It is no secret that engineering is currently one of the top ranked jobs in the world today. An engineering degree is respected, admired, and well-known for providing job security and a level of comfortable, lucrative living. Yet engineering is meant to be so much more than merely a fancy job title. The hours spent burning the midnight oil studying difficult course material over the years, the late nights spent struggling through seemingly impossible problem sets, and the energy poured into lab time creating and designing inventive projects are not about reaching the end goal of merely becoming an engineer, but about what one chooses to do with this engineering knowledge once they achieve the title. Being an engineer means having the skill-set and creativity to recognize and solve problems, so along with this gift comes the necessary duty of using this power for the betterment of society. Engineers, in essence, possess all the tools needed to do amazing things, and are challenged therefore to be game-changers. While indeed fun, engineering should not be a self-centric endeavor. There are tremendous gaps in human advancement worldwide – lack of sanitation and clean drinking water, unsafe structural buildings, disease, and pollution are just a few examples of the countless grave problems facing our world. Engineers are special in that we are not only capable of seeing these issues, but of fixing them by pinpointing a need and designing a solution. One of my favorite things about being in Biomedical Engineering is witnessing the tangible effects of biomedical devices on the lives of so many patients. The trans-catheter heart valve designed by Edwards LifeSciences, for example, serves thousands around the world and is revolutionary in providing non-invasive surgery to replace failing heart tissue. Ideas literally seem to leap from the page; an idea one day only a blueprint can become a life-saving miracle the next. It is also exciting to see the way engineering disciplines come together to create working solutions, which is seen in projects like the one conducted by an incredible group called Enabling the Future that has released several software files for basic 3D-printable prosthetic hands. In collaboration with the Global Medical Trainer’s chapter at USC, the 3D4E Printing Club here on campus has championed this cause, commissioning students to print the parts for these hands, which have now been assembled and distributed around the world to people in Haiti, Syria, and Panama. We even had the opportunity to work with the local Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. This semester I have been enormously blessed to work with five-year-old Tchwin Tchwin, a disabled child born with a stunted hand. After taking his measurements and meeting with his family, I have worked to 3D print a prosthetic hand to match his proportions, which will provide him with improved mobility in his stunted left hand. It is mind-blowing to think that a 3D printer, which we often use in the lab to print neat designs recreationally, can make a device that will drastically improve a child’s quality of life. We needed only see the smile on Tchwin Tchwin’s face when he saw the parts for his new hand to know that we were making a powerful difference in his life.
The Finished Prototype for Tchwin Tchwin's First 3D Hand
Twchin Twchin at the Blackstone Launchpad
Children at a Local School in La Merced, Ecuador at Medlife Clinic