Hola! 👋🏽

I am Precious Faseyosan, a final-year student of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I am beyond excited to be in Houston this summer, interning at Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK). To God’s praise and glory, I finally made it here and am super grateful for this incredible opportunity.

I arrived in Houston with two other interns from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. We boarded the same flight. There are also three other interns from Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania. Together, we make up six African students here on a fully-sponsored program. We are interning with nine other students from various countries and Rice University.

Love at First Sight:

The Rice University campus is so magnificent and beautiful. Gosh! 😍 The campus has such a stunning scenery that different people come from time to time with professional photographers for photoshoot sessions! It’s also charming to see friendly lovely cute squirrels run around in search for food or companionship from humans.

My first visit to the OEDK left me in awe; the tools, machinery, and innovative projects worked on by students and staff were mind-blowing. The realization that I was in for an enriching learning experience filled my heart with gratitude and enthusiasm.

(A little backstory: I didn’t initially have a passion for engineering. My family’s disapproval of my desire to study psychology led me to choose petroleum engineering instead since I loved mathematics and was quite proficient at it. My genuine interest in engineering started during my internship at the University of Ibadan Design Studio and Innovation Hub, an affiliate of OEDK, where we worked on many fascinating engineering design projects in my third year. This passion for engineering is continually growing.)

Meeting the other interns from various countries, our team leads Shifan and Renee, our supervisor Dr. Kevin Holmes, and the visiting mentor Dr. Funmi was equally thrilling. Their warm welcome and support made Rice University feel like home. I mustn’t forget to mention Michelle Nodskov, the Education Programs Coordinator at Rice360, who ensures that all the international interns have a blissful stay. I’m really thankful for the supplies and snackssss (the extra ‘s’s were intentional. 😂) she got us. She’s been so kind and helpful. It’s been a great delight working with every single person, and I’m glad we still have more days to work together.

The Learning Experience:

Okay, enough of the stories. Let’s get to the main purpose of this blog—my first week at the OEDK. The first week was superb, definitely. We were introduced to engineering design as a problem-solving tool and the engineering design process, which involves the steps in problem-solving. What stood out to me during the introductory classes was this statement by Dr. Holmes (paraphrased):

“High-performing teams fail fast and learn faster when they do.”

We learned to approach problems with an open-minded mindset, embrace our mistakes and failures, and learn from them.

Clients pitched their ideas to us, presenting real-world problems they wanted to solve. We were asked to choose a project to work on over the next six weeks and were divided into four teams based on our choices. I chose a project aimed at improving the gel used for transvaginal ultrasound, pitched by Dr. Gei from the Houston Methodist Center. The current gel does not provide clear and accurate imaging of the cervix length, contributing to inaccurate diagnoses and preterm births globally. Our goal is to develop a model that accurately represents the female cervix and improve the current ultrasound gel. I was drawn to this project because of my interest in revolutionizing healthcare. My team spent much of last week researching and defining the problem. More about the project in subsequent blog posts…

Personal Reflections:

This experience has reinforced my belief that engineering is a powerful tool for changing the world and improving lives. Virtually every field benefits from the impact of engineering and design. I have no regrets choosing to study engineering. 🤩

I am excited about the opportunity to learn and work with a diverse team and the professional networking opportunities this internship offers. I also look forward to exploring fun places in Houston. By the end of this internship, I aim to have significantly improved my design thinking and research skills.

Thank you for following my journey. Stay tuned for more updates! 🥂