My Research Experience (Gold)
My experience in the summer of 2016 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, under the supervision of Dr. B. Wayne Bequette solidified my desire to pursue my PhD in Chemical Engineering. At RPI, I performed research related to the artificial pancreas: closed-loop control of blood glucose in patients with type 1 diabetes. In Dr. Bequette’s lab, it was my responsibility to port the openAPS (an open source artificial pancreas) algorithm into MATLAB to perform simulation studies and better understand algorithm characteristics, including robustness to uncertainty in patient parameters, and the ability to respond to meals using control engineering and optimization techniques. The point of the simulations was to ensure that the algorithm was truly responsive to traits (physical and genetic) that are unique to each patient. Because the artificial pancreas is an improvement on manual insulin injections, this experience falls under the grand challenge of engineering better medicines.
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Being successful at this research required that I learn about diabetes, a disease I was barely familiar with before the summer, to be able to think like the patient, and to understand things better in conversations with the medical personnel involved in the project. I think it was extremely important to be able to do these things because they helped me to become a better member of the research group (T). I also had to learn about JAVASCRIPT, the language in which the openAPS algorithm was developed (F). While it was challenging to combine learning the engineering, medical, and social aspects of the research, I was proud to make significant contributions in such a short time. I found that reading stories about diabetes patients and their struggles helped strengthen me (P). In going through this process, I was able to further my knowledge of control engineering optimization techniques that can help solve real-world energy problems. From this experience, I was also able to see how the government and large organizations have a huge impact on the extent to which research can reach. This taught me about having a realistic vision when planning my research projects (R). Finally, this research process taught me how to ask the tough questions; 'Why is that?', 'how's it made?', and work to develop valid answers (Pr).
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NB: The letters in parentheses after the sentences represent the learning objective that was satisfied in that context.
Key: T- Being a team member
P- Persistence
F- Flexibility
R- Realistic vision
Pr- Practice and process of inquiry