After flying out from Illinois, my experience as an official Texan was comprised of about 1.5 days before I flew to Costa Rica with the rest of the GMI students (see below). I basically didn’t have time to freak out about just how crazy this whole experience is beforehand. By the way, I’m Matthew De Venecia and this is my first blog post! To let you know a little bit about myself, I’m an alumni of the bioengineering program at UIUC. My decision to be a part of the GMI program stems from epiphanies I had during prayer, self contemplation, and an enlightening talk with an uncle of mine. I’ll spare you the details about those, but they led me to be a part GMI, and I can firmly say it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I’ve spent these last 2 weeks in Costa Rica, and there’s plenty of things to love: tropical climate, beautiful landscape, unique architecture, and especially, the kindhearted people! For example, during the GMI boot camp, I was placed in a project group with 4 Costa Rican students, and Luc Samblanet, who is also in GMI. Not only were they adept in their specific skillsets, but they were more than willing to share their culture with Luc and me. After we presented our project, we all went to go get milkshakes at POPS, which is basically Costa Rican Dairy Queen (see right). My teammates told us all about Costa Rican culture: from the best food and places to visit to stories about their own families. Out of all the things I’m going to miss about Costa Rica, the new friends I made are definitely what I’ll miss the most.
In regards to the education portion of these past 2 weeks, have you ever had a fruit by the foot? Those foot long strands of chewy fruit candies? When I was a kid, I didn’t eat it an inch at a time like you were supposed to, but I balled it up tight and ate it all at once. Well, if my year long senior design project at UIUC was a fruit by the foot, then GMI would be all of that fruity goodness compacted and shoved in my brain. I don’t know how, but my instructors, Dr. Will Clifton and Dr. Paul Fearis, seemed to cover and expand upon everything I’ve known about engineering design in the span of 8 days:
- Needs finding through clinical observations
- Brainstorming and research
- Solution landscaping
- Design evaluation
- Market analysis
- Presenting ideas to an audience
I’ve learned and re-learned so many concepts in a concise, yet engaging manner. The best part about this program is that I get to apply these lessons every single day in a Hospital setting. I’m currently writing this blog in Barretos, Brazil. I flew in from Costa Rica today, and I’m extremely excited to have my first day at Hospital de Amor tomorrow! Throughout this summer, I’ll be observing and identifying clinical needs, helping out with ClaroScope (a previous Rice University project), and working on specific applications that the hospital wants me to address. It will definitely be an adventure, so I’ll be sure to give you all the highlights here in my next post. Tchau!