Alexis Daulton
Class of 2017
R&D Engineer at Cook Medical
Impacting People, the BioE Way
Biomedical engineering has always fascinated me. Learning how humans can fix, and even improve on, what our body is naturally capable of is incredibly interesting to me. This interest led me to major in biological engineering at Mississippi State University where I prepared for a future career focusing on developing biomedical devices.
At Mississippi State I had the opportunity to intern with Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. Gift of Life is a non-profit that works to expand the international bone marrow donation registry. During this internship I planned registration drives, talked with potential donors, created and ran an on-campus organization, and fundraised for patients’ medical procedures. Through this experience I was able to see the difference that a singular medical device can have on an immeasurable amount of patients. At Gift of Life this device is a kit that allows potential donors to join the registry through a cheek swab instead of requiring a blood test. This single device has led to more donors being added to the registry with more ease than was previously thought possible. This has resulted in countless more patients finding their life-saving bone marrow donor. At Mississippi State alone we were able to add more than 200 new donors during my year of interning because of this device. This experience cemented my belief that biomedical device engineering is the field that I want to devote myself to.
Devoting more time to this field led me to work on multiple projects focused on designing biomedical devices. My first experience in designing biomedical devices was working on a team that was tasked with designing a stand that allows students, unable to communicate on their own, to easily access and control their assistive communication device in a variety of classroom settings. I then continued work in the biomedical device field working on a senior design project focusing on designing and producing a reciprocal arm motivator for patients to use while recovering from a traumatic brain injury or stroke. This device was requested by a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi to work with a treadmill that patients use during physical therapy sessions. The device was well received by the hospital and is currently being used. Knowing that something that I worked on designing is being used to help real patients recover from a traumatic medical experience is empowering and has further increased my desire to work designing biomedical devices.
Outside of designing medical devices, I also have a passion for academia. At Mississippi State University I worked as a teacher’s assistant for a biological engineering class that focused on how Matlab can be used to model biological processes. In this class I helped students develop a model for the blood flow of the human heart. My love for education did not stop there. I further explored this passion as an assistant English teacher in Bermeo, Spain. Few things compare to the excitement of helping a student finally grasp a topic that has been troubling them.
Throughout my life I have had many experiences that will make me a great biomedical device engineer. I have had educational experience as both a student and a teacher. I have had medical experience as a patient, a professional using a medical device with patients, and as an engineer designing medical devices. I am excited to build on these experiences and further my knowledge in this exciting field. I am specifically interested in furthering my education at the University of Pittsburgh because of the existence of the Center for Medical Innovation. Working on designing medical devices in a translational medicine environment is my ultimate career goal so the Center for Medical Innovation offers training that will be incredibly valuable in my pursuit of this goal. With further training and a more expanded breadth of knowledge, I will be able to combine all of my experiences and interests to make a significant impact on the medical world and a tangible impact on many patients’ lives.