Guiselle Esquivel

Guiselle Esquivel-Fall 2016 Visiting Student at Rice University

My name is Guiselle Esquivel, 21 years old. I come from Costa Rica a small country known for its biodiversity, majestic volcanoes, forests, and stunning beaches.

I am currently in my last year of a five year program in Industrial Production Engeneering at Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica.

Two years ago, I awoke an interest in the medical device industry, after assisting to The DMD conference. After this I started looking for courses that could give me this forming, this is when I registered for the Engineering Design in Medical Device Innovation course taught by Dr. Eric Richardson in Costa Rica.

It was a very enriching experience because we worked in multidisciplinary teams to propose solutions to unmet need in the health sector by using brainstorming and low fidelity prototypes. After the short course ended I knew that the project had started to develop had a lot of potential and a great social impact since it consists in improving the of enteral feeding process with premature neonates, so we decided to continue with it.  This is why the opportunity to carry out my graduation project to work on the medical device design and validation with Rice University in collaboration with the National Children’s Hospital in Costa Rica was presented.

I am extremely excited about this hands-on experience and grateful for this opportunity of the exchange program. My expectations are really high and I know this will be an experience of personal and academic growth in this amazing leader research Institution.

Jorge Andrés Lizano Pereira-Fall 2016 Visiting Student at Rice University

Jorge Andrés Lizano Pereira, Fall 2016 Visiting Student

My name is Jorge Andrés Lizano Pereira. I am 21 years old and I live in the beautiful country of Costa Rica, a place full of nature and biodiversity. I study Mechatronics Engineering at the Institute of Technology of Costa Rica. A couple of years ago I started to get interest in the medical device industry, so I began looking for courses and academic experiences out of college. On 2015 I had the opportunity to assist an innovation summer course given at Costa Rica by Dr. Eric Richardson from Rice University. It was a great experience for me and I was impressed by its forward-thinking approach. After the course, me and my partner (friend) Guiselle Esquivel committed to develop one of the projects we started at the course. We have been working since then on the design of a medical device that improves the enteral feeding process for premature neonates in collaboration with Dr. Eric Richardson. Right now I am on my last year of a 5 year program, so for my (our) graduation project I (we) decided to work on that medical device design. I am really excited to go to Rice to work on this project, as I know it is a leading research university with a high standards, specially in the Bioengineering field; which makes it perfect for the development of our project. I expect this to be an incredible experience for my academic growth, but also a chance to share my culture and learn from others. 

Luis Diego Gene Antillon-Fall 2016 Visiting Student at Rice University

My name is Luis Diego Gene Antillon and I am from a small suburb town called Santa Ana, about 20 minutes west from the Costa Rican capital of San Jose.

I am currently a graduate student in the Master of Bioengineering program, specifically in the Global Medical Innovation (GMI) track. Initially I pursued an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Costa Rica but after realizing I had a strong passion for medical devices and healthcare, I transferred to the medical technology engineering program at Universidad Latina de Costa Rica where I graduated from last year.

During my senior year in high school I was invited to Rice University for a prospective visit and since that 3-day experience I had back then, I have always wanted to come back. For many reasons I could not consider studying abroad for my undergraduate degree, but last summer something unexpected happened: I attended a presentation sponsored by the Costa Rican Investment and Development Initiative (CINDE) on medical technology programs where Dr. Richardson (BIOE-GMI) was one of the presenters. At first, I had no idea Rice University was involved -In fact, I was just attending because my boss asked me to go in his place! When I heard about the GMI program I fell in love with it; I attended a short course about GMI and applied for the program as soon as I finished my undergraduate degree. Fast forward a few months and here I am.

What I love about Rice is that it is not JUST about the learning, it is an integral experience that has managed to prioritize personal growth and leadership within the highest quality of education one could ever imagine. My vision is to learn to innovate and pioneer in a field that has yet to be explored too much in my country and hopefully someday help contribute to our development as well as our global society as a whole. This is precisely why I fell in love with Rice on that short visit, 6 years ago.