Hi, welcome to my ePortfolio!

My name is Rick Niu, I am from Cincinnati, Ohio and am currently an undergraduate at The Ohio State University majoring in Biological Engineering with minors in Computer Information Sciences and Business. I originally studied Computer Science Engineering for a few years before swapping over to Biological Engineering after spending a summer doing research in a metabolic engineering lab and really enjoying it.

What is Biological Engineering?

Well, the Wikipedia definition of Biological Engineering is  “the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products”. I can’t think of any clearer way of explaining it than that, so that’s what I’ll leave it as. This program is important to me because last summer I was exposed to some of the possibilities this field can do: I saw people trying to engineer an enzyme to degrade plastic more efficiently, I saw people working on a method to utilize antibodies to quickly test if a food has been tampered with, I saw people working on making cells produce Vitamin K at rates that would prevent millions of tons of food going to waste. Having been exposed to some of the things this career path can hold, it makes me believe that things I learn could potentially result in a truly impactful creation in the future.

So far in my program, my only experience with regards to microbiology would be the introductory course (Basic and Practical Microbiology, 4000.01), while I’ve had numerous generic engineering courses (fluids, statics, physics, some electrical, etc.). You can find more detail regarding these in the Classroom tab. In the future, I’d like to take some more Biology courses and eventually go to graduate school and do research in the interface of Biology and Computer Science/Engineering.

More information about me can be found in the other pages, feel free to explore.