by Lucy Lee

During the summer holiday, many TIS students had the opportunity to attend exciting summer programs. Prominently, senior student Daniel Yan challenged himself over the summer in doing work experience for Biomedical Engineering in the University of British Columbia (UBC). .

Through the encouragement of Mr. D’Entremont, who knew about Daniel’s deep interest in this field, Daniel was given a chance to work under Engineering Faculty Member Dr. Agnes D’Entremont and alongside masters student Carly Jones, in the Vancouver General Hospital’s Centre of Hip Health and Mobility (CHHM) to research a disorder on children’s hip bones, the Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease (LCPD). Daniel’s main job was to segment the femoral head from MRI images to create digital 3D models of the femoral head for simulations.

It was an eye opening experience for Daniel to see the process of medical research in action. He explains the research process “isn’t what you would imagine, you don’t go into research thinking you will immediately find the cure”.  He explained that research projects involves many steps to get approval and then it takes years to acquire the needed information; even preparing an MRI scan can take up to three years. “The environment was so techy and professional”, he said, “nobody was seen without glasses; it’s something I’ll never forget.”

The opportunity of this work experience provided Daniel a glimpse into Biomedical Engineering and has affirmed his interest in the field even more. Daniel admits he would definitely like to get into Biomedical Engineering as a career and is thinking about applying to UBC in the future.

Daniel’s story encourages more students to gain experience over the summer and face new challenges that can further construct their aspirations for the future.