How did I get into human factors?
For most people, the dentist's chair isn't exactly revolutionary technology.It certainly wasn't for me, either: by the time I was 11, I had visited the dentist over a dozen times, and I certainly wasn't ever excited about going (although going to Burger King afterward with Dad always helped a bit).​​But suddenly, at age 11, the dentist's chair did become revolutionary to me. I had recently gotten my braces and was getting used to the routine of going to the medical plaza and small talking with the hygienist in the chair until my orthodontist would glide in on a wheely chair, raise up my chair, and swing around his tool tray before getting started.On one of these days at the orthodontist, it suddenly occurred to me: someone had to make the dentist's chair do all of that.​From that day on, my answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up was "medical device researcher." More commonly than not, I got the answer of "That's not a real job" – even from adults, which I find quite unimaginative – but I knew that someone had to anticipate what an orthodontist would need and then build it.
It started when I was a nerdy preteen with braces.
The dentist's chair wasn't at all revolutionary to me. By the time I was 11, I had visited the dentist over a dozen times, and I certainly wasn't ever excited about going.
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But one day, the dentist's chair did become revolutionary to me. I had recently gotten my braces and was getting used to the routine of going to the medical plaza and small talking with the hygienist in the chair until my orthodontist would glide in on a wheely chair, raise up my chair, and swing around his tool tray before getting started.
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On one of these days at the orthodontist, it suddenly occurred to me: someone had to make the dentist's chair do all of that.
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From that day on, my answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up was "medical device researcher." More commonly than not, I got the answer of "That's not a real job" – even from adults, which I find quite unimaginative – but I knew that someone had to anticipate what an orthodontist would need and then build it.
​I studied biomedical engineering because I thought that, if I wanted to design medical technology, I should study capital-M, capital-T Medical Technology. I enjoyed it, but I found that what I enjoyed most about biomedical engineering was how it taught me to think strategically.
Fortunately, I found out that "medical device researcher" is, indeed, a real job, and luckily, I get to do it today as a human factors engineer. It wasn't until halfway through my education when I did a research co-op at Lockheed Martin that I learned about human factors engineering as a field, and the rest is history.