Seeing Course 20 in a Different Light

    This module is going by fast. It’s been not even two weeks of module 3 and already it seems as if it is coming to an end. With the mini report due next week and the research proposals due the following week, this module has flown by. To be honest, I wish this module was longer. I’ve never actually thought of bioengineering as a way to harness nature into making materials and devices. I’ve always thought bioengineering was used in a way module 1 and module 2 presesnted it—as a way to describe and study diseases and cellular functions. This module is the most interesting to me, especially since I’ve never been exposed to anything like this before. Learning about Professor Belcher’s research kind of blew my mind. 

    You may think I'm kidding, but I really think my brain exploded, much like the picture above, when I heard that bioengineering had applications in the manufacturing of materials and devices. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that phages can be harnessed to improve the electronic properties of a photoanode. I wish we could spend a little longer on this module so I can delve into this topic further. Can time just slow down so I can process this better? We spent so much time on module 1 and module 2, and I feel like it's a little unfair to spend so little time on module 3. This way of using bioengineering is harder for me to grasp and yet makes it so much more amazing to me. I definitely had a limited understanding as to what bioengineering could be used for before coming into this class. This biomaterials part of 20.109 opened up my definition of bioengineering and I’ve never felt prouder to be course 20.  The fact that people are constantly finding new ways to utilize biology for different applications in the world only makes me more excited to enter the field of bioengineering after college.