Good times in Hill

Only a few days until Thanksgiving break and and it couldn't come fast enough. The last three weeks have been filled with midterms, problem sets, and late nights studying and doing work. It will be a nice change of pace to have a few days off to enjoy being home and spending time with family. I'm also very excited for Thanksgiving itself. I love watching football and the Macy's Day Parade as well as enjoying the great food. My friend from Trinidad will also be coming home with me and celebrating his first American Thanksgiving.

On another note, today in the dining hall I saw who other than Dr. Bogen. There was a bit of a situation at my table, and I am a bit embarrassed that Dr. Bogen (sorry about this, by the way) witnessed the event. We were all ragging on my friend for turning in his bioengineering paper over 12 hours late and still receiving a higher grade than all of us on it. I was under the impression that in college, late work was not accepted and instead given a zero. I was very surprised to learn that I was wrong and in fact, only 5 percent was deducted from my classmate's paper despite the fact that he was took 12 additional hours to complete the same task. This came as a huge shock and frankly I was pissed. In high school, we lost at least a letter grade for each day the paper was late, and in college, none of my professors accept late work. However, in this particular situation, my classmate only received five percent off of his total grade. This also shocked me because he did not even start his project, neither the paper nor the machine diagram, until just that morning. So I ask myself, how is it that someone who chose to not follow the grading deadlineS (yes, I purposely capitalized the s, given that there was a deadline for citations, a machine diagram, and a paper) received a higher grade starting the morning it was due AND turning it in 12 hours late? But, going back to the original story, we were all a little angry at this particular individual who, as he put it, was able to "manipulate the system" to his advantage to get a good grade. In any event, we pulled a little prank on him, which may or may not have involved projectile pepperoni pizza in his vicinity. When he discovered we had taken a video of it with my friend's camera, he pinned me against the wall, yelled at me, and slapped me two times across the face. I was extremely surprised, so surprised in fact that I had no response. Needless to say, there was a bit of a scene in the dinning hall, and I apologize, Dr. Bogen, that you had to be of witness to that.

TOPIC CHANGE

After trying my best to find some articles and other various sources on delayed activation drugs, I decided to change my topic. I couldn't really find anything online at my level of understanding, and I also remembered something that was said about bacteriophages in class during the first couple weeks of BE recitation. I remember the topic piqued my interest, and after getting a few articles online, I am confident that bacteriophage, more specifically the replication process of phages and applications to medicine via phage therapy, will be a great topic for my BE research paper. Phage replication is fairly complex and involves many components within an organism, and because of this, it will be helpful to utilize a machine diagram to explain and map out the process.

Research paper?

I'm not going to lie... I had no idea what I want to write my research paper on. There are so many possible topics, and I feel like everyone in my recitation has such a clear idea. Everyone had some sort of disease, device, etc., most of which I had never heard of before. I showed up without much of a clue. I wanted to see what would be a good idea, and my TA Vineet suggested maybe delayed activation drugs. This seems like a great idea, and I am excited to do some research and see what I can find.

The quad can also be considered on smaller scales. If you look at the quad from the inner grassy area, it looks more like a dorm and less like an enormous structure. Looking at any of the inner walls, it is obvious that the quad has many floors with rooms, hallways, bathrooms, stairwells, etc. The signs above each door indicate that the quad is split into smaller college houses (Ware, Riepe, and Fisher) and each of these smaller college houses is further divided into small subsections, each roughly a hallway long and about four or five stories tall. Looking at the quad with a smaller scale makes it seem less massive and more welcoming, more like home. Finally, you can observe the quad through its smallest scale, the fundamental building block of the "38 interlocking buildings surrounding [the] five interior courtyards"that is the freshman quad: each individual room. (http://www.upenn.edu/admissions/tour/tourstop.php?stop=20) Each room is anywhere from about 80 to 200 square feet, depending on the room type (single, double, triple). While viewing the quad from this particular scale, freshman think not of a colossal structure but instead think of their home, or their first home away from home.

The Scales

The freshman Quad, probably one of the largest structures on the UPenn campus, can be viewed on many different scales. If looking at an overhead map, the quad is certainly a dominant entity of the campus. If considering Penn in its entirety, the Quad is fairly central and very close to the hub of campus.

