to develop new medical procedures and devices. During my I-Search research sophomore year, I was fascinated by the variety of problems which experts in this field are facing. This included cancer research, cutting edge surgical devices, pediatric versions of existing devices, producing PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic, and improving cardiovascular devices. The problems which this field addresses are extensive, and the work of biomedical engineers helps people across the globe and locally by treating serious problems or simply improving their day-to-day lives. Doing a capstone project with a biomedical engineering professor not only gave me a deeper understanding of the cardiovascular applications of the field but also allowed me to discuss other areas of this field which I found interesting with Dr. Throckmorton and her students. Neurology is of particular interest to me because my grandfather passed away from dementia a few years ago. While none of the projects I worked on involved neurology, I did get to discuss it briefly and it is still a very important reason why I want to purse a degree in biomedical engineering. As I learned more and more about this field, I became increasingly interested in it. This unique opportunity helped to introduce me to this undeniably important and fascinating field and also provided me with real world experience before I choose to pursue it after high school.