I’m Juliana, and I’m a senior BIOE from Duncan. I’m also the Director of Design for Catalyst and am on the BMES board as historian/designer/anything else artistic they need me for!

For BIOE/GLHT 360 last semester, I made an auto-sterilization machine to solve the problem of nurses in low-resource settings accidentally leaving tools in buckets of bleach for too long which causes rusting and degradation. It’s a two-bucket system with a mechanical timing system: the nurse can set the sterilization time on the kitchen timer, and when the set time is reached, a post on the timer will push a hook out of the eye and release the outer bucket lid. The inner bucket, equipped on the bottom with kickboards acting as floats, will rise out of the bucket at set time. I was proud of this project because it took hours of creative brainstorming and trial & error!

Because I haven’t tried plasma cutting or using the CNC router yet, I’m looking forward to the projects that require those tools. I also find woodwork fascinating, and would like to build my own furniture in the future (Modern Builds is one of my favorite Youtube channels to put on in the background while studying!)

Besides learning the plasma cutter and the CNC router, I hope to become more comfortable with using the 3D printers and laser cutter. I also hope that I can learn how not to be afraid of failure.