Francisco Sanchez-Morales is from Haitillo, P.R. He chose a degree in STEM because it gives him “the opportunity to impact the community around me even well before finishing my degree.” As an engineering student, he has gotten a lot of opportunities to work on projects and outreach events for his community. Sanchez-Morales originally expected his STEM classes to be math and science heavy classes that required a lot of prior knowledge. Since then, he has realized that most of the workload comes from extracurricular projects and jobs outside of school assignments. This has been by far more enjoyable than Sanchez expected college life to be.
Summer 2018, Sanchez-Morales worked at Stephen Forrest’s lab at the University of Michigan in the pattering of parelyn to eventually use it in the pattering of cells. This experience motivated him to pursue a PhD in a field where he can combine his knowledge in robotics and science with his passion of helping others.
Summer 2019, Sanchez-Morales worked at Prof. Thomas Bifano’s lab developing a setup to measure the effects of mechanical stimulation on heart tissue. His project consisted of designing an enclosure that allowed the long exposure of tissue cell to mechanical stimulation, while simultaneously imaging the sample. The purpose was to identify changes any changes in the behaviour of the tissue after it had been mechanically stimulated at different frequencies for various time periods.
Overall, Sanchez Morales wished to eventually impact more people through his work and research. His advice to future participants is to “learn as much as you can from the entire experience, not just from the research project.”
After completing the research experience, Francisco also completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering with Prof. Bifano as his advisor.
