What courses do you teach?

I teach Signals and Systems for Biomedical Engineering, Medical Informatics and Telemedicine, Medical Robotics and Assistive Technologies, Engineering in Biomedicine, Introduction to Engineering Design, Introduction to Engineering, and Senior Capstone

What led you to the work you do now?

I was born and grew up in Peru, and Spanish is my native language. I have always been interested in how things are put together and how they work, and I have always loved math and science. Studying engineering was a great fit and gave me a traditional foundation to pursue advanced degrees. I worked hard at mastering English when I was a teenager, so I had a good transition to my training in America. My education culminated with a Ph.D. from MIT and a Postdoc at Harvard Medical School. As a result, I was able to go beyond fundamentals and apply my skills to innovate and solve real problems focused on digital technologies and data analytics in medicine. It was also there that I was exposed to presenting, demonstrating, and explaining complex ideas to people of all backgrounds. That is how I eventually gravitated toward teaching biomedical engineering.

What are you most proud of?

I find it very rewarding to see how students evolve, mature, and succeed as they advance through their education at Wentworth. I have the privilege of teaching several of the large introduction to engineering lectures, where I encounter hundreds of new students each year. I typically don’t see many of them until their junior or senior years, which is when they take more advanced and complex courses with me. That is where I get to see their increased focus and commitment to their majors, as well as their future careers.

Describe one thing that you are working on or is happening in your classroom that you are excited about.

A successful class is one where I talk less, and students engage and do more. With that in mind, in collaboration with an amazing course designer from the Teaching and Learning Collaborative (TLC), my classes now incorporate much more active learning. I typically turn current topics of interest into case studies for students to explore and apply the concepts presented in class. Examples include, disparities in health measures across different populations, COVID test comparisons, mobile tool development for vaccination tracking, and deployable health informatics after natural disasters like hurricanes.

What is one interesting fact about you?

As a certified medical interpreter in English/Spanish, I help Hispanic families with their medical visits. I believe that I am also funnier in Spanish.

Share a quote that guides what you do personally or professionally.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." ― Mark Twain

What's one piece of advice you have for Latinx students at Wentworth?

Your time in college is a gift, and it can provide you with some of the most formative experiences you will ever have. You will not only learn important skills but will also form some powerful relationships and possibly some lifetime friendships. I would encourage all students to take every opportunity to engage, participate, and learn. Go to class, do the work—it is okay to ask for help or clarification. As a Latino, it is even more important to not only follow this advice but to serve as a role model to others and lead by example. It doesn’t matter where you come from; you will be remembered for what you do, your positive contributions, and enthusiastic embrace of new challenges, both academic and personal.

Share any recent publications and other accomplishments.

Publications:

• A robot-assisted system for at-home telerehabilitation. July 2021, Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America (RESNA) Annual Meeting, Feldman, U.
• Innovations in Medical Robotics: Surgery, Logistics, Disinfection, and Telepresence, Feldman, U., Larsen, C.N., Parmonova, E., Theobald, D., Chapter 7, in ‘Patient-Centered Healthcare Technology: The Way to Better Health’ edited by Goldschmidt, L. & Relova, R.M., IET Books, 2019 (forthcoming)

Grants:

• 2020 EPIC grant recipient: 3D Printed Orthopaedic Surgical Guide Design and Evaluation in collaboration with Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
• 2019 EPIC grant recipient on Robot Assisted Physical Therapy System and Analytics