Obviously, this last year was unlike any before.
Starting off in the summer, I was lucky enough to be able to work full time remotely, doing my third semester at the Cardiothoracic Surgery department at CCHMC. Most of the work I did was on the computer anyway, so it wasn't too big of an issue. I continued a couple of projects from previous semesters and start some new ones. I ended up working more with some of the research fellows than I had in the past.
There were two highlights that came out this year from the lab. The first is that the CorMatrix project I started the previous fall semester was wrapping up towards the end of summer and I helped with the manuscript. I heard last month that they submitted the manuscript to a journal and the feedback was positive. I believe I will be first author on this paper unless they changed it in the last year which is very exciting for me. The second thing is that I was able to present one of the abstracts I worked on that was accepted for poster presentation at the virtual 2021 American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS) in April.
The one dark spot came when I was working with all of my files on an encrypted flashdrive. I had the flashdrive with two of my larger projects because Dr. Zafar wanted me to be able to work on the CorMatrix project during the spring before I came back and it included sensitive patient information. When I got my CCHMC laptop back, I went ahead and kept working from the flashdrive because I wasn't sure if the data still needed to be protected since I was technically not at CCHMC and it allowed me to work on a larger monitor at home since I lost my nice double monitors in office. About two months into the summer, I turned on the laptop and the flashdrive just gave me weird symbols. I tried to fix it, but the flashdrive ended up being wiped. Flashforward some stressed out conversations with IT and a company that specializes in retrieving data from failed flashdrives (which costs anywhere from $300-$2000+), I talked to Dr. Zafar. Thankfully, he wasn't upset about it (he had done it in the past apparently) and said to take this as a learning experience. I ended up making a list of the important files that were on the drive and was thankfully able to retrieve most of them (albeit usually earlier versions) from emails I had sent to colleagues. The only project that was completely lost was one where I was meaning to retake most of the measurements.
I learned two main lessons from this experience: 1) flashdrives can and will fail (apparently it is more common than I realized) and 2) backups, particularly cloud backups or even just other people having copies, are great (unfortunately, I was unable to access CCHMC's OneDrive because I was a co-op).
With summer being sort of the peak of COVID and lockdowns, I know a lot of people were not happy with being stuck at home. Personally, I liked being able to stay home (I may be weird, but I don't have a need to constantly be around people; I actually like solitude). I was able to read a lot and spend time with my pets with the time I saved not having to commute and deal with the KY-OH traffic, and I think there were months where I didn't have to buy gas at all. The lack of commute also allowed me to get a bit more sleep at night if I didn't stay up too late due to my nightowl tendencies. It also worked out that May is usually when I have really bad allergies, so not having to go in office, especially amongst a pandemic, with runny nose and itchy eyes worked out well for me since that was something I was concerned about.
Then, in the fall semester, most of my classes, thankfully, were synchronous (though two of them were technically "I don't care if you show up during scheduled class time. I will record the lectures and you can watch them on your own time if that's what floats your boat".) which allowed me to keep to some sort of schedule. I can easily see where if everything was asynchronous and there weren't deadlines beyond just homework or exams and no opportunities to talk and ask professors questions in real time, it would be hard to be incentivized to keep to a schedule and stay caught up on school. The one asynchronous class I had I was either doing assignments at the last minute or as soon as it came out and I pushed lectures off until the last minute.
Again, the virtual-ness of my classes this fall was actually beneficial for me. I ended up having four classes that were scheduled Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 AM to 4:30 PM with only 10 minutes in between classes assuming the lectures didn't run over. I can't imagine having to run from class to class with the 10 minute breaks just being travel between classrooms, especially because one of those classes would have been on the Medical Campus where the shuttle service is completely unreliable (I've tried in the past). With virtual classes, I was able to actually use my breaks and stand up and stretch/walk around the room while still listening to lectures. I was also able to eat during class without having to be conscious of other students watching or eating too loud.
I will say that what was nice about lectures being on WebEx and professors recording them is that I would attend class live, but sometimes I would miss some of the notes while writing and trying to keep up or I just want to hear the professor explain the thought process again. I ended up going back to certain lectures and picking out parts that I missed or just wanted to hear the explanation again.
