Student Profile
 Aileen Cua

Biomedical Engineering '08

When she came to UC Davis, Aileen Cua was hoping to take advantage of one of the university’s "many opportunities for undergraduates to get hands-on experience in science." Interested in the medical world, but not ready to stop taking math or physics courses, Cua found her place as a biomedical engineering student.

Now a senior, Cua is heavily involved within the College of Engineering. She serves as both the treasurer for the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and vice president of the Engineering Joint Council (EJC). Working with other engineering students and on-campus clubs to organize social and academic events, Cua has found her involvement as a way to not only strengthen her ties to her major, but also to other students in the College of Engineering. "Both of these positions have had an impact in my academic and personal life. In both BMES and EJC, I made friends whom I study, hang-out, even live with."

And Cua’s experience is not an uncommon one. She has found herself a part of a group that "thinks differently from other UC Davis students. We encounter not only a lot of theories and formulae, but also need to learn to apply those lessons to solve problems."

In order to help students do this, she says the College of Engineering encourages them to make connections in and outside of class through clubs, workshops and research fellowships, as well as by getting to know each other through lab work, studying and group projects as they work their way through the major.

When she graduates this spring, Cua plans to find a research position in the biomedical industry, hoping to discover a specific area of focus for her research before attending graduate school.