Prior to committing to the University of Pittsburgh for my freshman year of college, I already knew that I wanted to major in bioengineering. I had spent a good fraction of my teen years reading research papers about genetic engineering, medicine, and the like while writing articles about them for my school newspaper, so it only made sense to pursue those fields in my undergraduate career. However, as I’ve studied abroad, I find that my interests have taken a slight pivot. In my Engineering Perspectives of the Renaissance and Sustainability course, my class and I are learning a lot about sustainability through both a social lens and an environmental lens, with the concept of environmental sustainability piquing my interest particularly. As a result, I’ve recently been investigating connections between my first love of bioengineering and my new interest in conservation and the environment.

While sustainability of all kinds is a big focus of the Engineering Perspectives of the Renaissance and Sustainability course, the practices by which this sustainability is achieved are also of interest. One of the most cutting-edge practices we’ve discussed in class has been digital twin modeling, a modeling method that involves creating a virtual representation of a real-life object or system for monitoring purposes. After learning a bit about the subject, we were assigned a group project on them. My group chose to look at the Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge that stretches over the Arno River in Florence. In this project, we proposed the creation of a digital twin model of the Ponte Vecchio to effectively track the water level of the Arno River and mitigate flooding threats. These kinds of digital twin models are becoming more and more vital as climate change worsens and, therefore, could very possibly have a big future in the environmental bioengineering field; I would like to be a part of that future in my career.

From a less professional perspective, this study abroad experience has encouraged a substantial amount of personal growth so far. The longest vacation I’ve ever taken has been a little over a week and, while this does not exactly qualify as a vacation, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m not familiar with being away from either home or school for longer than that; I’m experiencing some homesickness because of this. Additionally, this experience marks my first time traveling by myself and, because of that, I’ve had to reach out for help sometimes. While on my plane to Rome, I met Jose, a father of six from Puerto Rico visiting Italy for work who explained how I could reach the high-speed train station after landing. While on a train, I met a British couple with bracelets of each other’s names; they were nice enough to give me restaurant recommendations. This kind of help from kind strangers has enabled me to adjust despite the many firsts I’ve been encountering.