Connection and Self Understanding

Throughout the I&E Certificate, my understanding of what it takes to have idea be truly successful became much clearer. While in my engineering design courses we have analyzed a large variety of problems and solutions, my experience in the I&E Certificate helped me learn to look at the options and determine which would be capable as commercial ventures. Even if your idea is promising, unless you have tested the concept with users and have people who can speak clearly and passionately about the problem, than you will not be able to make a convincing case for your product. In the case of biomedical innovations, I think this most actualizes in working extremely closely with physicians. Instead of thinking that medical innovations can come from a team that innovates and sells to Doctors, I will seek to work closely with physicians on my team so that they can better articulate the problem and provide in person feedback of the problem.

Because of this experience, I think that I am much more selective when I view engineering opportunities. The single biggest thing that I will look at in a potential problem is the nature of the clinicians who are speaking to the problem and how passionate that they are about a solution. Reflection of my design projects in the past, thanks to the I&E certificate, has helped me learned that. If anything, the certificate has helped confirmed the pathway that I hoped to take when I came to Duke. As a engineering student hoping to pursue medical school, the I&E certificate has convinced me that if I hope to be a successful innovator in the medical space, being a physician would allow me to better understand the problems that I hope to solve.

Overall, the I&E certificate paired well with my engineering design curriculum. In the Duke Engineering programs, all students take a design course where they take a problem and generate a solution and follow the idea through prototyping. Some select groups might be able to take the idea further but generally, engineering work ends with the prototype or once IP is considered. The new Design Health program took this one step further as we talked extensively about the regulatory environment of the devices that we were working on and how to get them to the point that they are able to be sold. I see what I learned in the I&E certificate as the next step. After our device has passed design controls and is able to be sold, I&E gives me the toolbox to understand how to approach selling a device.