Kalina Hristova, INBT core researcher and professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
Engineers are driven to always try something new, something that has never been attempted before. Engineers are not afraid to fail. Be fearless, be an engineer!

Jude Phillip, INBT core researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

What inspired you to become an engineer?
Growing up in Grenada, I had little idea of what engineering was. However, at age 7, I found out that chemical engineers manufactured medicines, and at that point, I was hooked. It was a naïve view of engineering, but it drove me to follow my passion for helping people and making an impact.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers?
My advice to aspiring engineers is to stay curious and stay motivated. Curiosity and creativity go hand in hand. Often, the quality of our science and our impact can be tied to the questions that we ask. The motivation piece is about keeping our eyes on the ball and staying on track amidst all the failures and setbacks.

Engineering is amazing and holds so much potential for the future. As problem solvers, there are so many ways that we can impact the world, through technology, health, and the environment, to name a few.

What is the best part of being an engineer?
The best part of engineering is getting to work on problems with real-world applications and consequences. In my lab, we work on understanding why we age differently. Aging is incredibly important because we are all aging. I hope that our discoveries and the technologies we develop will impact aging, not only in theory but in practice—in real people.

What roles do engineers play in shaping the future? 
From its inception, engineering has always played a critical role in our advancing societies. Today, we see drastic advances in health, technologies (e.g., clean energy. electric cars, automation), and infrastructure. Engineers are at the center of many of these. However, we need to improve representation and diversity to ensure a brighter, more resilient future. Engineers solve problems in teams; diverse teams bring broader perspectives and often find better solutions. As engineers, part of shaping the future requires improving access, increasing diversity, and helping to build an inclusive culture.

Yun Chen, INBT associate researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering

What inspired you to become an engineer?
An engineer builds things to meet current unmet needs. For example, mitigation of climate change, better treatments for deadly diseases, etc., are among those unmet needs. I wanted to be an engineer to build the solutions, or to make the tools facilitating others to come up with good solutions.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers or what is an engineer’s role in inspiring the next generation of engineers?
Be open-minded. Read as widely as possible. Talk to people from all walks of life.

An engineer’s role in inspiring the next generation, as I see it, is to always remember what we are building is aimed to create common good.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
The best part of being an engineer is to talk to people we serve, namely, people we build the tools for. That makes my career meaningful.

What role do engineers play in shaping the future?
Engineers should be stewards of technical development and visionaries to accomplish the seemingly impossible. We are supposed to make what sci-fi depicted 10 years ago come true.

Sangmoo Jeong, INBT core researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering

What inspired you to become an engineer?
When I was in high school, I saw that many startups were founded with incredible ideas, and I was thrilled when they changed our world and opened up a new era. That’s why I chose to become an engineer.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
We dream, design, and develop something cool! We not only pursue scientific discoveries or technological breakthroughs, but also bring our research outcomes to market and directly benefit our society. Isn’t it amazing that we contribute to building our society more livable with our imagination?

Sulaiman Jenkins, INBT Director of Academic Programs

What is your role in inspiring the next generation of engineers?
Through the promotion of our academic programs, I hope to inspire the next generation of engineers to join programs that explore new frontiers at the intersection of biology, medicine, nanoscience and engineering.

What is the best part about working with engineers?
I absolutely love learning about the research projects they’re involved in, which generally involves creating innovative techniques/devices and coming up with novel ways of addressing serious issues in science and medicine.

What role do engineers play in shaping the future?
No doubt, engineers will be on the frontlines, developing emerging technologies that improve the quality of life for many people all over the world.

David Lee, Director of Corporate Partnerships

What role do engineers play in shaping the future?
It has been said that engineers are the hidden enablers of everything we take for granted in modern life. The truth in this statement will resonate even more powerfully as the things we take for granted in modern life only grow in complexity. Engineers will continue to design and deliver key infrastructures that shape the lives of everyone.

Tracy Chung, PhD Student in the Biomedical Engineering Department

What inspired you to become an engineer?
I was lucky enough to have a high school teacher who first described to me the world of biomedical engineering using biology, chemistry, and physics simultaneously to impact human health. In addition, her dedication to emphasizing the diverse minds and faces of engineers allowed us to envision ourselves in those shoes.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers?
Bring your whole self to the table! Your unique experiences lead to unique ideas, shedding light on an overlooked problem or illuminating a novel solution.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
Engineers get to bridge the gap between multiple disciplines and package all that knowledge into something that improves lives.

What role do engineers play in shaping the future?
As engineering necessitates creation, the future is made possible and real by engineers. We dedicate our time and effort to problems that are worth solving, collaborate with other experts, and bring the cutting edge to life.

