Liam Edwards, Class of 2014
We caught up with Liam Edwards, Class of 2014, and learned how he is working on novel cancer treatments by developing robotic systems!
What is most important in the work you have done to date and why?
I’m currently working on developing robotic systems that can help autonomously find and test novel cancer treatments. I was lucky enough to work on robotics for most of my undergraduate degree and am incredibly pleased to have found an application during my graduate studies that I hope can someday have a real impact in improving people’s lives. The project is ambitious, but I’m working with some great researchers, and we’ve already had some exciting early results.
What courses/degree pursuits at school are you currently taking to support this work?
I’m taking a few mechanical engineering classes at the moment, focused on robotics and controls to help improve my work in the lab. My favorite one right now involves control systems at the cell level – discussing how researchers have been able to develop synthetic biological circuits that can mimic all the complicated components of an electrical circuit. I’m also working as a TA, which has been a really fulfilling way to guide students through a mechanical engineering lab course that I took just a few years ago.
What have you learned?
I’ve learned a lot; about engineering theory and practice, about research, about how to ask questions, pursue hypotheses, and run experiments. Still, my favorite part about research has been just how never-ending that learning process is. Especially as I begin to poke at areas of the field where there really are no answers, coming in every day with curiosity and drive is just as important as anything I’ve learned in the classroom.
What fueled the interest in this work?
I knew I wanted to do engineering when I started my undergrad, but it took until my sophomore year to settle on robotics. I love the combination of mechanical engineering and computer science that robotics requires—getting to design and put together a complex system, but then also figure out how to effectively drive it so that it can complete whatever task you’ve built it to do. I got involved with my current lab, and the biology work, after taking a class with the professor who runs it and hearing about his work. Taking skills I was already passionate about and applying them to such an important field was an easy decision.
Which Berkwood Hedge School values do you most hold dear and helps steer you to this day?
Berkwood Hedge instilled in me a deep curiosity, a desire to understand the “why” and not just the “how”, that I’ve carried with me into every class since. Especially as the theory gets more complex, the lectures faster, and the readings longer, it can be so tempting to simply memorize equations and skim notes. But as we practiced often at Berkwood Hedge—from math puzzles to diagramming sentences—spending the time to think critically and peel back that curtain is what allows you to take the information and apply it in new and interesting ways.