I also got to pick and plan out my Capstone project for Senior year. I will be working with Dr. Barrile, one of the newest BME professors, who is working on a neurovascular organ-on-a-chip model that is 3D printed and will use stem cells and have real-time sensor integration. The goal is to use this model to study stroke. I'm not sure if the project I outlined during the class will be what I will actually work on (it depends on how much progress he makes before I start), but I have been helping with writing a review on organ-on-a-chips Dr. Barille was invited to write. This would be my first engineering research paper I have worked on which is exciting.
Again, the lack of commute helped me in terms of having more time for at home recreation even with homework and preparing notes for class. I ended up reading so much in 2020 which was really exciting for me since I didn't have as much time in previous years at college and reading is something I enjoy.
Because I am getting ready to graduate and I didn't have any industry experience (which I think is pretty important for having a more complete view/skillset for the BME field), I wanted to spend my last double rotation in industry vs research. During the BME pre-career fair meetings where our co-op advisor talked about the BME companies that were attending, I heard him mention AtriCure that was a cardiac medical device company which sounded great based on my background.
I ended up attended the virtual career fair with AtriCure being my target company. The idea of a virtual career fair where you can just start out chatting with company representatives and then potentially move on to video calls sounded great, but it was terrible. I think I tried to chat with four or five companies, but I only heard back from two companies and one of those companies just said "Hi, I'm XXX. I am a XXX engineer at XXX" and never responded to me again. Thankfully, AtriCure was the other company that responded to me. I was a bit nervous about what happened there because I think we ended up exchanging three or four messages where I answered some questions, but when it culminated in "If you are interested, apply on our website", I was a bit nervous. Then, I ended up getting an email from the recruiter I chatted with who mentioned the career fair a few weeks later offering a phone interview. One phone interview and four 30 minute WebEx interviews later, and I had a co-op for the spring.
I ended up working in the AtriClip Product Development department. I have learned a lot working at AtriCure, and unlike CCHMC where it was just sort of me and MDs and research fellows, AtriCure has a fairly robust co-op program (13+ co-ops). It was nice having stuff in place to help develop co-ops and future engineers and just having fellow co-ops to talk to and ask questions. In terms of working in industry for the first time, I learned that you still end up having to write reports for the testing on products. I learned how to use an Instron and do mechanical testing as well as how medical device companies work with surgeons to receive feedback on new and existing devices to know what improvements can be made. There is also an emphasis on making sure devices are within certain specifications, and understanding and thinking about possible failure modes that cause issues for surgeons or for the specifications not to be met. AtriCure is also a relatively smaller medical device company compared to the Ethicons and Boston Scientifics. What was nice about the relatively smaller size is that manufacturing, product development, quality, regulatory, and design assurance work literally alongside of one another and the devices are actually all made in the same building and are just across the hall from the office space. I have gotten to see how these different departments interact with one another and have worked with a couple of manufacturing engineers on projects. I have actually been working on Phase 0 of a new product that should launch in the next three years or so. I got to participate in a device prototype build for a pre-FDA submission implant study where we actually assembled devices as if in manufacturing. There, I got to see how when developing a new product, designing the device for manufacturing is sometimes different than just designing a device based on a concept (think about ease of assembly, how device will be made, what can make assembly easier, could certain fixtures be designed to help with assembly, etc.). I also used SolidWorks for the first time since my first year at UC and I learned that there are ideal practices for how to model that make it easier to edit in the future.
AtriCure did have a work at home when department allows policy which has been nice when I am writing up the reports for the projects I worked on and the commute is 43 miles one way. It also helped on the larger snow days Cincinnati had in January and February (that first snow we had, it ended up taking me 4 hours to get home...lesson learned). I do go in most days, but being able to work from home sometimes is nice.
