Meet Edna De Jesus Cabrera, a current Master's degree student at the University of Turku and an UTUambassador 2023-2024!
"Hello! I am Edna and I come from Mexico City, Mexico. Now I am a second-year master’s degree student in Materials Engineering programme on the Health Technology track.
My programme is special because it reunites three very different tracks together and shows you that the same knowledge can be applied to different fields. However, having a background in Biomedical Engineering and pursuing the Health Technology materials track, I can say that it is highly important to study this field. Medical devices are used worldwide, yet they are evolving relatively quickly just as the medical industry. Since we are talking about devices that will be in contact with the body, using the right materials is crucial for a device to succeed or fail, so by studying this field you can have more knowledge on what materials to use depending on the desired application.
I do not really have a plan for the future, the only thing I have planned so far is that I want to graduate by next year. For this, I am working on my thesis and even though I do not have a thesis topic selected yet, I think it will go towards the fabrication of Au@Pt nanorods and their electrochemical behaviour applied towards biosensing.
I am currently working as a Research Assistant in the Materials Engineering department, where I get to do plenty of experiments and learn about several ongoing research projects. However, in my free time you will almost always find me working out or in dancing classes since they are things I enjoy to do a lot."
LinkedIn: Edna de Jesus
Edna's study experience:
My interest for this field sparked since my Bachelor’s studies, which was Biomedical Engineering. Back then I was more interested on medical imaging but during my last year I learnt a lot about biocompatibility, biomaterials and artificial organs. This was really exciting since I learnt the potential changes it could bring to currently available healthcare, and how much it could shift the future medical industry. This is why I wanted to pursue a Master’s Degree on this field. However, business was on the back on my head during my whole bachelors studies because I thought it would be useful for my future career in the medical industry but I was not able to pursue it due to my tight schedule back then.
So far, the most interesting course I have taken is Chemical sensors and biosensors. This is because illness detection has always been a personal interest for me since I know the impact it can have on the patient depending on the accuracy and timings of the detection. So by looking more in depth on these topics motivates me into looking for potential future projects and perhaps my Master’s thesis. *fingers crossed*
My future career plans is a difficult question, since I never know if they will change in the future or not. Before I did not even saw myself pursuing a Master’s degree but because I was really interested on biomaterials I thought that this would help me pursue a career where I could be part of the ongoing research on these topics. Now, after learning about business in healthcare technology I am considering the option to pursue a career in the industry after knowing all the benefits that biomaterials can bring patients and healthcare in general.
UTU has given me the opportunity to have hands on experience in a laboratory, where I get to see the things that I have learnt in the classroom applied to real life research and understand how is the process behind them.
I would say that Materials Engineering is a great programme for anyone who wants to learn different ways to study how a materials behave and what can be done to improve or change their properties so that they are a better match for a desired application.