helloooooooo I’m Nico(le)
tl;dr – BIOE PhD, mechE at heart or wannabe (you decide..), excited to get back in the shop and work on medical devices for the first time! scroll for cool pictures : )
I’m a 1st year BIOE PhD here at Rice. I always thought I’d be a mechE (and in undergrad many folks thought this was my major) but I ended up getting a BS in Biological Engineering!🕺
re: being perceived as a mechE, here are some quotes from my friends to explain:
“Of course you have a glass cutter in your room, why am I surprised.”
“If I trust anyone to fix this, it’s Nicole.”
“Yeah, tactical is a very good adjective to describe you.”
At Rice, I’m on the BIOE GSA board (recruitment chair #3 😎) and part of BGSA. I was heavily involved in my undergrad’s Black Student Union, so I hope to do the same here and run for an exec position!
LETSGO
Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good makerspace, but I have been itching to get back into a proper wood or metal shop. Last I remember actually working in one was high school… it’s embarrassing how long it’s been. But no longer! (related image >) I’m super excited to be taking BIOE555, especially because my making experience has not crossed into the medical field. I want to learn the considerations for designing and building medical devices, and how that differs from the manufacturing processes I’m familiar with.
Something I’m proud of making is the final project from a mechE elective I took back in undergrad. Our client wanted something that could be put in parks to help mitigate the urban heat island effect. Something that was small but engaging, required little or no power, and (most importantly) cooled down the surrounding environment. My team’s concept was an evaporative cooling system using terracotta:
IR image of the team with our project. Guess which one is me 😀
(left) my CAD mockup
vs
(right) the device™ irl (yes, the pool ripped lol)
In the future, I really want to make a secret room with an elaborate entrance. I’ve seen some people implement the old timey “pull on a book to unlock the door’s latch,” or use magnets to make a secret code where you must place trinkets in the right order to unlock a door. Since it’s supposed to be a secret, I can’t tell you how I’ll encode my doorway.
Can’t wait to create with everyone!
