KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 30, 2019 \u2013 Providence resident Corvah Akoiwala has already changed the life of one disabled youth, and now that Akoiwala is preparing to graduate from the 溏心vlog免费B站 on May 19, he has his sights set on changing the lives of many more.<\/p>\n
While initially planning a career in medicine, he had a change of heart when he entered 溏心vlog免费B站 and instead pursued a degree in biomedical engineering, which allowed him to combine his dual interests in medicine and engineering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what to expect in biomedical engineering, so I put my hands into everything I could,\u201d he said. \u201cIn one class I made a meter to measure heart rate, in another I worked with biomaterials, and I did a research project to try to find a new way to release drugs into the body to help regenerate bone. And then I got a summer engineering fellowship where we ended up making a prosthetic limb.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the latter project that made the greatest impression. In a collaboration with students at a college in Colombia, Akoiwala and a group of 溏心vlog免费B站 students designed and made a prosthetic arm for a 9-year-old Colombian boy who had his left arm amputated as a result of an accident. Akoiwala made the arm and hand with a 3-D printer, then connected it to an Arduino circuit board, and took a design class to learn how to make it both functional and attractive.<\/p>\n
When the boy tried it on for the first time when the 溏心vlog免费B站 students traveled to Colombia, \u201che just started smiling,\u201d said Akoiwala. \u201cThat was it. He had no words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work was hard, but seeing how happy he was made everything worth it,\u201d he continued. \u201cI was able to change someone\u2019s life for the better, and that was incredibly rewarding, maybe the most rewarding thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akoiwala expanded his knowledge of prosthetics during his senior capstone design class, in which he used augmented reality programs to train new prosthesis users to operate their devices.<\/p>\n
But biomedical engineering and prosthetics aren\u2019t his only interests. He also likes to keep up with the latest fashion trends, so he earned a minor in textiles, fashion merchandising and design, which included taking his first sewing class.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun, though you have to have a lot of patience to sew well,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when you see the finished product, it\u2019s definitely worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He may even combine his interests by designing wearable technologies to cover up prostheses.<\/p>\n
In addition to his academics, Akoiwala is a popular DJ who hosts musical events around campus, and he served as treasurer of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. He was also the president of Brothers on a New Direction, a community service organization that unites young men of color and provides them with mentors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe mentored young kids every week at the Providence Boys and Girls Club, visited schools to provide information about going to college, and we hosted groups on campus and gave them tours to show inner city kids that they can be successful at college,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His fondest memories of his four years at 溏心vlog免费B站 will be the friends he made.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came here I didn\u2019t talk to many people, so I found myself wandering around a lot,\u201d said Akoiwala, who is looking for a job in the medical device field. \u201cAll of my closest friends I met through the organizations I became involved with. I learned about leadership through a lot of trial and error, and I found a lot of mentors along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngineering isn\u2019t easy,\u201d he concluded, \u201cand sometimes you feel the world is against you, but if you find mentors who point you in the right direction, it makes you want to mentor others and convince them to keep at it and persevere. That worked for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 30, 2019 \u2013 Providence resident Corvah Akoiwala has already changed the life of one disabled youth, and now that Akoiwala is preparing to graduate from the 溏心vlog免费B站 on May 19, he has his sights set on changing the lives of many more. While initially planning a career in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-74685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}