User:Smd43

Hi! My name is Simon David (pronounced SY-muhn DAY-vid). I am from Atlanta, and I have a twin brother who is a freshman at Georgia Tech. I am a Duke freshman studying biomedical engineering, and I am interested in going to medical school after I graduate. I really love the idea of using engineering to innovate effective, personalized therapies and to improve healthcare both here in the United States and all around the world. I am so excited about becoming a DUKE engineer! I enjoy reading novels, playing the violin, volunteering in the community, and watching/playing basketball. Go Blue Devils!

Cheaper Drugs: Biomedical Engineers' 'Body-on-a-Chip' Could Reduce the Cost of Developing New Drugs, ScienceDaily, updated 1 July 2006, accessed 2 February 2013 (Engineer better medicines)

I enjoyed the Loma Prieta Earthquake demo because it was fascinating to see a real-world application of Matlab programming. In many ways, an earthquake is the "perfect storm" of an engineering problem. Any seismic event has the potential to disrupt vital infrastructure and endanger the lives of people living within its vicinity. That being said, it is incredibly empowering to track the spread of an earthquake's forces outward from its epicenter. Engineers, empowered with tools like Matlab, can develop models to track not only the paths of an earthquake's seismic shocks but also attempt to predict when earthquake's will occur based on analysis of fault lines and small-scale plate tectonics. In this way, engineers can make a huge impact in the safety of civilians by accurately informing people of the magnitude of the earthquake seismic force and the direction of its movement. The applications do not end there! Engineers can also use models to study how an earthquake's force is distributed over various buildings. Such modeling would enable engineers to innovate stronger and more resilient designs for buildings, thereby adding layer of safety for civilians in the event of an earthquake.