I was born in India, but due to the nature of my father’s job, I ended up living in multiple countries including Singapore, Indonesia, China and the United States. I graduated from Shanghai American School after studying there from eighth grade onwards. I decided attending college in the United States would fit me the best, having been in the American system of education for several years.

I had heard of Duke through its incredible basketball team, and grew more interested in the institution after hearing about its stellar reputation in Biomedical Engineering. I ended up visiting and fell in love with the campus and overall atmosphere at Duke. I applied Early Decision and fortunately got accepted.

I had been searching for BME projects that involved a research component. Moreover, I was eager to seek out interdisciplinary opportunities to fulfill my desire to have a holistic education. This particular project amazingly matched both these interests and gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of Electrical Engineering, BME and Neuroscience while working with graduate students and faculty members.

The project involves using MATLAB to code an interface that allows cochlear implant patients to adjust the settings of their own implant without interaction with their audiologist.

Being a part of this project team was invaluable in learning about research and lab work. I have been working on this project for a year and a half, and I’m currently trying to write a thesis within the realm of this project as applied to my major in Mechanical Engineering to graduate with distinction.

The most rewarding aspect of my Bass Connections experience was learning how to approach a real-world problem with my Engineering background and iterating on a solution through research and testing.