synthetic Biology
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At over 23,000 views, this video creation of mine is by far the most popular of the collection that I developed as part of a course taught by synthetic biology superstar, Herbert Sauro.
Our goal was to develop Khan Academy styled videos that make it easier for people to learn the techniques used in the field of synthetic biology. This undertaking required me to utilize my bioengineering background to further develop my artistic talent and communication skills. |
Tissue Engineering
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Tissue engineering was the reason I became a bioengineer. Our society is on the verge of being able to create, from scratch, a fully viable replacement organ that is genetically identical to the patient. No more donor-matching, no more immunosuppressants.
The document to the left is a novel project proposal, developed my me and a crack team of bioengineers, that outlines how we would go about designing and testing a device that would allow for the three dimensional weaving of vascularized tissue constructs. The basic idea is to use existing technology to pre-seed cells into an alginate thread and then use a micro-loom to weave these spools of thread into a functional tissue sheet. Stacked one upon another, with sheets of artificial vasculature as well, the final construct would be three dimensional and implantable. This project, although not real, required me to further develop my ability to conduct novel science. Science is not all hands on experimentation, it requires a lot of planning and group coordination to create an end result that advances the field. |
Life Lessons in Physics
I am a scientist at heart. I am skeptical, ornery, and don’t absently believe what I am told. I look for flaws in thinking, logical fallacies, and erroneous error bars when reading scientific papers. However, before taking a class with Dr. Pedigo, I regarded what I learned from professors as fact.
I had heard from a few sources that Dr. Pedigo was the greatest professor for the intro physics series at UW. He was an entertaining orator, would actively engage the class, and helped me understand my own logical fallacy. He would frequently have us use infrared clickers to answer multiple choice questions in class. One day, the poll showed that around 80% of students had answered B. Not surprisingly, Dr. Pedigo told us that the majority of people were wrong, the correct answer was C. He gave us some answer that I didn’t quite follow, but I was sure I would figure it out before the midterm.
Then, one lone hand went up in the rear of the class.
“Mr. Pedigo, I still think the answer is B.”
“Yeah…” came the reply of several students surrounding him, finding courage from their friend's gusto.
Doctor Pedigo replied, “Why?”
Bolstered by his peers, the lone hand reasoned aloud. When the boy said the last piece of evidence supporting his thinking, Dr. Pedigo broke a smile.
“You’re right, and after class I am sending a scathing email to the other section. Everyone else absentmindedly accepted C as the correct answer. Just because I tell you something is true, does not make it so. It is the responsibility of the person presenting the facts to convince the observer that they are true. You must always question what you are told, if you hope to find the truth.” Looking up to the brave student he said, “See me after class.”
I had resigned to the thinking that my professors would never lead me astray, but in doing so I had made myself vulnerable to learning false facts. Instead of critically thinking through all of the logical steps it took to arrive at an answer, I was lazy and just believed what I was told.
Since then I have changed. I have angered professors with my obstinance, to the point of threatening my grade, but it is the responsibility of the teacher to convince the pupil, not the obligation of the pupil to mindlessly believe the teacher.
I had heard from a few sources that Dr. Pedigo was the greatest professor for the intro physics series at UW. He was an entertaining orator, would actively engage the class, and helped me understand my own logical fallacy. He would frequently have us use infrared clickers to answer multiple choice questions in class. One day, the poll showed that around 80% of students had answered B. Not surprisingly, Dr. Pedigo told us that the majority of people were wrong, the correct answer was C. He gave us some answer that I didn’t quite follow, but I was sure I would figure it out before the midterm.
Then, one lone hand went up in the rear of the class.
“Mr. Pedigo, I still think the answer is B.”
“Yeah…” came the reply of several students surrounding him, finding courage from their friend's gusto.
Doctor Pedigo replied, “Why?”
Bolstered by his peers, the lone hand reasoned aloud. When the boy said the last piece of evidence supporting his thinking, Dr. Pedigo broke a smile.
“You’re right, and after class I am sending a scathing email to the other section. Everyone else absentmindedly accepted C as the correct answer. Just because I tell you something is true, does not make it so. It is the responsibility of the person presenting the facts to convince the observer that they are true. You must always question what you are told, if you hope to find the truth.” Looking up to the brave student he said, “See me after class.”
I had resigned to the thinking that my professors would never lead me astray, but in doing so I had made myself vulnerable to learning false facts. Instead of critically thinking through all of the logical steps it took to arrive at an answer, I was lazy and just believed what I was told.
Since then I have changed. I have angered professors with my obstinance, to the point of threatening my grade, but it is the responsibility of the teacher to convince the pupil, not the obligation of the pupil to mindlessly believe the teacher.
Characterizing a novel metabolic system
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I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
Given the choice between four metabolic systems: two simple, one hard, and one system like nothing we had studied previously, we decided to be bold. This choice, as most foolish choices are, was based on trying to impress a girl. This girl happened to be my partner on the project, and through hard work and logical thinking, it worked. First off, the given governing equations didn't work for our system, so we developed our own. Then we had the painful task of interpreting results that we had never encountered in class. Through sheer determination - and the knowledge that we had come too far to turn back - we pushed forward, making sense of the senseless and utilizing, in new ways, the tools of analysis that we had learned. The end result was in-depth, novel, and snarky. Our pride in successfully working through so many unforeseen problems shined through the text and figures, transforming the report into a trophy of sorts. |