This summer, some of of our science-minded high school students had the unique opportunity to engage in internships in collaboration with professors and graduate students of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University.
The students dedicated several weeks to this experience, working closely with professors and graduate students in research labs. The topics varied from cardiology to brain computer imaging to artificial organs!
Wells would like to extend its gratitude to Professor Norased Nasongkla and the Biomedical Engineering Department to opening its doors to our students, and giving them invaluable, hands-on experiences and inspiration this summer.
Below are some student reflections detailing their internship experiences:
Kavishi Sheth
Class of 2019
The opportunity to work at the biomedical department of Mahidol University of Bangkok for a summer sparked my knowledge about the medical engineering side of the sciences. This opportunity not only helped me gain more knowledge in the area of biomedical engineering, but also gave me a different and unique life experience. I spent 4 weeks as an intern at the Mahidol University Biomedical department Salaya branch. I was assigned to work at the cardiology department with a colleague, Shradha. My supervisor was Dr. Phornphop Naiyanetr, who was a great guide throughout the internship. At the biomedical department, I researched about the engineering part of the cardiology lab. To give an overview, I learnt about various electrical instruments, electrical systems, simple circuit, gain, the Heart and its functioning, General overview of ECG and how it works, Filter Circuits, and the ECG circuits.
Through this internship, I learnt about various electrical instruments such as amplifiers, resistors, capacitors, breadboard, oscilloscope, power supply and electrodes. The content of the information was high level information, but it was really fun to learn about. Further, I learnt about the Electrical systems and created a simple circuit, as well as filter circuits. I already had some information about the heart and its functioning due to having taken IGCSE biology, but through this researching and interacting with the ECG machine, I gained a deeper understanding about how the signals of the heart maintain the functioning of the heart. Shradha and I actually made an ECG circuit using different electrical appliances. Apart from the Cardiology department I also visited and learned from the Brain-Computer Imaging (BCI) and Biomedical and Robotics Technology (BART) labs.
To conclude, I would like to say that I had a fantastic experience and I feel really fortunate to have this experience to work in the biomedical department of Mahidol University, especially during this particular time of life, as I would have to choose my undergraduate major now, so having this experience really helps me in choosing my major. I’d recommend it to any high school student interested in biomedical engineering and has a exploring spirit to come experience this exciting and insightful experience.
I would like to thank my teacher Ms. Katina and Prof. Norased Nasongkla to give me a wonderful opportunity to work in the biomedical department of Mahidol University. I would like to thank Prof. Norased Nasongkla to come to our school and give us a presentation about the University, which led me to show interest in the internship. I would also like to thank my supervisor Dr. Phornphop Naiyanetr who taught me about various aspects of the cardiology department and guided me throughout the Internship project.
Shradha Silori
Class of 2021
The experience of working in Mahidol University as an intern was fascinating. I was introduced to this opportunity last academic year through our biology teacher. The professor and students from Mahidol University came to visit Wells to share about the programme they offer at their campus. I interned for a total of 3 weeks starting from 19th June to 13th July. I worked on the Artificial Organ lab (AO lab), which was a part of the biomedical engineering department under the supervision of Professor Phornphop Naiyanetr. The objective of the artificial organ lab is to make devices that alternate natural organs to restore a specific part or function of that organ. Some of the current research areas that the master students are working on are blood pump, artificial heart, ventricular assist device and heart valve. I was working with another student from Wells, Kavishi, who is currently a senior. With the help of her prior knowledge of the certain topics we were exploring during the internship, I understood my work easily.
During the experience, we had to learn a lot of Physics concepts in order to understand the engineering perspective of our work. During the first week, we were introduced to the topic of Electrocardiogram, or ECG. It is a machine which computes the electrical activity in your heart to show whether it is functioning normally. An ECG collects data by recording the heart’s pattern and activity on a screen. We were asked to make a circuit which could assist in running the machine. We also got the opportunity to meet Dr. Riaz Akhtar, a professor from Liverpool University, United Kingdom. He presented the programme from the University of Liverpool and talked about the project he was working on with his Phd students which was to understand how the nano- and micro-scale properties of biological tissues alter with ageing and disease. Over the course of this internship, we also presented topics relating to the ECG. By the end of the 3 weeks, we completed our ECG circuit and also made a presentation on what we learnt over this course of time. Even though I had to travel for about 2 hours one way, it was all worth it.
Overall, the experience was one to remember, considering the new knowledge we gained, not only in terms of studies but also in terms of interacting with elders and peers. It was indeed inspiring seeing the students work hard to pursue their passions and dreams at the university and I hope to do the same in my near future. At the end, I shall remain thankful to the entire team of organizers, Mahidol University, Wells International School, students, teachers, and professors for finding me capable of being a part of this internship.
Muskan Manoj Gurbuxani
Class of 2021
The internship that took place over the 2018 summer break, was a 4 week experience that took place in Mahidol University Salaya. This was the first internship I participated in, and it was a great one. A total of 9 students attended this internship from Wells International School. Everyone was put into groups of 2-3 and we were given choices on what we wanted to work on. My partner and I chose biomedical engineering. Our job was to remake a model of a wireless car. During the first week, we made the plans and we decided on separating the work. During the second week we started making the model by using the guide book and looking at the made model. During the last week, we started coding, using multiple different apps like Fritzing. Our final result was a model that could move by the app’s orders and it could go both forward and backward.
Throughout this whole process, I learnt how a machine functions and also I gained a better knowledge of coding. One important thing I learnt was teamwork, through these few weeks, I met a bunch of new people, everyday we were learning with a new person, either a PhD student, or a intern. Some of the challenges I faced were language and level of difficulty. It was hard to communicate with some people due to language barriers. We used many people as translators and we also used google translate a few times. Another challenge I faced was the level of difficulty. The things learnt in regard to this internship were way more difficult than our school studies, because it was university level. But I met so many new people and learnt new things from all of them. After this internship I noticed that I had more knowledge into the tools used in labs and I have a good amount of knowledge on biomedical lab safety rules and also how to use these tools. Overall, this was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in my entire life. I’m really looking forward to more opportunities like this from multiple different universities. Thank You Wells.
Poorvi Daga
Class of 2021
It was an amazing experience being an intern in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Mahidol University for 3 weeks. The professors and students from Mahidol University came to visit Wells and talked about their department. Also, they shared their experience working in different labs. This internship made me experience different things like building robots as I was an intern in Center for Biomedical and Robotics Technology (BART) lab. I was being supervised under Professor Songpol Ongwattanakul along with my friend Muskan. We learned about Arduino, motors, different techniques including soldering, and overall we gained a lot knowledge. Lastly, I am really thankful to the professors, teachers, organizers, and both Mahidol University and Wells International School for finding me capable of this internship.