Hi, my name is Rachel Lee. I’m a rising sophomore studying bioengineering and this summer I will be a SEED intern at the OEDK. 

I had taken ENGI 120, a freshman design course meant to give students an introduction to the engineering design process, and saw SEED as a chance for me to focus entirely on a project without the added burden of classes and extracurriculars. 

This first week, we were assigned our projects and quickly jumped into clarifying the problem context. Our team (Team Heartache), composed of my teammates Kaitlyn, Christopher, and Sam, is tasked with developing a device that will mimic lung-heart motion. Our clients are a team of engineers from the Electrophysiology Clinical Research & Innovations department at the Texas Heart Institute. Due to our close proximity to THI, we were able to meet our clients in person. Upon arriving, we were shown the current prototype and quickly realized that this project had pivoted sharply from the original direction the ENGI 120 team from last semester had taken. My excitement grew as I continued to talk to the engineers at THI. They were so knowledgeable and delighted to help. 

For the next coming weeks, I will go through the engineering design process once more, but I will have more time for the “fun” stages, like prototyping, testing, and iterating over and over. This week was over before I could blink, and I can already tell that these six weeks will fly by. 

Excited for what’s to come,

Rachel Lee