I always thought I wouldn't enjoy industry, but I actually really have. Now, I am someone who doesn't like more crowded places, so larger companies where there is not as much "most people know everyone" may not be my cup of tea, but I was pleasantly surprised by working at AtriCure. It has made me consider more possibilities for what I want to do when I graduate. I still have to finish my MS with ACCEND which may take an extra semester or two after I graduate and then consider a PhD, but just having the experience with AtriCure is nice to open more doors for me when the time comes for an actual job. The other nice thing about working in industry is that I am making quite a bit more than when I was at CCHMC.
I was lucky enough to continue my co-op into the summer. I will say that working for four months full time with only two days off for holidays in January and February is a lot with no days off, especially with another four months full time coming up. I did take one day off (with my supervisors permission) the first week of the summer semester (and a lot of co-ops took an entire week off that week). I know when you start a job, a lot of time, you don't get any time off let alone PTO until you reach the 6 month mark or so. There were a couple of people graduating that had accepted full time positions in the summer who talked with one of the directors and he actually encouraged them to take time off before starting because there will be little opportunity in the future. They are both taking a month and half off before starting full time. That is definitely something I will probably want to consider when it is time because with the exception of the summer after my first year, my college career will be full time classes or full time working. In 2019, I think I literally had weekends and national holidays off from full time work or school. I think that is why I enjoyed quarantine and gaining time by not having to commute and why I really enjoyed having this past December completely off before starting at AtriCure (the previous December/January, I was working at CCHMC trying to finish a project until the Friday before classes).
Anyway, back to the big picture, I think one of the benefits of the virtual world we have lived in for over a year is that people are learning how to use Zoom, WebEx, and Skype. Before last year, I had never used any of them but I can see benefits with now knowing how, especially with research where you may have collaborators from other states or even potentially countries. With these virtual meeting platforms, it allows for people from different parts of the country and world be able to meet (of course, you still have the time difference for some people, but you would have that if you called them). It also allows some flexibility with schedules, eliminating commutes and making organization meeting times a bit more doable for student that may be really busy or off campus but can at least jump on a call to see what is happening.
Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from last year, but below you can find some pictures of the Instron I work with a lot of AtriCure and some cute pet photos.
Starting off in the summer, I was lucky enough to be able to work full time remotely, doing my third semester at the Cardiothoracic Surgery department at CCHMC. Most of the work I did was on the computer anyway, so it wasn't too big of an issue. I continued a couple of projects from previous semesters and start some new ones. I ended up working more with some of the research fellows than I had in the past.
There were two highlights that came out this year from the lab. The first is that the CorMatrix project I started the previous fall semester was wrapping up towards the end of summer and I helped with the manuscript. I heard last month that they submitted the manuscript to a journal and the feedback was positive. I believe I will be first author on this paper unless they changed it in the last year which is very exciting for me. The second thing is that I was able to present one of the abstracts I worked on that was accepted for poster presentation at the virtual 2021 American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS) in April.
The one dark spot came when I was working with all of my files on an encrypted flashdrive. I had the flashdrive with two of my larger projects because Dr. Zafar wanted me to be able to work on the CorMatrix project during the spring before I came back and it included sensitive patient information. When I got my CCHMC laptop back, I went ahead and kept working from the flashdrive because I wasn't sure if the data still needed to be protected since I was technically not at CCHMC and it allowed me to work on a larger monitor at home since I lost my nice double monitors in office. About two months into the summer, I turned on the laptop and the flashdrive just gave me weird symbols. I tried to fix it, but the flashdrive ended up being wiped. Flashforward some stressed out conversations with IT and a company that specializes in retrieving data from failed flashdrives (which costs anywhere from $300-$2000+), I talked to Dr. Zafar. Thankfully, he wasn't upset about it (he had done it in the past apparently) and said to take this as a learning experience. I ended up making a list of the important files that were on the drive and was thankfully able to retrieve most of them (albeit usually earlier versions) from emails I had sent to colleagues. The only project that was completely lost was one where I was meaning to retake most of the measurements.
I learned two main lessons from this experience: 1) flashdrives can and will fail (apparently it is more common than I realized) and 2) backups, particularly cloud backups or even just other people having copies, are great (unfortunately, I was unable to access CCHMC's OneDrive because I was a co-op).