The search for the perfect "thing"

When the project was first assigned to analyze a structure, I was a bit overwhelmed. The Penn campus is huge and filled with many distinct edifices and other objects to choose from. In the lecture, Dr. Bogen talked a lot about some of the important biological systems that compose our bodies and compared some everyday structures and objects to the intricate networks that apply to bioengineering as well. As I thought more about the project, I realized that the freshman Quad was a perfect choice. Not only can it be viewed from many different scales, whether it be the entirety of the quad, which is very large, or something as basic as a single room, which is very small, but also carries out a vital function. This reminded me of an organ that is extremely vital to human life and existence: the brain. The brain is the control center of the body. It sends out signals to the rest of the body, stores information, and while relatively small in comparison to the rest of the body, it is arguably the most necessary organ for successful human life. Likewise, the quad stores immense quantities of information. With all the combined knowledge of the freshman class, (as well as the wisdom of the RAs and GAs) the quad has great potential to carry out many functions, whether they be intellectual, social, athletic, or artistic. The primary concern of the brain is to allow an organism to live productively and survive so that it may pass its genes on to the next generation. The quad carries such functions as well in that it allows students to rest, store food and belongings, and practice methods that may very well pass their genes on to the next generation. The brain contains billions of neurons that allow it to carry out many functions and send messages to the rest of the body. The quad houses over a thousand freshman, each with a common goal of doing their best and being successful to gain acclaim and achievement for themselves and for the freshman class as a whole. Similar to neurons, the students of the quad send messages to the rest of campus, conveying that freshman are not as naive and useless as many upperclassmen believe. While the brain is the control center for the body, the quad is the control center for the freshman class, allowing the youngest members of the Penn community to learn, grow, and survive succesfully.

A few more...

4. Design of medications:

By designing medication that works more effectively, whether it rids the patient of sickness at a faster rate or prevents future cases of illness, engineers can help reduce the cost of medication or of future prescriptions for patients.

5. Design of medical devices:

By designing effective medical devices, engineers can help assist patients and even let them help themselves. In our design project, we had to design a patient controlled oral analgesia device so that patients could be able to self-administer pain medication at home without having to visit the hospital or the doctor. Such devices could greatly reduce costs associated with hospital and/or doctor visits, and as a result, healthcare costs would be greatly reduced .

6. Cure of diseases:

Engineers are well known for their ability to solve difficult problems that face our society. Some presently "incurable" diseases plague our population, and the fact that many of these illnesses are lethal increases risk factors for insurance companies. As a result, they must charge greater prices for insurance and healthcare coverage. If engineers could help to cure some diseases that "jack up" healthcare costs, they could make healthcare and insurance coverage less expensive for everyone.

A few ways...

Whenever anyone brings up engineering, they always talk about the engineer's ability to solve problems using a different way of thinking. Although I personally have learned no problem solving techniques and still do not understand this "engineering way of thought" that everyone keeps talking about, I recognize that engineering has great potential for things in the health and medical fields and can play an important role in improving healthcare.

1. Assistive Technology/Devices:

By improving or creating technology that can help the disabled or otherwise impaired, engineers can help reduce healthcare costs for millions of disabled people around the world. Think about the wheelchair or the elevator. These inventions have helped the mobility of disabled people for decades and I'm sure have greatly reduced healthcare costs involved with personal injury that occurred more frequently without them.

(http://www.ablenetinc.com/) <--shows some assistive technologies

2. Pharmaceuticals:

Engineers, especially bioengineers and chemical engineers, can help reduce the cost of medicine, allowing people with low budgets to better afford their treatment. New medicines are constantly made for better and safer treatment, and this can help reduce costs and make treatment methods much safer for patients.

3. Design of Facilities:

Usually when people think of engineering, they think of building bridges and buildings. By designing new medical and health facilities, however, bioengineers may be able to help with patient treatment and healthcare even more than with designing of products/medicine. Think about it--If hospitals or other facilities were better designed for faster and more efficient treatment, patients could have more one-on-one contact with physicians and physicians could even see more patients on a day-to-day basis. No more waiting months for an appointment and letting your condition get out of control. I've heard that there are a lot of problems in places like Canada that have universal healthcare with getting appointments and seeing doctors--a close family friend had a family member who, because of lack of available appointments with his cancer specialist, died months, even a few years, too early because he could not get in to see his doctor. It is important that this does not happen to us in the U.S., and if we could somehow develop better facilities to better utilize our doctors' time, we may be able to prevent some of the problems associated with universal healthcare.

