Submission Number: 478
Submission ID: 1615
Submission UUID: 85175b71-de50-4cf0-adf6-75bd76e3b5e3

Created: Sat, 03/15/2025 - 20:28
Completed: Sat, 03/15/2025 - 20:28
Changed: Tue, 05/06/2025 - 11:15

Remote IP address: 169.197.57.139
Submitted by:Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No

Flagged: Yes
{Empty}
Penelope
Rolley
she/her
Encinitas
CA
USA
92024
Biomedical Engineering
English (5), French (2)
While my personal experiences have not led me to experience problems in all corners of the world, I have witnessed domestic issues that I know affect humanity globally. During my junior year, my family and I went to care for my grandmother in Arizona, who had suffered hemorrhages and falls due to previous medical issues. She is an opioid addict, a problem that stemmed from doctors prescribing pain pills for her chronic rheumatoid arthritis pain instead of trying to treat the source actively. Whether this was because she was not the right candidate or because procedures weren’t absolute enough, it snowballed into a completely new disease that had changed my grandmother into a completely different person. While this encounter was personal, the opioid epidemic in America, in those around us, in the world, is ever growing. According to the American Medical Association, approximately 18 million people became opioid addicts in the US due to medical prescriptions. While the usage of opioids is necessary in medical procedures, it is up to biomedical engineers to prevent diseases and then, when treating them, create the most minimally invasive technology possible. Coming from San Diego, there is a lot of opioid addiction, whether that is connected and found within our increasing homeless population or the residents on their way to work. Although I know it’s obviously not all from medically prescribed circumstances, the experience that I had with my grandmother is one millions go through around the world. A beautiful thing that I’ve realized, though, is that by becoming a biomedical engineer, there is something I can do to combat this problem. Watching my grandma go through this battle was tremendously trialing, but it allowed me to personally experience a global issue, something I will use as motivation to help make future medical technology as accessible and non-invasive as possible.
When engineers withdraw from high-end research facilities, they can truly understand the accessibility their project possesses. While it’s invaluable for fields like industrial and agricultural engineering to go out and view landscapes and resources of its target terrain, global perspectives improve biomedical engineering by understanding the medical resources that are available in certain communities and what the standard issues that arise from health care in that area. Here in America, we pour billions of dollars into innovating medical technology and research. Conversely, if you were to travel to a third world country like Chad, the same abundance of resources (funding, materials, doctors, etc.) would not be found. The target audience matters when creating medical technology, but the best kind is one that can be accessible to all nations. This means engineering devices that are preferably transportable in some way, easy for other doctors to understand, and as cost-effective as possible. The accessibility of a certain medical machine in Boston won’t be anywhere near the same in Chad, which is why we as engineers need to communicate with these nations, see the resources and situation for ourselves, and create as accessible technology as possible. Even if it’s groundbreaking, if it can’t be used where it’s needed, it’s pointless. Likewise, different communities face different struggles with medical technology. For example, the US struggles with diabetes, or from personal experience, substance abuse, significantly more than the average country. On the other hand, Chad struggles considerably with malnutrition and outbreaks of infectious diseases like measles and cholera. When biomedical engineers are aware of the diseases present within nations, we can cater technology to alleviate the conditions. But it’s not until we visit and immerse ourselves in these lifestyles that we can truly understand what conditions the population is generally facing and where the symptoms are coming from. The bubble of a research lab is an amazing resource when constructing technology in a controlled environment, but global perspectives are just as crucial. We, as an engineering community, need to travel to different environments and cultures to understand the issues that vary from nation to nation, as well as the accessibility of our devices.
I believe that engineers hold the keys to the future. I also believe that if I’m going to be one to hold a key, I want to be ready to do as much as I can with it. In our society today, I see a heavy mindset on making whatever will make the largest buck instead of what will make the largest impact. What I’m looking for in engineering is a community that shares my goal of progression, and the Global Engineering program is exactly that. While I’ll bring my ambition and initiation into the program, I do not doubt that those same traits will be contagiously transferred from my peers to me. I look forward to elevating my engineering skills, broadening my world view, problem solving with my peers and professors in research, and working towards a goal that will be motivation in itself. I’ve always been someone who has shown initiative and jumped to a leadership position, for planning any kind of project, educational or social, is the ideal way I spend my time. I find myself always falling into grooves, becoming addicted to that chase of accomplishment and improvement. By being a director on my student council at my high school, I’ve become great friends with failure. While failure was a terrifying presence at first, it became my greatest tool because I’ve learned how to pivot from original blueprints when facing failure. Plus, no success is as sweet as one that requires improvement. I know that going into a research-based career means that failure and I will most definitely be coworkers, but I’m ready for it. I’m ready to grow, I’m ready to adapt, and I’m ready to succeed in the Global Engineering program.