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.
