This summer, Boston University undergraduate Andre Gonzaga will be joining Professor Alshawabkeh’s lab. Andre is part of the NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, which offers competitive placement in research labs around the country. Below, Andre shares his hopes for the summer program.
My name is Andre Gonzaga. I am a rising sophomore at Boston University studying Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Nanotechnology. I was born in a small town in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and moved to the United States when I was 12 years old. It was not until mid-way through high school that I developed a deep interest in engineering. It is certainly a challenging path, but a fulfilling one as well. The ability to help others through technological advances is the ideal marriage between a meaningful and rewarding line of work, which is what I have always envisioned for my life.
The chance to engage in purposeful research in Prof. Alshawabkeh’s lab as part of the REU program at Northeastern University is invaluable. It is an awesome opportunity to learn as well as to contribute to a very important project. I will be helping Shirin Hojabri with the reaction modeling of electrochemical remediation. Mathematical models are vital to any research since they provide knowledge of what will happen before actual experiments take place. In this case, they are key to describing and understanding the groundwater treatment process.
I hope by the end of my experience here this summer I will have a clear insight into how research works, which will be crucial in deciding what career path I want to pursue in the future. But most importantly, I hope that my work in the PROTECT Center is valuable to the team and can eventually be used to help people in parts of the world where contaminated water is an unfortunate reality.
Welcome, Andre!