I absolutely believe technology can help to reduce health care costs. The realm of technology is so vast that researchers, scientists, and engineers are bound to produce products that will not only reduce the cost of medical care in general but also the cost of procedures that will become increasingly less advanced as our technological abilities increase. Think about history for a second--in the early 1900s, a small stab wound could very well result in death. Just within a century, our technology has advanced in such a way that gashes, deep scrapes, and other "cuts" to our bodies can easily be prepared by stitching, a procedure that would have been much more time consuming and dangerous years ago. In such a short time, our methods of medical care have become increasingly safer and much less critical. This leads me to believe that in another hundred years, there is no telling what new technology can do. As new methods arise, procedural costs decrease greatly and as a result, health care will become more affordable and more accessible to people and families of more difficult socioeconomic situations.

Becoming an Engineer

In the past few weeks, my life has changed in so many ways it is almost overwhelming. I am now on my own and I solely am responsible for feeding myself, acquiring enough sleep, completing my homework on time, and even fitting in. The years of parental guidance are over, and I am alone to fend on my own. I've finally left the nest and entered the world of college. It has been only a few weeks and still I feel like a whole new person with a world of things expected of me. For example, as an engineer, I am supposed to site my sources? At my old school, when I wrote a paper for english, I would merely make quotation marks and write down a page number. MLA? APA? These terms baffle me. Not only do I not know what these mean, but I really don't care. Finding out what sources are legitimate? So you mean I have to do research on my research to make sure the website is sufficient? I can't just type a keyword into google and click on the first site that comes up? This is a whole new concept for me, and I'm not going to lie, it is going to be a huge adjustment. Hopefully, I'll be up for the challenge.

Swine Flu?

Obviously the new vaccinations that are supposed to be released in October should help us control this swine flu breakout. Besides this, however, I cannot imagine many other technologies that could help manage the swine flu pandemic. Maybe if we figure out an improved way of quarantining those who have the swine flu, we can help prevent its further spread. The problem is that in today's society, life is so busy that the whole process of actually quarantining someone with the swine flu would not only be difficult but also some would argue that it would be obtrusive to one's rights as a citizen. Plus, it is also a matter of spreading awareness about the sickness so that people may catch it in its early stages as not to infect others and continue the spread. It would be extremely difficult to manage the breakout of not only swine flu but other pandemics at Penn for a few reasons. First of all, we are a close-knit community in which people are constantly in contact with others. People constantly share food, drinks, and saliva (in a couple different ways), and as a result, we are very vulnerable to such an outbreak as a community. Also, if one is in fact diagnosed with swine flu or a similar virus, they are merely quarantined to their room. Putting it in other terms, the school is trusting that these students will in fact remain in their rooms at all times as to not further the spread. Realistically, the average Penn student is much too concerned about their grades and social lives to skip all classes, club meetings and commitments, athletic events, and social events. We are all overachievers--that's why we are here in the first place. Assuming that a Penn student will choose not to quarantine themselves, the spread of a pandemic becomes ever more likely. However, if Health Services could somehow confine such diagnosed students to a special area and allow them special services to be taught and make up their missed class work, it would significantly decrease the spread of such a virus and increase a student's willingness to miss class and other commitments to prevent the spread of disease. Besides this, there is not much Penn can do, in my mind, as a community to stop the spread of H1N1 besides acquiring enough vaccines to supply to the entire student body and faculty, which seems both unlikely and unrealistic.

Tissue Engineering

One bioengineering-related field that I have much interest in is tissue engineering. I find it fascinating that we are able to construct artificial organs in some cases for patients who need organ transplants. A possibility that would have seemed completely unfeasible only a decade or two ago is presently a rising field, and I would love to be involved in the engineering and design of an artificial organ that an actually be implanted into a body and used to carry out the complex functions necessary for life. Bladders have already been engineered in labs and successfully implanted into bodies, and it would be great to work on perfecting this process and possibly help the field to grow to other vital organs as well.

Bacterial Therapeutics

http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2011&chid=0

This article describes the new technology that is currently being used in which bacteria is inserted into the vagina of women that provides defense against many common diseases, most notably HIV. I am amazed that we have the technology to effectively engineer bacteria to fight off infection. Such new breakthroughs make me confident that in the near future we will be able to further develop other types of bacterial therapeutics which can be inserted somehow into the body to fight away disease, infection, and help keep us healthy. It is very exciting for me as a student to be a part of such a thriving field in which I have seemingly endless possibilities for developing tools to help change the way we fight disease.