Ece Ozdemir, PhD student in INBT and Materials Science and Engineering

What inspired you to become an engineer?
Seeing how science can be applied to benefit us fascinated me about engineering and made me pursue an engineering career.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers?
Seeing an idea turn into action makes me keep going. But I would say, remember why you started and keep going!

What is the best part about being an engineer?
Engineering is so cool and super fun since it is a combination of science, creativity, and responsibility.

What role do engineers play in shaping the future? 
I think engineers play a huge role in the evaluation of technology, science and humanity. Engineering gives me hope and optimism about the future.

Tina Chen, Masters Student in the INBT and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

What inspired you to become an engineer?
I decided to become a chemical engineer because having an engineering degree is flexible. I also hope to use science to improve the quality of life for others.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers?
You’ll want to explore different topics first to understand what you are passionate about. Then, apply the knowledge you obtained to your field and help improve the world.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
The best part of being an engineer is being able to work on whatever you are interested in. You can go from doing exciting experiments in a lab to coding impressive projects at home!

What role do engineers play in shaping the future?
Engineers contribute to shaping the future by designing, inventing, and optimizing different kinds of medicines, equipment, and technologies!

Serena Wan, Masters Student in the INBT and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

What inspired you to become an engineer?
There is limitation to the current technology we have in hand to treat patients, but there are many advancements made in the field of science. Engineering can link science to application to help patients. and that is why I want to become an engineer.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers? 
Always remember the inspiration you had and follow your heart. The path to become an engineer is tough, but having the passion will be the key.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
Engineers put science into application; knowledge translation is really the best part.

What role do engineers play in shaping the future? 
Engineers are critical to our current society, and their role is to establish new technology that benefit the whole world.

Ikshu Pandey, Undergraduate Student at INBT and the Materials Science & Engineering Department

What inspired you to become an engineer?
I didn’t consider engineering until my senior year of high school—I worked in a materials science lab and learned that I could work towards advancing medicine through engineering, rather than just hoping that someone else would conduct the research I wanted to. Essentially, knowing that I could help shape the future I lived in through engineering inspired me to major in materials science and engineering while at college.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers?
Initially, starting out as an engineer could be difficult, but don’t get discouraged! I remember finding my engineering coursework very hard at first because it forced me to think about the world around me differently than I was used to, but now I find the different perspective so rewarding and I am sure you will too! Additionally, don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and take classes across different engineering majors, you might just end up surprising yourself and finding something you didn’t consider to be something you really enjoy.

What is the best part about being an engineer?
To me, the best part of engineering is how collaborative it is—everyone just really wants to help each other succeed! Whether in classes, in the lab, or just at the library, I always find myself learning from and working with friends across a countless amount of disciplines.

What role do engineers play in shaping the future?
Engineers work to build the world they want to live in tomorrow and do so in so many different ways. Personally, I am passionate about the intersection between biomaterials and neuroscience, so I am researching the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease with microfluidic models. I also have mechanical engineering friends who are working at Tesla to design the cars of tomorrow and chemical engineers who are researching clean, sustainable, renewable energy sources.

Anshika Agrawal, Undergraduate Student in INBT,  the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics 

What inspired you to become an engineer?
I have always been drawn towards engineering as the ability to build and create new technologies to solve the problems we see. I first became interested in biochemical engineering research when I was interning at a children’s hospital and I was able to see firsthand the gaps in healthcare that exist today. This inspired me to pursue research in improving precision medicine and engineering to help people and make an impact on medical care overall.

What advice do you have for aspiring engineers?
Engineering can often seem to be daunting when first joining but as you get involved you really are able to find the smaller niches within engineering that you are passionate about and that make you want to pursue engineering. Always join new projects or take classes that you find interesting because you might just find a new passion! There are so many opportunities to work collaboratively with peers and that can hold the potential to unlocking new ideas!

What is the best part about being engineer?
I would say the best part of being an engineer is being able to really see the translational research and work that is ongoing within so many of the different engineering departments! Alongside that being able to take so many different engineering courses with different focuses really helps us envision how we can shape and innovate our future. I always love to hear about how my friends are applying their passions and majors into the work they do and the places where our niche interests may overlap.

What role to engineers play in shaping the future?
Engineers play the role in understanding problems that exist in the world today and seeing how they can innovate and design the future. They are able to take interdisciplinary practices and apply it towards advancing our existing technologies and the creation of new ones. As engineers we are able to solve problems collaboratively to gain various insights and create a diverse accessible future.