International and Inclusive Advancement—Combining Engineering and Public Health
As Sameen Yusuf (Class of 2017) states, “Everyone [at Mason] who has worked with me from my freshman year has supported me in finding what I really cared about.”
In the Honors College, we encourage students to pursue all of their passions and if possible, to synthesize them into their dream career. Sameen is an example of someone who has done just that. A bioengineering major, Sameen has combined her interests in both engineering and public health to conduct her research.
Sameen developed a low-cost analyzer that measures oxygen in neonatal incubators. This device is extremely important because too much or too little oxygen can harm premature infants. The analyzer can be made inexpensively because of the type of battery she uses to power it, hearing aid batteries. The low cost of making the analyzer makes it accessible in underserved areas. Sameen even wrote the software used to read the output and display it on the LDC screen.
Sameen also wrote the software that reads the output and displays it on an LCD screen, pictured here.
This critical research has granted Sameen the opportunities to travel to both Nicaragua and Nepal with the organization, Engineering World Health. Through this experience she helped repair hospital equipment, such as neonatal vital sign monitors and incubator temperature alarms.
Sameen credits her experiences in Nicaragua and Nepal with further developed her engineering skills. She stated that it made her begin to think, “when designing a device, what materials am I going to use? Are these materials accessible in the developing world?”