Master of Science: Bioengineering University of Otago
April 2023 Dunedin, NZ
Bioengineering is a field with an exceptional amount of interdisciplinary knowledge required, depending on the area of specialisation within the field.
There are those that focus on the design of medical devices, those that work to develop new materials to be used with the body, those who specialise in microbiology or anatomy, and those who support the others.
As you can see, my background and experience thus far gave me an excellent grounding for the engineering and design side of bioengineering.
This left much of the biology knowledge yet unlearned.
Most of my lecturers, and later supervisors, had biology (specifically biochemistry) as their specialty with knowledge of engineering as it related to bioengineering.
This left me a somewhat steep learning curve, but they were good to learn from as their knowledge was quite complete.
There were certainly some differences in default assumptions in the way some tasks should be carried out, but the fact that iw as the only student doing course work meant that I had plenty of time to ask qusetions of my lecturers.
BIOE 401 - Research Methods
BIOE 402 - Special Topic: Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells
BIOE 403 - Bioengineering Design
BIOE 404 - Medical Devices and Technology
BIOE 495 - Master's Thesis Preparation
BIOE 401 covered ... (come back later for more information)
BIOE 402 was a special topic paper covering the ways that regenerative medicine and stem cells are being used in the space of bioengineering.
A large part of this is tissue engineering, a set of techniques that allow researchers to influence and guide the growth of stem cells towards the desired form.
This paper also made clear that there are a variety of kinds of stem cells, each with their own uses, strengths, and weaknesses.
For example: umbillical cord stem cells are more potent than adult stem cells. This means that more tissue can be cultured from a smaller batch and that there are more possibilities of tissue to be made, but it also means that there may be a risk of the stem cells being too potent and behaving similar to cancer.
Adult stem cells, meanwhile, can be harvested from the patient with minimal ethical concerns and can already be partially differentiated into the desired form.
BIOE 403 was a paper focused on engineering design with biological constriants in mind.
These constraints could be how materials interact with human skin or how shape affects grip and comfort; we want scalpels that can be comfortably and reliably gripped regardless of surgical conditions.
They could also be ways of saving the users from themselves with potential dangerous medical equipment such as X-Ray Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines.
This latter section reinforced my experience in computer science where preventing accidental and intention misuse of the software is a key role in design.
There was also a focus on frugal innovation and human centred design techniques.
Frugal innovation being designing products in such a way that the core features are made available at reduced cost. without sacrificing quality.
All of this was reinforced through an overarching project throughout the semester.
The goal of this project was to design a system under the theme of Healthcare for Everyone.
For me, this took the form of a way for remote communities to get access to cheap and effective eye care.
In designing my prototype, I learned about and practiced computer aided design with SOLIDWORKS and additive manufacturing with fused deposition modelling.
Creating a modular design, for example, allowed for parts of my prototype to be made from different materisl for different purposes and for only the broken parts to need replacing, thus reducing cost for the consumer.
BIOE 404 covered ... (come back later for more information)
BIOE 495 was the thesis preparation paper.
This paper was largely self-guided and was intended to give us a strong start on, and, ideally, finish, the literature review for the thesis so that the research could begin without any additional delay.
The topic I chose for this was frugal innovation in touch sensors for prosthetic devices.
Essentially, ways of making prothetic arms and hand more functional through force-feedback for the wearer while also keeping costs down to the extent possible.
My Master's thesis covers potential novel additive manufacturing techniques for the purposes of tissue engineering blood vessels.
Diploma for Graduates: Computer Science University of Otago
May 2019 Dunedin, NZ
This programme was designed to provide students that had already completed an undergraduate degree with the functional equivalent of a major in computer science.
The programme took place over the course of just over a year; two summer semesters, a spring semester, and a fall semester.
Personal highlights of the programme, for me, were the artificial intelligence paper that went over various common applications of machine learning and the game development and software engineering papers where I was able to learn more about the product development life-cycle.
I think learning about the project development lifecycle, especially the advantages and disadvantages of various common approaches, was especially useful for me because this was not omething I had formally engaged with since high school.
Related Projects
Game Development Class Project
Software Engineering Class Project
Robot Navigation Group Project
COSC 241 - Programming and Problem Solving
COSC 242 - Algorithms and Data Structures
COSC 243 - Computer Architecture and Operating Systems
COSC 244 - Data-communications, Networks, Internet
COSC 343 - Artificial Intelligence
COSC 344 - Database Theory and Applications
COSC 345 - Software Engineering
COSC 360 - Computer Game Design
Master of Science: Applied Physics - Optical Materials and Devices University of Oregon
December 2017 Eugene, Oregon, USA
This masters program was designed with the goal of getting science graduates prepared for working in industry.
They tried to do this by teaching skills desired by those in industry and, in place of a thesis, three reports over the course of a nine-month internship.
In my case I managed to organise a fixed-term research assistantship at the University of Otago in one of their quantum optics research groups.
Details about this can be found later on this page.
One of the key skills I developed here, in addition to learning various new technologies, was keeping intellectual property concerns in mind while writing my reports back to University of Oregon about what I was working on.
PHYS 581 - Design of Experiments
PHYS 601 - Research Internship
PHYS 610 - Physics Laboratory
PHYS 610 - X-Ray Crystallography
PHYS 610 - Electron Microscopy Fundamentals
PHYS 626 - Physical Optics with Labs
PHYS 627 - Optical Materials and Devices
PHYS 628 - Laser and Non-linear Optics
Tuned an open-cavity helium-neon laser to optimal output.
Analysed a variety of samples to atomic-level resolution using transmission electron microscopy.
Employed scanning electron microscopy for high depth of field imaging and x-ray energy depletion spectroscopy.
Modelled and optimised complex optical systems using Zemax OpticStudio.
Determined molecular structure of various crystals using single-crystal x-ray crystallography.
Practised design of experiment (DoE) techniques.
Examined properties of IR and near-IR sources by using optical metrology techniques and tools such as beam-profilers, a wavefront sensor, and an M2 tool.
Bachelor of Science: Physics Major, Mathematics Minor University of Puget Sound
May 2016 Tacoma, Washington, USA
One of the things that made my time at UPS special was the requirement that we take classes outside of our majors.
This took the form of taking two from a handful of papers during my first year as well as at least one paper from the categories of maths, physical sciences, social sciences, fine arts, and humanities.
We also had a foreign language requirement and an upper division (300-level or higher) paper outside of our major.
On the whole, I enjoyed this.
The favourite subject this turned me onto was Science, Technology, and Society.
As the name implies, the STS department were interested in the roles that science and technology take in society and their influence on its development.
The papers I took focused the history of science and its controversies.
Related Projects
Alternator from Scratch
CLSC 212 - Roman History
CSCI 161 - Introduction to Computer Science
ECON 170 - Contemporary Economics
ECON 291 - Behavioural Economics
LAT 101, 102 - Elementary Latin I, II
MATH 180, 181 - Calculus & Analytical Geometry I, II
MATH 260 - Intermediate Applied Statistics
MATH 280 - Multivariate Calculus
MATH 290 - Linea Algebra
MATH 301 - Differential Equations
MATH 302 - Partial Differential Equations
PHIL 338 - Space and Time
PHYS 121, 122 - General University Physics I, II
PHYS 221, 222 - Modern Physics I, II
PHYS 231 - Circuits and Electronics
PHYS 305 - Analytical Mechanics
PHYS 310 - Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics