Monday, January 22, 2018

URSP Student Ahmad Mia Develops a Focused Ultrasound Transducer

During my internship over the summer my mentors emphasized the importance of research as well as how it provides one with a different perspective and an appreciation of the process. The applications of bioengineering range far and wide, allowing for different types of research. Like most people the idea of lasers firing away seems super cool; however, the application of lasers in the field of medicine is truly fascinating. My mentor and I decided after reading a paper where researchers collaborated to develop a focused ultrasound transducer using the photoacoustic effect that we wanted to build off of that.

Looking at my long-term goals in the field of biomedical imaging, the opportunity to conduct research with this program would be invaluable experience. I have been looking towards higher education and obtaining the knowledge needed that enable any engineer to function within the real world and skills that surpass the teachings but rather forces critical thinking where the answers may not be evident. 

The day to day usually consisted of creating slides using both epoxy and graphite to create the first layer for the heat transfer, waiting a day for that to dry to then apply a layer of PDMS.  Afterwards once both layers had dried we would prepare to test the graphite-PDMS layer, we would perform scans to determine where we could find the ultrasound signal within the sample.

One of the biggest things I learned during this whole process is that research is long, tedious, but extremely rewarding.  Despite the setback that one will eventually face during the process and the inevitable feeling of despair, nothing is more rewarding than when everything comes together at the last minute.