THE BIG IDEA - The University of Akron

THE BIG IDEA
IDEAs IDEAs Stars Stars—Undergraduate Stars Undergraduate Students
Students
In this issue, we would like to introduce two IDEAs stars, who both major in Biomedical Engineering and enjoy their journey in
pursuing engineering degrees.
Jorge Sylvester gave a presentation at a
conference in summer, 2010.
By Jorge Sylvester. I am a senior student majoring in Biomedical Engineering-Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
Track with a GPA of 3.94. I also have a minor in Chemistry. I am currently in the medical school application
process. My journey here at The University of Akron has been extremely rewarding because of all of the
opportunities that it provided me.
The most rewarding experiences in my college career have been in research because I gained extremely useful
experience and acquired vast amounts of invaluable knowledge. My first research was under Dr. Weiping
Zheng’s advising, working on a novel anti-cancer drug target in his biochemistry lab. The results of that research
will be published soon.
This past summer I was awarded a Summa Summer Research Fellowship at Summa Health Systems. I conducted
research on a novel method for the prevention of post-surgical adhesions. At the conclusion of the Fellowship I
presented a poster at Akron City Hospital. I continue on this project as my Honors Research Project in addition
to my Biomedical Engineering Senior Design Project. This Fellowship was my most rewarding experience
because of so many wonderful opportunities it provided me besides doing research. I was able to observe multiple
surgeries and I learned how to insert catheters through the jugular vein with the aid of ultrasound and how
to intubate patients in the Virtual Simulations Lab. I also was able to shadow doctors while they saw patients
and to participate in a surgical boot-camp for resident doctors.
I have received the honor of being the first student recognized at the Board of Trustees meeting for exceptional achievement at The University of
Akron. I have been the recipient of multiple merit-based scholarships, including IDEAs scholarship, the Merit and Recognition scholarships of the
Honors College, Crisp Arts & Sciences scholarship, Dr. & Mrs. William Loughry scholarship, COFSP-STEM Scholar scholarship, and the Cunningham-Cramblette
scholarship. I have tutored for the IDEAs program and for Project Grad Akron at Buchtel High School. I also volunteer for Make
A Difference Day and in the Intensive Care Unit at Akron City Hospital. I participate in intramural football and soccer and I also enjoy playing Brazilian
musical instruments and playing soccer.
One of the reasons I have been able to accomplish so much is because I did not wait for these opportunities to come to me, I chased after them. I
not only applied to scholarships and research opportunities, but also apply myself to school. Much of my success can be attributed to my interest
in school. In order to excel in anything, one has to be passionate about it. I take great interest in my classes and I learn actively, which means that I
read the material and do practice problems until I understand it, and not just so I can mark it off of my “To-do List”. Additionally, my family and
the wonderful professors and advisors here at the University have helped me throughout this journey in order to help me reach my fullest potential.
By Mauricio Uribe. Originally from Mérida, Yucatán in Mexico, I came to the United States with my family
in 1990, when I was three years old. Growing up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, I first attended Kent State
University in 2005 to study biological sciences. After two years, however, I realized that I wanted to play a
more active role in the lives of patients with medical needs. Therefore, in the fall of 2007 I transferred to the
University of Akron to study engineering.
I am currently a senior studying Biomedical Engineering (Biomechanics) with a minor in Applied Mathematics. I
chose The University of Akron because it was a strong, accredited engineering school and a research leader in
science and technology. Biomedical Engineering interested me because the field is currently on the forefront of
huge expansion and growth, and because it offers a great sense of accomplishment. As part of the engineering
curriculum I had the unique opportunity last year to co-op at Zimmer, Inc. in the development of hips.
My co-op experience at Zimmer, Inc. has provided me with a solid basis of several fundamental principles and
practices in the areas of development and post-market engineering. Through my research and organizational
efforts in post-market engineering, our team was able to efficiently condense the product complaint review
process to help save over 1100 man-hours in the long run. Most recently, I served as project leader in the de-
Mauricio Uribe at Zimmer.
velopment of a new surgical instrument design. During the process, I had the chance to participate in several
multi-disciplinary teams to determine customer needs, design inputs/outputs, and associated risks. The end goal consisted of building a functioning
instrument prototype and then testing the product in a cadaver trial with several visiting surgeons from around the world. Through my co-op I
have also become proficient in a number of areas involved in the design process, such as functional relationship analyses, geometric dimensioning
and tolerances, failure-based root cause analyses, and I have attained some CAD skills with Unigraphics NX4.
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