Hello everyone!!! My name is Symone Flowers. I am a second-year master’s student in the BIOE program, and plan to graduate this spring. I am super excited to take this course, its giving arts and crafts for engineers and I am so here for it! I am a super artsy person so I feel so far this class is up my alley for sure. If you are a peer or TA reading this now, I apologize in advance if my loud, contagious laugh causes any disturbances during the class period. I was born to laugh but forced to become educated and have a big girl job. 

I lie! I love what I do! I am super grateful to be able to pursue a secondary degree in a field I am extremely passionate about. I love talking healthcare and how we can improve patient lives so please yap with me about that. 

This past year I wrapped up my research in the Richards-Kortum lab where I helped design Scancap. Scancap is a low-cost, reusable tethered capsule endoscope with blue-green illumination imaging for unsedated screening and early detection of Barrett’s esophagus. I enjoyed contributing to the capsule housing, optical illumination, and image stitching program for clinical interpretation. 

Last year, I participated in Rice Club volleyball team, LATINX GSA, and Beer Bike! By the way, I highly recommend you try out for Beer Bike. It is one of the best activities that happens at Rice each year. I am hoping that this year, I can be an Ironwoman (drink and bike) and also be the beer captain to help lead the Grad team to victory!

As mentioned in class, I am incredibly proud of the painting I made for my mom as a thank-you gift (see photo). My mom and I are very close, and she helped me get through a tough time, so this painting is not only a gift but a promise to always put my best foot forward for myself. (side note: painting is 3′ x 4′)

After learning more details about the class, I was actually thinking some of the tools could be useful for some art I want to make. I have been making a ton of paintings that need frames to go with it. I think this class could be a great way for me to learn how to frame paintings. I am hoping that maybe I can even create an etched design in the frame that is unique and totally my style….we shall see though you know we stay busy around here at Rice.

In this class, I am hoping to learn new skills in prototyping and manufacturing that I can use in my future R&D/product development roles. I would also like to grow my general confidence in a machining environment. I have previous experience but the last time I was getting formal education/training covid hit. I know with the guidance of the teaching team I can grow in my confidence and skills.

Thanks for reading and catch ya at the next blog post.

Yours truly,

Symone(y)