Wired Engineering Scholarship

Engineering is a science that is equal parts logic and creativity, which is why it has been my primary academic interest since I was first introduced to it in 10th grade. With a degree in general engineering and a double minor in both environmental sciences and computer science, I aspire to combine my love for problem-solving the environment to find solutions to environmental problems that have the potential to make lives better and the world greener. I will use my degree to increase general public awareness of domestic and global legislative activities to advance environmental remediation and encourage the people in my community to protect the environment as well. As both a woman and racial minority, I was once told that wanting to pursue a career in engineering makes me a “unicorn,” because my demographic is underrepresented which could potentially discourage me from continuing my education and following my dreams, but entering this career field is bigger than me. While in college, I want to have community support and be able to study in an environment that is conducive to learning, researching, and building lasting relationships with my fellow engineering “unicorns,” and if this is not something I find easily, then I fully intend to create safe spaces for people who look like me, similar to the way my friends and I created a computer science club, specifically for girls, at our school. I underestimated the value of a solid support system until always having support became my reality. I have known that I want to pursue engineering since I took a basic Engineering class to fill a credit requirement for the Science and Technology program I am in at my school. In this class, we conducted all sorts of projects. We did it all, from closet re-designs to cars powered by mechanical energy, but the one project that stood out to me the most was when we created prosthetic hands with the goal being to make them pick up water bottles. Although it may have seemed trivial, making a simple solution to a problem so elaborate sparked my love for hands-on, collaborative, project-based solution-making that has the potential to better people’s lives. I could see the positive effect my prosthetic hand had throughout every step of the engineering design process. I am going to be an engineer, not just for me, but to engage others and better the world around us because “the greatest good is what we do for one another.”(Mother Teresa)

Since sixth grade, I have been interested in engineering. My dad is a software engineer, so he recommended a robotics camp to me for the summer. There, I learned to build and program different kinds of machines. Coding was my favorite part because I could see exactly what the robot was thinking and knew why it was performing the way it did. I could see why the robot made mistakes. I could correct them and solve the problem. I discovered that I loved processing and solving problems. I know I can use my desire to solve problems to help people. As I grow older, I continue looking for ways to help society. One way I can make a positive impact on the world is by coding different types of biotechnology. I could help provide a machine that would benefit people who, for example, can’t walk. I could program the machine to respond to neural activity in someone’s brain. When their brain tells their body to do something, the machine would pick up on the electrical current made by the command. It then moves the body part based on what signal it receives. People who use the machines could control them as if they were their own limbs or body part. By being an engineer, I can also help the environment. I can program computers to take precise measurements of the natural world. Without mechanical and software engineers that make the computers to process all the collected data, researchers would not be able to effectively analyze the information. Using these analyses, scientists and researchers will be able to more easily come up with a solution to problems like pollution and global warming. Another way I can positively impact the world through engineering is by making the work field more diverse in the gender category. Women only make up about one-fourth of the engineering workforce. In this male-dominated field, women may sometimes feel that they can’t compete for top positions. Because women get paid less than men on average, women might not even want to try to go for an engineering career. But, I can make a difference by bringing a female perspective and presence to the workplace. Bringing a different perspective would help introduce additional ideas to aid in solving problems. I can help inspire other women to seek engineering careers by showing that it is possible. I can positively impact the world by going into an engineering career. After going into the career, I will advance biotechnology, and help the environment, and increase the female presence in the field. Thank you for considering me.