What to learn

As a bioengineer, I would love to master the skill of communication. In general, I am fairly good at explaining concepts and ideas, but in order to be truly successful in the field of engineering, communication will be of vital importance. I heard it over and over again throughout NSO and I have decided that the most important skill I can develop at this point in my life is that of precise and effective communication. All engineers are skilled in science and math, but what makes them useful to others (businesses, the world, etc.) is their ability to relay what they know and explain it in such a concise and clear fashion that those with no prior knowledge of the subject matter at hand can follow and understand instruction. By acquiring this skill throughout my time at Penn, I will become an invaluable resource for those who need the insight and expertise that I hope I may be qualified to provide once I complete the bioengineering program here at Penn Engineering.

I'm in college?

As a member of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UPenn, there are many things I hope to learn in the upcoming four years. First of all, I would like to learn how to think and approach problems like an engineer. I have always been interested in mathematic and scientific principles; however, I would like to make the most of my opportunity here at Penn to really learn how to apply such knowledge to solve real-world problems and truly make a difference. I have always wanted to be a doctor and to be able to use advanced knowledge of science to help others. However, recently I have realized that doctors can only do so much. Yes, a doctor can give immediate care and cure much illness that currently is affecting our population, but changing medical procedures and developing new devices that can solve prevalent health issues will not only benefit the current generations residing on earth but also the future generations to come. I believe that changing medicine for the better is how I can really make an impact on this earth, and by studying bioengineering and practicing biomedical engineering, I truly believe that I can help the human race much past my lifetime. For this, I wish to learn to think abstractly and creatively to solve problems and address issues that have affected and will affect our population for years to come.

Going back in time...

If I could go back in time and play a significant role in making any biomedical device, I would choose to work on the pacemaker which was created in the 1950s. I have had a special interest in pacemakers ever since my father worked as a quality consultant for Intermedics, a company that produced pacemakers. Pacemakers are implanted in the heart to help to regulate heartbeats, and with modern technology, cardiologists are even able to program such devices externally. The first pacemakers made in the 1950s were external and were bulky, extremely expensive, and even painful for patients. However, in just a few decades, bioengineers and physicians have nearly perfected the device so it can painlessly and effectively regulate the beat of the body's most important internal organ. This medical breakthrough was extremely useful and even after over half a century is still saving and prolonging lives. As I look up to my father with his contribution to pacemakers throughout his time with Intermedics, I would love to have contributed in some way to what is in my opinion one of the great contributions of biomedical engineering to health and medicine.

Most generally, I think that bioengineers use technological advancements to not only improve medical care but also to produce health-related products that are used to prolong and sustain life. At this point in my bioengineering career, I am not very familiar with the different areas of concentration within the field of bioengineering; however, from what I can tell, bioengineers integrate advanced mathematics and applications to the physical sciences to solve biological problems occurring in many facets of life. Not only does the work of bioengineers apply to helping to preserve and better human life but also bioengineering has many applications to plants and other organisms as well.

I decided to pursue bioengineering only recently. For my entire life, I knew I wanted to be a doctor, or at least my mother had successfully brainwashed me to think so. It happened to be a helpful coincidence that science and mathematics not only piqued my interest but also were my strengths throughout my education. After taking chemistry my sophomore year, I decided that chem was my favorite subject. I had my life all planned out: I was going to take AP Chemistry and Anatomy my senior year, major in chemistry in college, and go to medical school. In the weeks before my senior year started, there was a slight glitch in the system and as a complete fluke, I was able to view my teacher assignments for the upcoming year. When I discovered that my Anatomy and Physiology teacher was the mean and rather intimidating man who had an intense english accent that was very difficult to comprehend, I promptly decided to switch to AP Physics. I loved physics my freshman year, and decided I'd give it another shot.

After the first weeks of school, taking calculus, chemistry, and physics, I decided that I wanted to major in something that was more technical than just chemistry. Knowing that I still wanted to eventually pursue a career in the medical field, I decided that bioengineering was the perfect fit for me. Not only did bioengineering require studies in advanced mathematics but it also tied together the natural and biological sciences, both of which I have a passion for. When I came across the opportunity to study bioengineering, I decided that it was my new calling and quickly changed all my college applications so that bioengineering would my desired major.