With summer being sort of the peak of COVID and lockdowns, I know a lot of people were not happy with being stuck at home. Personally, I liked being able to stay home (I may be weird, but I don't have a need to constantly be around people; I actually like solitude). I was able to read a lot and spend time with my pets with the time I saved not having to commute and deal with the KY-OH traffic, and I think there were months where I didn't have to buy gas at all. The lack of commute also allowed me to get a bit more sleep at night if I didn't stay up too late due to my nightowl tendencies. It also worked out that May is usually when I have really bad allergies, so not having to go in office, especially amongst a pandemic, with runny nose and itchy eyes worked out well for me since that was something I was concerned about.
Then, in the fall semester, most of my classes, thankfully, were synchronous (though two of them were technically "I don't care if you show up during scheduled class time. I will record the lectures and you can watch them on your own time if that's what floats your boat".) which allowed me to keep to some sort of schedule. I can easily see where if everything was asynchronous and there weren't deadlines beyond just homework or exams and no opportunities to talk and ask professors questions in real time, it would be hard to be incentivized to keep to a schedule and stay caught up on school. The one asynchronous class I had I was either doing assignments at the last minute or as soon as it came out and I pushed lectures off until the last minute.
Again, the virtual-ness of my classes this fall was actually beneficial for me. I ended up having four classes that were scheduled Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 AM to 4:30 PM with only 10 minutes in between classes assuming the lectures didn't run over. I can't imagine having to run from class to class with the 10 minute breaks just being travel between classrooms, especially because one of those classes would have been on the Medical Campus where the shuttle service is completely unreliable (I've tried in the past). With virtual classes, I was able to actually use my breaks and stand up and stretch/walk around the room while still listening to lectures. I was also able to eat during class without having to be conscious of other students watching or eating too loud.
I will say that what was nice about lectures being on WebEx and professors recording them is that I would attend class live, but sometimes I would miss some of the notes while writing and trying to keep up or I just want to hear the professor explain the thought process again. I ended up going back to certain lectures and picking out parts that I missed or just wanted to hear the explanation again.
I also got to pick and plan out my Capstone project for Senior year. I will be working with Dr. Barrile, one of the newest BME professors, who is working on a neurovascular organ-on-a-chip model that is 3D printed and will use stem cells and have real-time sensor integration. The goal is to use this model to study stroke. I'm not sure if the project I outlined during the class will be what I will actually work on (it depends on how much progress he makes before I start), but I have been helping with writing a review on organ-on-a-chips Dr. Barille was invited to write. This would be my first engineering research paper I have worked on which is exciting.
Again, the lack of commute helped me in terms of having more time for at home recreation even with homework and preparing notes for class. I ended up reading so much in 2020 which was really exciting for me since I didn't have as much time in previous years at college and reading is something I enjoy.
Because I am getting ready to graduate and I didn't have any industry experience (which I think is pretty important for having a more complete view/skillset for the BME field), I wanted to spend my last double rotation in industry vs research. During the BME pre-career fair meetings where our co-op advisor talked about the BME companies that were attending, I heard him mention AtriCure that was a cardiac medical device company which sounded great based on my background.
I ended up attended the virtual career fair with AtriCure being my target company. The idea of a virtual career fair where you can just start out chatting with company representatives and then potentially move on to video calls sounded great, but it was terrible. I think I tried to chat with four or five companies, but I only heard back from two companies and one of those companies just said "Hi, I'm XXX. I am a XXX engineer at XXX" and never responded to me again. Thankfully, AtriCure was the other company that responded to me. I was a bit nervous about what happened there because I think we ended up exchanging three or four messages where I answered some questions, but when it culminated in "If you are interested, apply on our website", I was a bit nervous. Then, I ended up getting an email from the recruiter I chatted with who mentioned the career fair a few weeks later offering a phone interview. One phone interview and four 30 minute WebEx interviews later, and I had a co-op for the spring.
