When I tell people that my first internship as a pre-med was an electrical engineering co-op at a large automotive supplier company, I’m often met with puzzling looks and raised eyebrows. On the one hand, I get questions about switching from engineering to pre-med, and on the other, I get asked how I got involved in electrical wiring in the first place.
I had been fascinated by robotics since middle school, going on to participate in FIRST Robotics Competitions in high school and now as a mentor in college. These experiences taught me the value of technical skills I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to as a Neuroscience major. From simply learning what not to do with a drill, taking an interest in coding, and attempting to figure out the electrical circuit board, I was well out of my comfort zone. However, six years of navigating robotics led to three things: lots of accidental cuts, a strong-headed attitude to not give up, and exactly the kind of intriguing resume experience automotive companies were looking for.
It turns out that my experience working with automation was closer to my pre-med studies than I had originally thought. So, before you exit this post and feel yourself yawning at the prospect of an engineering lecture, hear me out: wires and networks in an automation system have the similar functionality of the human nervous system. Seriously, Krupa? Enough with the metaphors already.
A stimulus from one of your organs sends a signal to the brain to be processed, generating a consequent response action. Comparably, automation systems have mechanical or technological sensors that detect its surroundings and send signals to the controller, allowing the output to activate or move another component of the system.
Have you considered how the biological tissues of our body support such rapid coordination of the brain, limbs, and sensory input? How do they work so fast? Well, they do so with nervous system tissue that imitates – you guessed it – electrical wiring. Much like the insulation around the wires in electrical systems, glial cells form a membranous sheath surrounding axons called myelin, which insulates the axon. This myelination can greatly increase the speed of signals transmitted between neurons (known as action potentials).
Through my internship, I was able to draw the analogy between the transmission of messages via the nervous system within the human body and the wires and networks of an automation system. I saw the nervous system as a circuit – one that not only relayed information about the body but could also be tapped with new information in order to treat all kinds of medical conditions.
I found myself comparing circuit analyses and wiring illustrations to axon diagrams in my Behavioral Neuroscience textbook. Two completely different worlds that I had always seen as unrelated – now with parallels that were hard to unsee.
Combining my interests in robotics, neuroscience, electrical engineering, and entrepreneurship brings me to the topic of neural networks: computer systems that are designed to mimic the human brain, working with multiple algorithms that can analyze patterns over time to reach data-driven conclusions. I learned that in autonomous vehicles, neural networks are used to track a moving object and determine potential collisions. I discovered that in the medical field, brain machine interface technology can be used with the goal of developing systems to enable paralyzed individuals to control prosthetic limbs.
Elucidating computational principles in the brain with the goal of translating these principles into neural therapeutic devices is just one aspect of the untapped potential in the intersection of electronics and systems neuroscience. Working as an electrical engineering co-op gave me a different perspective on the organ I had always been intrigued by.
To step outside of your comfort zone in another field of interest is something I can’t recommend highly enough. Maybe you’ll end up finding a connection you didn’t expect, or maybe you’ll be pointed into a different direction entirely by the end of the experience. While I very well could have been entranced by building computers and developing electrical systems, I chose to study the most complicated electrical computer we know: the brain.
I’m grateful to have explored science through the lens of engineering, but more importantly for giving myself room to grow and learn as simply an individual – not just a pre-med student. Ask yourself: when is the last time you explored or tried something new? You just might surprise yourself.