Getting to Bilbao proved to be a whirlwind journey. After leaving Pittsburgh at 7AM on Saturday, we spent the remainder of the day traveling, stopping in North Carolina for a short layover before hopping on an overnight flight to Madrid. Jet lagged yet excited, our crew of nurses and engineers continued our tradition of no sleep by spending the next 12 hours in Madrid, exploring the city and learning more about the culture. I was fascinated by the story of the royal family, and how King Phillip II of Spain built a new castle when the former one burned down due to mysterious circumstances. Did you know the current Spanish castle has over 3000 rooms?!
After our side quest in Madrid, our crew finally boarded the Renfe (Spain’s high speed train), and braced for the 5-hour ride to Bilbao. Luckily, this provided us with time to rest and relax after our exhaustive trip.
After 48 hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Bilbao! Today was full of exciting activities: we visited Basurto Hospital and toured a Health research facility. At Basurto Hospital, the nurses and the biomedical engineers gave us an exciting presentation on their research and provided insight on the process to become a nurse or engineer. I was fascinated by how all Spanish students had to take an entrance exam, and needed a specific score to study a subject like nursing or engineering in university. That made me really grateful for the college admission system in the US, where college admissions are more holistic and not solely dependent on test scores.
After visiting Basurto Hospital, we went to the BioBizakaia Health Research Institute. I really enjoyed this part of the day, as I visited a 3D printing lab and talked to a researcher who specialized in bioprinting materials and 3D printing prosthetics. She explained the different types of projects she worked on and the variety of materials she used to print them. For instance, she used bioprinting to create spinal cord filling and used resin to create a prosthetic meant to protect someone’s vocal cords. Overall, it was fascinating to understand the applications of 3D printing and the researcher used her in-depth understanding to create custom-fitted devices for patients.
Although the last 72 hours have flown by, each day brought a new adventure! Tomorrow, I’m excited to dive deeper into biomedical engineering through meeting with students from the Bilbao School of Engineering, and exploring more of the city by walking through Bilbao’s Old Town.