Bringing Grainger Engineering intuition everywhere

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Bringing Grainger Engineering intuition everywhere

Taylor Chen

February 22, 2021

BioE

I've had various research experiences over the past few years, ranging from traumatic brain injury research with a Bioengineering professor, AI and microscopy research with an ECE professor, and neurodegenerative disease research at Mayo Clinic. But today, I want to tell a story not about doing research in Grainger Engineering, but about how being a Grainger Engineer can aid in doing research everywhere. I am currently working in Dr. James Slauch's microbiology lab, which primarily focuses on studying the molecular mechanisms of Salmonella pathogenesis. I am working on several projects in the lab, and the things I've learned as a Grainger Engineer has helped me immensely in these projects. The three projects I have been working on are: studying how Salmonella respond to polyamine stress (i.e., molecularly, what does Salmonella do when they are in an environment of high polyamine concentration to stay alive), engineering platforms for stable production of superoxide in vitro for controlled studies of ROS effect on Salmonella and their neutralization mechanism (i.e., design a better model to study how Salmonella protects itself from ROS), and developing plasma-based techniques or spacecraft contamination control (i.e., developing new ways of sterilizing spacecraft materials). In these projects, I employ basic cell engineering techniques such as making changes in Salmonella's genetic information to observing phenotypical changes in the hope of piecing out how different genetic components and their protein derivatives interact with each other. Classes in the bioengineering curriculum on statistical tools and computational tools for biomedical data analysis are also crucial when it comes to analyzing results.

Fundamental understandings of fluid flow, heat flow, instrumentation design, and signal-system relationships have all been important parts of my projects — and arguably most research projects — that I would not have otherwise grasped if I weren't a Grainger Engineer. It's important to note that all my projects build on the support of expertise from collaborators in different fields of science and great amounts of work people before me have invested in. Unfortunately, it is impossible to acquire all the necessary knowledge and skills to complete a research project as a bioengineering student independently. However, we are people that embrace the interdisciplinary nature of science. We are passionate about the transformative power of collaboration between different science disciplines, by which we obtain a breadth of knowledge that enables us to stand across disciplines and bridge the communication gap. As a bioengineering major, I was trained to understand not just what a technique is used for, but why it works and how it can be applied to different scenarios. Our thorough understanding of both the biological aspect and engineering design is beneficial in learning new materials and generating good questions that push the projects forward. We are also trained to view things from a system perspective, which allows us to approach problems from a different angle and perform modeling or simulation with computational techniques. I sometimes hear this wrong misconception about how being an engineer is superior because we are designing new innovations that will directly impact the world. Superiority is not what it feels like at Grainger Engineering.

Grainger Engineering, and U of I in general, is a collaborative environment where people are willing to share experience and work together to tackle challenging issues. Some have a deep love for specific disciplines, so they achieve great heights in those fields; others have a broader passion, so they incorporate them and thrive on this unique path they've paved out. What I've learned as a Grainger Engineer is to apply things we've learned in class to solving real-world problems (and that is not limited to just bioengineering), to possess humbleness in the face of scientific discovery/ innovation, to explore and combine passions with courage, and to embrace working/leading as a cooperative team member. And my research experience has been the best testament to such Grainger Engineering experience.

Taylor Chen
Taylor Chen


Professional Development Experience
This is a story for the pre-health students out there looking for life-changing volunteering/clinical exposure opportunities. I am part of Global Medical Training at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (GMT-UIUC), an RSO that focuses on providing healthcare training/outreach and culturally immersive experiences globally. We learn about basic medical and dental knowledge and practice taking vitals throughout the semester and go on medical-dental service trips over breaks to medically deprived communities in Latin American countries alongside fully trained MDs. On the trips, we organize into clinics to meet patients from local communities and work in teams to help diagnose the patient. We take their vitals, evaluate their complaints, perform some simple physical examinations, learn about patient history, and propose a diagnosis and treatment plan. We then consult trained physicians to make sure we do not make mistakes and that our treatment plans make sense. Before moving on to the next patient, we would always remind them of the proper ways of taking the medicines, advise them on preventing diseases, and provide them with some basic health education. In addition to participating in these clinics, we would also visit local sites on the last day to have some fun and experience the culture. Overall, it’s an experience that teaches students basic clinical skills and medical/dental knowledge while providing us with the first-hand experience of cultural, social, historical, and political lives in these regions. Last winter, I joined the Dominican Republic trip, and it has been a transformative experience for me. Instead of going over what I did, I’ve decided to share a short writing I did to commemorate this experience. ……As I got on the plane anxiously, I kept telling myself this is just a volunteering activity: like all the ones I've done before, but in a different place and a different setting. Yet, I could still feel my heart beat… every single pound in my chest. As clinic days began, I became more confident with every patient's pulse I took and more independent with every albendazole I helped prescribed. Occasionally, I would pause to look around, caught in the surreal acknowledgment that, for the first time in my life, I am finally doing something to deserve the beauty of this world. But I would never describe this trip as a mission to save lives because deep down, we all know that we were merely easing their burden. There are many larger societal and health issues we are incapable of solving, but the smiles on local villagers’ faces were all the motivations we needed. It is truly a privilege to be the one offering help.

There are many people to thank, my family, GMT staffs, all the doctors who guided us patiently at the clinics, and of course, my fellow trippers who made this trip special. Each day we worked and learned, but also partied and enjoyed our time there. In eight days, we've created so many memories that are shared only between us. I am not sure when time will erode them away, but I’m sure the friendship that flows from the heart will weave the next stories of ours.
As I got on the plane anxiously, again, I kept telling myself this was just a volunteering activity: like all the ones I've done before, but now with new friends I cherish and great memories living in my heart. This time, the heart beats for this unforgettable journey, and the many more that awaits me. Someone special once said to me, "Be more than a man whose name lives in the world. Be a man who lives in his name." I still haven't fully understood the true meaning of it, but hopefully, I am on the right track.