I ended up working in the AtriClip Product Development department. I have learned a lot working at AtriCure, and unlike CCHMC where it was just sort of me and MDs and research fellows, AtriCure has a fairly robust co-op program (13+ co-ops). It was nice having stuff in place to help develop co-ops and future engineers and just having fellow co-ops to talk to and ask questions. In terms of working in industry for the first time, I learned that you still end up having to write reports for the testing on products. I learned how to use an Instron and do mechanical testing as well as how medical device companies work with surgeons to receive feedback on new and existing devices to know what improvements can be made. There is also an emphasis on making sure devices are within certain specifications, and understanding and thinking about possible failure modes that cause issues for surgeons or for the specifications not to be met. AtriCure is also a relatively smaller medical device company compared to the Ethicons and Boston Scientifics. What was nice about the relatively smaller size is that manufacturing, product development, quality, regulatory, and design assurance work literally alongside of one another and the devices are actually all made in the same building and are just across the hall from the office space. I have gotten to see how these different departments interact with one another and have worked with a couple of manufacturing engineers on projects. I have actually been working on Phase 0 of a new product that should launch in the next three years or so. I got to participate in a device prototype build for a pre-FDA submission implant study where we actually assembled devices as if in manufacturing. There, I got to see how when developing a new product, designing the device for manufacturing is sometimes different than just designing a device based on a concept (think about ease of assembly, how device will be made, what can make assembly easier, could certain fixtures be designed to help with assembly, etc.). I also used SolidWorks for the first time since my first year at UC and I learned that there are ideal practices for how to model that make it easier to edit in the future.
AtriCure did have a work at home when department allows policy which has been nice when I am writing up the reports for the projects I worked on and the commute is 43 miles one way. It also helped on the larger snow days Cincinnati had in January and February (that first snow we had, it ended up taking me 4 hours to get home...lesson learned). I do go in most days, but being able to work from home sometimes is nice.
I always thought I wouldn't enjoy industry, but I actually really have. Now, I am someone who doesn't like more crowded places, so larger companies where there is not as much "most people know everyone" may not be my cup of tea, but I was pleasantly surprised by working at AtriCure. It has made me consider more possibilities for what I want to do when I graduate. I still have to finish my MS with ACCEND which may take an extra semester or two after I graduate and then consider a PhD, but just having the experience with AtriCure is nice to open more doors for me when the time comes for an actual job. The other nice thing about working in industry is that I am making quite a bit more than when I was at CCHMC.
I was lucky enough to continue my co-op into the summer. I will say that working for four months full time with only two days off for holidays in January and February is a lot with no days off, especially with another four months full time coming up. I did take one day off (with my supervisors permission) the first week of the summer semester (and a lot of co-ops took an entire week off that week). I know when you start a job, a lot of time, you don't get any time off let alone PTO until you reach the 6 month mark or so. There were a couple of people graduating that had accepted full time positions in the summer who talked with one of the directors and he actually encouraged them to take time off before starting because there will be little opportunity in the future. They are both taking a month and half off before starting full time. That is definitely something I will probably want to consider when it is time because with the exception of the summer after my first year, my college career will be full time classes or full time working. In 2019, I think I literally had weekends and national holidays off from full time work or school. I think that is why I enjoyed quarantine and gaining time by not having to commute and why I really enjoyed having this past December completely off before starting at AtriCure (the previous December/January, I was working at CCHMC trying to finish a project until the Friday before classes).
Anyway, back to the big picture, I think one of the benefits of the virtual world we have lived in for over a year is that people are learning how to use Zoom, WebEx, and Skype. Before last year, I had never used any of them but I can see benefits with now knowing how, especially with research where you may have collaborators from other states or even potentially countries. With these virtual meeting platforms, it allows for people from different parts of the country and world be able to meet (of course, you still have the time difference for some people, but you would have that if you called them). It also allows some flexibility with schedules, eliminating commutes and making organization meeting times a bit more doable for student that may be really busy or off campus but can at least jump on a call to see what is happening.
Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from last year, but below you can find some pictures of the Instron I work with a lot of AtriCure and some cute pet photos.