Telepathy is a concept that is no longer confined to the mystical world of science fiction or my "twin telepathy" jokes between my twin sister and me. Now, it is a reality that could completely transform the lives of those suffering from progressive neurodegenerative diseases and paralysis. These diseases afflict millions of people worldwide and do not promise a cure. The concept of "digital telepathy" challenges the debilitating effects of neurodegenerative diseases by directly channeling commands to a device without needing a body part. During my career as a neural engineer and my subsequent studies in biomedical engineering, computer science, and participation in neuroimaging research, I strive to ensure the communication abilities of patients whose arms, legs, or hands have failed them. Furthermore, as a neural engineer, I hope to foster a reality in which those who have been robbed of a fulfilling life because of their diagnosis are rejuvenated with the assurance that assistive technologies will help them reclaim what they have lost. While my father’s diagnosis of Multiple Systems Atrophy robbed him of his ability to walk, contorted his hands into fists, and confined him indefinitely to a hospital bed, he maintained his witty personality and could see, think, and feel like an ordinary person. Catastrophically, he could never reach out and hug me or audibly tell me that he loved my sisters or me again. His immense difficulty in simply communicating frustrated me to the point where I became obsessed with the prospect of restoring communication through neuroprosthetics. I assumed the role of "a part-time speech pathologist," desperate to find ways to build a language without words or body movements that was understandable to both of us. This feat was inevitably difficult, given the limited gestures that were possible due to his paralysis. We resorted to his responses being a quick blink for yes or no, which did not adequately satisfy open-ended questions such as "how are you feeling?" Under any circumstance, paralysis should not deprive patients of their ability to connect and sympathize with their families. Human communication is arguably the most powerful skill driving our existence. Communication allows us to share ideas with others, express how we feel, and build lasting connections among family and friends. Losing the ability to communicate threatens our quality of life and strips us of what it truly means to be a human. In a bleak world where we can’t tell others how we feel or even offer significant courtesy such as "thank you" or "I love you," it perpetuates an existential crisis and an overwhelming sense of loneliness, ultimately leading to a disconnection with the world. As a social species, not being understood by others or not being able to express ourselves is a scary reality that millions of people worldwide struggle with. Using brain-computer interfaces, patients who face a similar reality to my father do not have to live chained by their physical constraints; patients no longer have to bear the news that they will not be able to tell their kids, spouses, or siblings that they love them. As I attend Yale University next fall, I hope to see my passions come to fruition, leading to a successful neural engineering position at Synchron, a market leader in implantable brain-computer interfaces. I want to be at the forefront of neuro-technological ingenuity, offering hope and a new world of possibilities to those now denied functional independence.

Not only can we access the world at our fingertips, but engineers have the power to change the world that we live in. I want to be a part of that change. I got interested in STEM as a child when I participated in local programs in my town such as Girls Coding With Girls, a student-run program that teaches young girls about computer science, and I've been interested ever since. Now, years later as a senior in high school I am a lead mentor in the same program that inspired me to choose engineering as my future career path. Even out of high school, I want to help inspire young girls like me to give STEM a chance. Tech careers and companies are not always the most welcome to women of color like me. When you are the only woman in a class of twenty or thirty you feel like you aren't smart enough to be there. Seeing more people that look like me, pursuing the same things as me, shows the need to keep fighting. To prove that you are worthy of the spot you're in. Engineering is a very broad field with so many categories and specializations it's difficult to decide what to choose. The health industry has hugely benefitted from engineering. I would love to work alongside other bio-engineers to solve and understand some of the world's most difficult medical issues. Creating medicine to solve cancers, learning more about genetic disorders, and creating the technology that doctors and nurses would use to save patients. As society grows so does the complexity of diseases and sicknesses. When strands like Covid-19 or illnesses like cancer attack, the demand for advanced cutting-edge medical advancements is necessary. Every single technological advancement that you can think of came to be through the perseverance and hard work of engineers. The role of biomedical engineers is to solve impossible problems to the best of their abilities by building a bridge between the medical world and the skills of an engineer. All good engineers know to question what they believe and to push the limits in their studies and theories until they’re groundbreaking. So when you ask about the positive impact that I want to make on the world, know that I want to be part of building a new one. A world with advancements that can combat things like Alzheimer's or rebuild nerve damage. I want to make a real and tangible difference in the world through the skills I plan to learn through college and internships once I graduate high school.