a. Who are you and what activities are you engaged in at Rice?

My name is Travis Dowd, and I am a junior bioengineering major from Sid Rich College. I run for the Rice Cross Country and Track teams and also work for Team IMPACT, a nonprofit associated with Rice.

b. What is one thing that you have made that you are proud of?

As part of an instrumentation class last semester, I made a gold nanoparticle immunoassay aimed at detecting blood analytes. While this was a working prototype, it was still fun to build and it was awesome building relationships with many classmates in the process.

c. What is one thing that you want to make (this semester or in the future)?

My ultimate goal is to help contribute to cardiac surgery by making implants such as stents as well as surgical tools to aid in patient outcomes, surgeon efficiency, and making the world a healthier place.

d. What is one thing that you hope to learn in ENGI 210?

I have little experience with many of the tools in the OEDK, and I want to learn to use and troubleshoot these tools for future projects including senior design and internship initiatives.