Hi everyone!

My name is Abigail Chae, but my friends and family all call me Abby. I am currently a Masters of Bioengineering candidate in the Global Medical Innovation Program here at Rice University. Here at Rice, I have been able to participate in multiple team based classes two of which have given me the privilege to work towards creating medical devices.

Being apart of these teams have taught me an immense amount of knowledge about the engineering design process and background steps that are done in order to create a device (vetting the need statement, doing supplemental research on the topic, and learning how to communicate progress to others). Having supportive and caring teammates has truly helped my first experience as an engineer be all the more successful and enjoyable!

In undergraduate, I majored in global health and minored in biology, so the engineering component of my career truly did not exist before this program. However, I took on the challenge of becoming a bioengineering masters candidate as I imagine a future career in creating medical devices that can be used in low resource settings and can be adapted to be culturally and racially sensitive. Therefore, in the future I hope to merge both my skillsets in global health as well as bioengineering to further progress the healthcare field.

Given that I have never made a medical device before this program, and have limited experience in making any sort of product or device in the engineering sense, I think something I am most proud of making is multiple dinners for my friends and I to enjoy time together while I was in undergraduate, specifically last year. I think the picture below is one of the first meals I cooked for all of us, and it was particularly a success.

(food pictured: chicken adobo, spam musubi, and rice balls with tuna)

One thing I would like to make in the future is a set of devices that integrates the new advances of artificial intelligence and a focus on culturally and racially sensitive care for women in low resource settings. I am passionate about both global health and engineering and being able to build this device would allow for both my passions to shine through.

During my time in BIOE555, I am most excited to get to work with other classmates and learn more about their experience and background and learn new skillsets through using different machines that can ultimately help me be a more successful engineer in the future.