Brandon Tran is a Junior(Class of 2019) from Providence, RI. He is majoring in Electrical Engineering and minoring in Computer-Integrated Surgery and Robotics.
How did you get interested in electrical and computer engineering? What interests you the most about the field?
I’m a very indecisive person, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that I majored in ChemBE and then MechE before deciding on EE. I always wanted to work with medical devices, but I realized I didn’t want to take a life science route to it; which is why I switched to MechE from ChemBE. I then realized that I was awful at hand drafting, so I wanted to switch out of MechE. That semester, I took Physics 2, which I fell in love with, so I decided I would try EE. Early in my EE career, the electrical concepts in circuits and electromagnetics and the digital circuit logic in DSF hooked me into the major. Now, I am most interested in controls and how they relate to robotics and more specifically surgical robotic systems.
What made you decide to come to Johns Hopkins?
I was recruited to wrestle at Johns Hopkins so that was a large factor in deciding to come here. I also wanted to be far from home and enjoyed the focus on research for undergraduates.
Are you involved in any research? If so, what’s your role?
Yes, I am currently developing a force sensing surgical drill for the Galen robot, a hand-over-hand surgical robotic system.
What impact do you hope to make through your research?
By adding force sensing to a surgical drill, I hope that the force sensing can then be used to implement safety controls with the surgical drill. For example, if the force exerted on the drill gets too high, a robotic system could retract the drill or turn it off.
Outside of lab and class: what are you involved with (groups, organizations, intramurals, etc.)?
I am the treasurer of the FIJI fraternity and IEEE JHU chapters, and also a design team member of the Robotics Club and Engineering World Health.
What sort of impact do you hope to have either as an engineer or in a STEM field?
I hope to further healthcare by helping physicians perform tasks that they cannot do due to physical limitations. By doing so, I hope to make medical procedures safer and more effective for patients. I believe that everyone deserves the basic human right to health and I believe surgical robotics will make that belief closer to a reality.
What are your plans or goals for the rest of your time in the program at JHU?
I plan to finish my degree while taking a few graduate courses as an undergraduate. In addition, I plan on completing the robotics masters here.