Its hard to believe, but its the first day of September, the last day of the second week of school, and the 8th school day of my senior year! I'm still adjusting to telling people (mostly myself) that. Its a very exciting and very scary concept. Not knowing what comes next always seems to feel that way. Next for me will hopefully be graduate school, although I haven't decided where to apply just yet.
Over the summer, I worked in an orthotics and prosthetics lab. It was an excellent experience! I learned a lot of new techniques and became familiar with a lot of new devices. The best (and probably most important) thing I learned was how much I love working with patients. It was amazing to know that the efforts of the team I work with make a difference to people everyday. So, overall, summer was very good.
As for this glorious final year at IIT? Well, in theory, I've worked really hard the last three years to do well and get ahead, so now its time for a mental vacation. Right? Wrong. This semester, I will be taking fewer courses, but the courses seem like they're going to be pretty intensive. For the record, I am in five undergraduate/graduate Biomedical Engineering courses, so intensive shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm getting to take some really cool stuff, like cellular biomechanics. I'm also enrolled in a senior design course. This course will last the entire year, and by the end of it my team will have developed a prototype for a biomedical device. I'm excited about it. My team is still in the process of determining which problem we'd like to address and developing viable ways to do so. Next will come research, client interviews, research, on site observation, research and more research. We probably won't even start testing a device until the very end of this semester or the beginning of the next. But that's ok. My main goal is to produce a product of value by the end of the year and I think my team and I are capable of accomplishing that.
