Page 34 - CBAC Newsletter 2017

What made you interested in ECGI in the first place?

I’ve had a particular interest in cardiology since I began exploring the field of medicine. So, ECGI’s extension and
innovation of the commonly used electrocardiogram was truly fascinating (especially, when I discovered that ECGI
entailed tracking electric activity in the heart in a three dimensional, spatiotemporal manner)!

What would you say most motivates you to do what you do?

Through high school, I’ve come to realize that an integral part of medical innovation is research. So, in order to
better understand medicine, the field I hope to one day be a part of, I think it’s really important that I be a part of
the population that helps advance medicine via research. The most exciting part of research for me is the fact that
it is so dynamic and widespread; it never ceases to amaze me how quickly new innovations/discoveries are made.
My greatest love for science and research, however, stems from the fact that so much of it is used to ensure that all
people from all over the world can have access to new technology. In the future, my goal is to try and make science
and all of its wonderful innovations accessible and feasible for all so that scientific innovation can help people of all
walks of life, as it should.

My parents instilled a great sense of curiosity in me from a young age. I was an avid connoisseur of puzzles as well
as anything with words, but my dad was a software engineer by trade, so I always had a propensity for STEM.
Realizing I wasn’t a big fan of ever changing comma rules or anything pertinent to grammar, I turned to the rigidness
of math and science to cultivate my growing curiosity. With the support of my parents and teachers, I took advanced
science and math classes starting around the third grade which helped me hone in on my love for math and science
which is something I have carried ever since.

What kinds of hobbies and activities do you enjoy?

I like to say I’m outdoorsy since I love to run and play tennis, but I’m a colossal nerd at heart so I also spend a lot of
time reading and watching movies.

Future plans?

I plan on going to college next year to major in Chemical Engineering with minors in math and Spanish then
hopefully going to medical school after my undergraduate years to become a pediatric cardiologist. My dream job
would be to work as a pediatric cardiologist who travels the world helping children in impoverished nations.

In terms of your college plans, where have you looked?

Let’s see, I have gotten into SLU, Mizzou, Purdue and Georgia Tech. Of the four, I probably go to Georgia Tech but I
also applied to Wash U., Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and those decisions hadn’t come out yet.

I am curious as to what you and Ramya Vijayakumar, Ph.D. have learned from each other?

Oh my gosh, Dr. Vijayakumar, I always call her Dr. V, whenever I talk about her, I don’t know why. It is just how
committed she is and how well she handles so many different facets of everything because I was terrified of
emailing Dr. Rudy because he is really busy and he had all this research going but he emailed me back so fast and
Dr. V. would do the exact same thing. She was so committed even when she was working on her doctoral thesis and
she has a family. I was amazed at how much time she was willing to give to someone who pretty sure asked her so
many stupid questions because we would talk about it and I think I have it until I went home and tried to do it.

29 | CBAC Center Heartbeat