I&E Final Reflection

The capstone course I chose, Discovering Opportunities, was a strong culmination of my I&E certificate. In this course, I learned four key tactics: questioning the world around me, recognizing opportunities, evaluating businesses, and assessing impact. The format of this course was engaging and informative. I learned from lectures and in-class activities, but also from real entrepreneurs about their experiences with the highs and lows of starting a business.

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My most valuable takeaway from my capstone course was the importance of the entrepreneurial mindset. I learned that being an entrepreneur is not just the act of starting a business, but the constant desire to solve problems for yourself and for others. What distinguishes an entrepreneur from anyone else is their constant desire to ask questions and act on their ideas. This was a fundamental shift in my understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship. In this course, I gained entrepreneurial habits that have influenced how I approach my daily life. I now am asking myself more questions about the world around me and thinking critically about the choices that have been made about products in my life. 

I unexpectedly really enjoyed the research aspects of my certificate program, particularly the primary research I conducted during my S2N internship and ENV 767. Sitting in interviews sounded boring at first, however it ended up being my favorite part of many projects I was on. It was interesting to understand a physician's workflow and first-hand experience with patients and then apply this to key insights about the device. I found that these were the most helpful parts of the research and had the most influence on the final recommendations of the project. These experiences, along with my capstone experience, taught me how integral an understanding of markets, customers, and competitors is to a successful company. For example, in the medical device industry, without physicians, patients, and payors on board with your idea, your device will never have an impact on patients in need.

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This program was integral to my learning experience at Duke. If I pursued only my engineering curriculum, I would have a purely technical understanding of the medical device industry. Now, however, I have a much more well-rounded understanding of how companies function. I can have educated conversations with teams beyond engineering now that I have experience with financials, strategy, and analytics. My goal is to work in R&D engineering in the medical device industry upon my graduation and use my experiences from the I&E certificate to guide patient- and physician-focused design to early-stage innovation.