Hi!
My name is Summer Shabana. I’m a senior at Baker studying bioengineering, engineering design, biochemistry & cell biology, and Spanish! When I’m not in class, I spend most of my time leading affinity groups; I’m currently one of the presidents of the Muslim Student Association and social media chair for the National Society of Black Engineers. Some of the things we’ve done can be found here and here, respectively. I also advise at Baker, shadow physicians at TMC, and volunteer to teach chemistry in local elementary and middle schools. Outside of Rice, I spend my free time listening to music, playing viola, exploring Houston with my friends, and watching horror and true crime movies with my family.
I’m proud of the pediatric pelvic model because it helped to resolve an issue that is understudied in medicine. We worked to create a model for forensic nurses to practice conducting examinations for children who survived sexual assault. As a team made up of women, it was fulfilling to work on something specific to our experiences and help make a difference. A picture of our poster at the Engineering Design Showcase is shown below.
I hope to work on a project about disabilities specifically for low-resourced settings. I am eager to give back to my community and help create devices that are actually affordable for the people who are more likely to face these issues.
I hope to continue to apply and develop my prototyping skills in ENGI 200. I have had the opportunity to prototype a lot in ENGI 210 and BIOE 360, but I am eager to develop my skills in 3D printing specifically. I also hope to see the final steps of a project because many of the projects have worked on have only gone to the beginning stages of prototyping.