Enmodes Week

After we got back from Dublin, school and responsibilities caught up with me real quick. We had a big 211 test that Wednesday, and unfortunately I woke up on Tuesday very ill for the third time in about a month. Let's just say I got to be very familiar with the physiological concept of reverse peristalsis... Anyway, I decided I should see a doctor about this issue, so one of the nice AIB workers went with me to see someone. Unfortunately, she didn't really do much, and suggested that it might be a "psychological issue" due to "having no friends or family." Yep, that's definitely it. I also got some weird German stomach medicine that I still have not opened. Fortunately I got better on my own in a few days, with just enough time for me to make up the 211 test and rehearse our presentation. Thursday, the day before we went to Aachen, was a very long one. We went through our presentations and tried to put them all together, and poor Dr. Wasser and Haley were stuck fixing a lot of PowerPoint formatting issues that no one anticipated. Shout out to them; they deserved that pizza. We finally got to run through everything all together and then went home to rest. Friday morning we all met up in our fancy clothes and took a bus over to enmodes headquarters. Ralf and Tim showed us around their labs before we presented our designs to them, which was cool. Then we finally got to the moment we'd been preparing for all semester. Side note: I am usually terrible at any kind of public speaking, even in a group. I hate presenting anything, even if it only lasts thirty seconds. I get all shaky and it's just a mess. However, this time I felt like I did a somewhat decent job. I don't know if it was all the run-throughs or what, but this project has definitely helped me in terms of presentation skills and I'm really grateful for that. So we finished showing the enmodes team what we'd been working on for the past 3-4 months, and they seemed pleased with it. They asked a lot of thoughtful questions and told us they'd be using elements of our designs in their own final design in the future. It's really cool to think that something I helped create might someday be a part of a real device used to help save people's lives. Even if they don't end up using our idea, this experience has been one of the most valuable of my college career. I'm so grateful for having the opportunity to work so closely with a real biotech company on a real project that isn't just a hypothetical situation from a textbook. If I wasn't already convinced that this program was one of the best decisions I ever made, this experience drives it home. I now have a better understanding of biomedical engineers in general and why they do what they do, and why I'm doing what I'm doing. Sorry if all that late-night-blogging rambling made no sense... We finished the day by eating in the university cafeteria, which kind of reminded me of Sbisa but better because they had pancakes. Then we Frisbee'd for a while, got some cookies, and headed home.