Post-China Self Assessment

Blynn L. Shideler

Magellan 2016

Reflective Report

            “The Magellan Project makes you a total badass,” my father said to me driving down to the Pittsburgh airport as I prepared to embark on my second and final Magellan journey. “The difference between studying abroad through the Magellan Project and everyone else studying abroad is that everyone else gets to go with a group of students and with a professor that knows the area; with the Magellan project, you are all on your own.  When something goes wrong, it is your problem to solve, and that makes you a badass.”  After spending thirteen weeks living on my own and working my first job in research last summer in Paris, these words resonated strongly with me.  This message did not help to calm my nerves, however, as I wondered how I would even order my first meal in a country where I could barely say, “Hello.”  Needless to say, five weeks later, I had grown.

            I spent five weeks of Summer 2016 at Hangzhou Dianzi University’s Biomedical Engineering Department in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.  I worked as a biomedical engineering intern and joined a team of graduate and doctorate students on a project focused on designing a prosthetic hand.  As a student in the 3-2 engineering program, this project was well-tailored to my academic interests.  In fact, this research internship served as a perfect introduction to my career field; I have said since high school that I am interested in pursuing a career in prosthetic fabrication.  By contributing to work on designing a prosthetic hand, I learned many things about what exactly a career in prosthetics would entail.

            My internship focused on a single study that investigated the kinematic movements of the human wrist during various activities and how they correlate to neuromuscular activity in the forearm.  My personal contribution to the project involved analyzing the velocity of wrist movements to determine if the new method of quantifying muscle activity in the forearm at Hangzhou Dianzi University was a viable method for predicting wrist kinematics.  This study involved an understanding of many scientific areas including surface electromyography (sEMG), advanced matrix algorithms, muscle synergy theory, and more.  I had minimal experience in these topics prior to my internship in China, but an understanding of all is essential for understanding the functionality of modern prosthetic technology.  Accordingly, in many ways, this internship was a perfect introduction to a career in prosthetic research and design.  More generally, I learned about electromyography and its applications in the medical field.   As I learned more, I was introduced to careers beyond prosthetics that interest me, which was perhaps even more beneficial.

            I presented my study in June to faculty from the Department of Biomedical Engineering & Instrumentation at Hangzhou Dianzi University.  This presentation gave me further experience with presenting scientific research in a professional setting.  More importantly, this presentation gave me a better understanding of how to present in a way that is accommodating to a specific audience; in this case, that meant overcoming a language barrier, as English was a second language to my audience.  Overcoming the language barrier allowed me to focus on creating a presentation that was easily understood by a diverse audience—a crucial component to any enjoyable scientific presentation.

            Additionally, as a part of my exchange program, I gave a separate presentation to the general Hangzhou Dianzi University student community titled, “Universities in the United States.”  This presentation introduced Chinese students to college life in America, highlighting the differences that I noticed between universities in China and universities in the United States based on my experience at Washington & Jefferson.  Along with gaining a better understanding of college life in China through this presentation, I had an opportunity to meet many Chinese students and integrate myself into the student body at Hangzhou Dianzi University.  Students’ positive reactions made me realize the worldly appreciation for the university system in the United States (despite their astonishment at the cost of tuition).  Overall, the things I learned while designing this presentation shed a positive light on college life in the United States and helped me to appreciate Washington & Jefferson a little more than I had before.

            From a cultural perspective, and simply as a lesson on living independently, traveling to China alone as an American who does not speak the language taught me many lessons in itself.   Overcoming the language barrier was difficult at times, but I learned that there are other ways to communicate when exchanging words is not possible.  Moreover, spending a month in China gave me a taste of a lifestyle that is much different from that of the United States.  I began to notice many things in my life that I once thought were universally important for life.  Now, rather, I view them simply as values in American culture.  One example of this is self-image, particularly while eating meals.  In the United States, it is custom to use proper table manners during all meals, regardless of the setting.  In China, they believe that focusing on table manners takes away from the enjoyment of eating a meal.  Without worrying about self-image, shoveling noodles into your mouth with chopsticks is acceptable, and the food becomes more enjoyable.   As a messy eater myself, I believe we should adopt this mindset in the United States…

            Another cultural difference I noticed was overpopulation and its pollution effects on the environment.  Every morning, the streets flood with bikes, mopeds, and cars.  Smoke stains the air as it pour from endless rows of factories.  The consistent smog in the atmosphere makes the overpopulation and over-industrialization problems readily apparent in China, especially in the larger cities.  However, the Chinese government has administered new policies to begin slowing these environmental effects.  One policy includes banning the use of mopeds and motorcycles powered by gasoline, only allowing those that run on electricity.  Although air pollution is not as extreme of an issue in the United States as it is in China, I believe that the United States government should adopt a similar policy, as electric mopeds and motorcycles operate with comparable efficiency to those powered by gasoline.

            Lastly, through my cultural experience, I began to realize the advantages and disadvantages of the luxury of the Internet in the United States.  Beginning around 2012, the Chinese government established a national Internet firewall, banning many popular American sites including Google and its entities, YouTube, some sites of Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many others.  I once heard the saying, “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” and this echoed through my frustration once my access to these websites was denied after boarded the plane.  Throughout my summer research, I realized how heavily I relied on sites like Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia for academic purposes, as all of these websites offer instant access to information that is otherwise difficult to find.  However, looking at the Internet ban from a positive perspective, I also realized the detriment of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and their negative impact on productivity.  As a frequent user of many social media sites, I considered how easily distracting these sites can be while working on a computer with unrestricted Internet access.  Mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds consumes immense amounts of time in America, and I quickly noticed an increase in my productivity without access to these websites.  Overall, I believe the Internet ban improved my quality of life as it forced my to look around at the Chinese world when I would have otherwise been staring into an iPhone screen.

            After experiencing personal growth as a researcher and a worldly citizen that comes with completing a Magellan project, I can say with confidence that this summer changed my life.  Five short weeks allowed me to expand my horizons and find a home 10,000 miles away.  As a student pursuing a career in prosthetic design, working with biomedical engineering graduate students on a prosthetic hand and learning about the functionality of modern prosthetics was perfect experience for my future.  With the help of the Magellan fund, I have been given the opportunities to travel to two separate continents to learn about different cultures of the world and the universal contribution to improving science.  After completing both projects, I have never felt so accomplished and confident about living my life independently.  With a sigh of relief, I can say that my father was right; the Magellan project made me a total badass.