I’m a 4th year PhD Student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering working with microfluidic organ-on-a-chip devices. These chips recreate the most critical components of a human organ using only human cells and a plastic chip the size of a house key. These little chips hold an immense potential to change countless things from the way we develop pharmaceuticals to observing the long term effects of space travel on the human body. 
For my project I have partnered with the University of Arizona KEYS Research Internship to develop a program to give high-school students experience using microfluidic devices and understanding their role inside NASA research. My project will build a hands-on workshop series that gives high-school interns at UA the chance to build and use their own simple microfluidic chip. These workshops also help the students to practice public speaking and communicating technical aspects of research to a general audience. Alongside the workshop series, I will work as a supervisor hosting high-school interns to work in our microfluidics lab and teach them how to test a more in depth hypothesis using the microfluidic devices that they have fabricated over the course of the summer. Over the course of the academic year I will be giving lab tours to the public and traveling to Arizona high-schools with the KEYS internship team to give a seminar on the microfluidic organ-on-a-chip research NASA is performing currently aboard the ISS. Overall, our goal is not only to generate momentum for these students to pursue a STEM field but also to help them develop skills to become capable researchers themselves.