Before I came to Penn State, I was pretty set on pursuing a degree in accounting. I applied to the Smeal College of Business and was fortunately accepted. I came in the first semester of my freshman year taking economics and some other business classes. However, I found that I was not interested in the material and that I disliked all of it. For a while, I felt pretty lost and was unsure of what I wanted to do. I kept looking around for majors and what I could possibly be interested in. During my first semester, I was taking a biology and a calculus class and I found that I really enjoyed them. Upon completion of these classes I knew that I wanted something in the healthcare field but I also wanted to use math. In the past, I have also been very hands on and loved to build and create things.
A semester of searching passed and I finally came to the College of Engineering, more specifically bioengineering. After doing extensive research, I determined that it had just enough of everything I wanted in a major: design, biology and math components. As a sophomore, junior and senior, I had the opportunity to take required classes and electives like Biomedical Instrument Design, Biofluid Mechanics, Bio-Continuum Mechanics and Surface and Biological Response to Materials. All of which were challenging yet very interesting. One cool class we get to take is called Introduction to Bioengineering Research and Design. This class works closely with Mashavu (a telemedicine system, Google it to find out more information) and teams in the class focus on developing a cheap, digital medical device for primary healthcare in third world countries. Kiosks with medical devices are set up in areas with minimal doctors and this allows patients to have their vitals taken. They would be recorded and either emailed or texted to nurses or doctors (sometimes halfway around the world) for them to determine if they need proper medical assistance. My team was assigned the task to design a stethoscope that could digitally record heart and lung sounds. We designed the hardware to be rugged and reliable and also created software to filter out background noise and save the sound files. Other teams focused on making scales, spirometers, and blood pressure devices among others. The best part about this project was that our devices were actually taken to Kenya to record vitals. It felt great to help out those in need!
After being in the program for over two years now and as I am close to finishing up my degree, I realized that bioengineering has not only satisfied my immediate needs as a freshman but has also exceeded my career goals. In the Penn State bioengineering program, typically a third of the graduating students go into industry, a third go to graduate school and a third go to medical school. Within industry, I know a lot of people that work with designing knee implants and medical devices; that work to improve manufacturing processes; and even with the business side of things. There are countless employment opportunities within the biomedical industry. If you find that you are more interested in research, then graduate school and possibly medical school may be the route for you. Friends of mine in the bioengineering department take part in research that focuses in artificial heart design, nanotechnology, imaging and tissue engineering. So basically, bioengineers can do anything.
I think the best part of this major is its small size. We have only about 40-50 students in my year and I personally know most of them. I met some of my best friends from bioengineering as a result of the countless hours we spend together in class, studying and just hanging out. The small major size also gives you the opportunity to get a lot of one on one help with the professors to help learn material and to build networks.
Despite all my confusion and uncertainty freshman year, I will be happily graduating with a bioengineering degree. I have really enjoyed my time at Penn State with courses, professors and students and I wish that I didn’t have to leave. Unfortunately, I only have another two semesters to go until graduation so I am in the job hunting process but I am very optimistic about the future.
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