Graduating student on her way to transform the medical field

With a strong drive to improve health care, Emily Scholes, a senior graduating this May from The Ohio State University, is discovering how to implement her mechanical engineering knowledge into the field.  

Scholes discovered the Medical Modeling, Materials and Manufacturing (M4) Lab during her junior year and quickly reached out to Mary Pancake, M4 program manager, to visit the lab. Soon after, Scholes was hired and began collaborating with the medical device team of the M4 Prototyping Lab at the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME). 

Scholes worked on a variety of projects with the medical device team, including designing a platform apparatus used for chemical analyses, surgical devices and techniques for other health-related applications. 

For these projects, Scholes experienced designing from customer requirements and specifications. She also learned how to reverse engineer existing designs to new components would interface and work closely with users to ensure that the products designed will achieve the intended applications. 

Being on the medical device team gave her an inside look at the process of manufacturing devices on an industry level. Learning from industry-experienced professionals really shaped her vision for her future. Ryan Brune, medical device lead engineer, extended technical and design support to her throughout her time at CDME. Scholes was also inspired by Mary Pancake’s work as a woman in engineering and it pushed her to work harder.  

“To complement her summer internships, Emily has been involved in a number of challenging biomedical product development projects at CDME over the past two and half years,” said Pancake. “She has not only enhanced her computer-aided-design skills, but more importantly, Emily has grown as an engineer offering thoughtful insight and contributing to multi-disciplinary teams solving open-ended problems to create innovative solutions that meet product requirements and client expectations.” 

Since beginning at CDME, Scholes always felt comforted, encouraged and inspired by the people she works with. The opportunity to work in such an uplifting environment gave her the confidence to enter the workplace post graduation.  

Through her project experiences, she learned extensive communication skills, problem-solving skills and confidence within the design field, including designing a product that can be manufactured as easily as possible. 

As Scholes finishes her last semester at Ohio State, she is interested in the healthcare sector of engineering, especially assisting in medical practices for children.  

This interest was developed through Scholes' experience as an engineering development program intern at GE Healthcare. She helped design a medical device attachment that would aid kids with easier and more comfortable MRI scanning. 

“I really enjoy working with children, so putting that together with engineering is an ideal situation for me,” said Scholes. “Getting that experience truly opened my perspective on what I can do with my degree.”  

Way to connect with Emily Scholes:  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-scholes-428048181/ 

By: Evahanna Cruz, CDME marketing and communications student assistant