Research Interviews

Unlike any other so far, this week in ISM was entirely focused on individual work time and a self-driven schedule. Instead of being told what to do in class or what we had to accomplish before the end of the day, we were given the freedom to work on whatever we thought was most important or that we needed to get done. For me, my priorities were updating my blog, sending out more contact emails, and working on my ISM portfolio. Even though we had submitted our first two research assessments already, I still felt like revising them both a little more before they were polished enough to add onto my blog. Along with updating my research assessments, I also added an "About ISM" page to my blog, because many people don't quite understand what exactly this program is or what we do in this class. Furthermore, I spent the majority of my time this week sending out more emails to professionals about research interviews. I actually got my first two replies and scheduled my first research interview, which will be in a week! I'm really excited, and I can't wait to learn new information about biomedical engineering from the perspective of an individual currently working in the field. In preparation for my upcoming interview, I am creating more field-specific questions to ask and printing out final copies of my resume on resume paper. Lastly, I have started putting my portfolio together with everything I have accomplished so far and the resources I have collected up to this point, like my contact list and research assessments. This upcoming week, I'm going to contact more professionals, try to schedule another interview, and prepare for Business Symposium, which is in less than 2 weeks!

Tissue Engineering

Another subset of the field of biomedical engineering is tissue engineering, which focuses on re-growing tissues and fully functional organs that can be implanted into patients. This week, I read an article discussing the challenges involved in the process of building bioengineered hearts. 

To read my analysis, click here. 

Biomechanics and Prosthetics

Since biomedical engineering is such a diverse field, it encompasses several smaller topics as well. One of the smaller topics that I'm most interested in is prosthetics, so this week I found an article that discussed a recent advancement in the design of exoskeletons for paraplegics.

To read my analysis, click here.

Reaching Out to Professionals

This week in ISM gave me my first taste of the "Independent" aspect of the program. We started the week off by conducting mock interviews with one another, like we had done before, but this time we used our resumes. As I was being interviewed by a classmate, she questioned my choices of coursework, asked why I had or hadn't joined certain extracurricular activities, and tried her best to catch me off-guard and make me even more nervous. It was difficult to answer her questions initially, but as we kept practicing with other people, I was better able to explain my decisions and help the interviewer understand my reasoning for my topic of study, biomedical engineering, and my extracurriculars and academic coursework. I stopped over-thinking and started looking for patterns in the questions instead, which helped me have a general idea of what to say and greatly reduced my use of filler words. Another major aspect of this week was that I finally started contacting the professionals I had found in DFW to conduct research interviews with them. I sent out emails to two biomedical engineering professors, and it was so scary to hit the "send" button! I kept re-reading the email drafts, searching for typos or grammar errors, but eventually I felt confident enough to send them out. I'm really anxious and excited to hear back from them and hopefully schedule my first interviews, and I'm planning on contacting a few more over the course of next week. This upcoming week, I want to complete my second Research Assessment and start putting my ISM portfolio together with all that I have accomplished so far.

Starting My Research

More than anything else, this week was spent practicing and researching. By practice, I mean holding mock interviews with fellow classmates, with one being the interviewer and the other the interviewee. Even though the setting felt awkward and not wholly realistic to how our research interviews with professionals would go, it gave me a chance to focus on my hand gestures, eye contact, and responses to some typical questions I might be asked at Business Symposium. As we went through the process and progressed to actually calling "professionals," our backs turned to one another so we couldn't see facial expressions, just like in a real phone call, I realized just how difficult it is to concisely introduce yourself, describe ISM, and try to schedule an interview all at the same time. However, I can already see the difference in my composure and level of comfort in such a setting after just one practice session, and I hope to soon feel prepared enough to start making phone calls and sending out emails to the biomedical engineers on my contact list. Another important aspect of this week was beginning my research into the field of biomedical engineering. Initially, I didn't really know where to start, but I soon found this website that had a bunch of different articles discussing technological breakthroughs in this field. This coming week, I plan on finishing my first Research Assessment over the articles I found particularly interesting and getting my resume completely ready for interviews.

The Beginning

These first two weeks in ISM were challenging and full of firsts for me. Walking into class on the first day of school, I felt a rush of mixed emotions. I was scared, nervous, slightly overwhelmed, but, most of all, I was excited and curious. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and I soon realized that many of my classmates felt the exact same way. In ISM, unlike most of my other classes, we started working from the very first day. We gave our first speech, which was an introduction speech, the second day of class, and I was absolutely terrified of stuttering or forgetting everything that I wanted to say about myself. However, I felt much more comfortable up at the podium than I had feared, mainly because my classmates were actually listening and paying attention to what I was saying. For the next few days, I learned how to shake hands properly, dress professionally, and write a strong resume that concisely described who I was and all that I had done so far. I discovered that attire plays a very big role in how others perceive me, and that even minute details like color, accessories, and style really do matter and influence first impressions. So far, every class has been enlightening, teaching me something new and helping me gain more confidence in my speaking skills. I have already accomplished so much in just two weeks; I have chosen my quote for the year, researched basic information about biomedical engineering, written my mission statement, and completed a rough draft of my resume. This next week, I want to finish setting up my blog and add more contacts to my list of biomedical engineers.