Aranza Rodríguez Cruz

Biomedical Engineer and Robotics and Telecommunications Engineer

Remote monitoring system adaptable to incubators for measuring vital parameters in premature neonates.

Hello! I'm Aranza Rodriguez, I'm 23 years old and I'm originally from the state of Oaxaca de Juarez. From a very early age I discovered my passion for engineering, which is why I decided to orient my studies towards this field. I entered the University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP) in August 2018, initially in Biomedical Engineering and later after learning about the endless opportunities that this offered me and the immense ways to combine it with many other areas I decided to simultaneously study a second career in Robotics and Telecommunications Engineering.

One ordinary day I was doing my school activities, while I was checking my e-mail, there was one in particular that attracted my attention. Inside, it contained all the information regarding the first call for applications to participate in the selection process for the "Federico Gómez Suárez" Scholarship, which was aimed precisely at engineering students. However, upon reviewing that there were only a few days left for the application deadline and understanding the importance of having a solid development in a project, I decided not to participate on that occasion. However, this did not stop me, since I was lucky enough to meet one of the first lucky students to belong to the community of scholarship holders of the Foundation. It was then that I approached him to ask about his experience, as well as some advice and recommendations that were very useful to me a year later, when I was finally able to apply and aspire to obtain the scholarship.

For this, from the beginning I wanted to focus the project on the health area, where I came up with different ideas as possible potential solutions to different latent areas of opportunity in the health sector. The selection criteria I established to define the topic was the greatest possible impact that would benefit the greatest number of people. This is how I decided to apply with the project, a remote monitoring system adaptable to incubators for measuring vital parameters in premature neonates. This consisted of contributing to the improvement of the functionality and increase of the capacity of neonatal incubators by using Telemedicine principles with which the monitoring of the neonatal patient was sought in a constant and uninterrupted manner, favoring the physician's access to information about the neonate's vital signs, as well as their parents, reducing the anguish that can generate the lack of information or updates about the patient's health status.

Thus, in July 2022, after having performed well in all stages of the selection process, I was awarded the scholarship. The scholarship was of immense help, since it helped me to finance the last two semesters of both careers, in addition to covering the concepts required for the degree process. 

Besides contributing to the savings in family expenses by covering the last remaining academic part, I can say that I was able to learn and realize everything that comes with being able to develop an idea, the part of being able to shape it, to share it, to defend it and to be able to present it and discover all the potential that exists within the country and all the people who seek to be better, who seek to share and contribute with great ideas impacting positively on the lives of those people who need our help. All this through opportunities that present themselves and that there is something in you that drives you to take them, as it was in my case the Federico Goméz Suárez Scholarship. 

Since I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners, several of the dreams and goals I had in my sights have come true, such as finishing college, graduating and now working as a service engineer for monitoring equipment and life support in a transnational company. The latter allows me to work every day to put my skills at the service of others ensuring that the equipment and the technology immersed in them work properly and can impact on improving the quality of life and health of patients. 

Just as some of my goals have become a reality, I am still in the process of achieving many others, always keeping in mind that it is not a linear path, that everything takes time and that there are also perfect times for things to happen, that it is not something magical and that when this time comes and you have the opportunities in front of you, it is necessary to put everything in your hands to make things happen. 

There are times when we doubt, especially about our capacity and we think about whether it is really worth giving that extra, putting a little more, adding more things to the list of those we already have, but in those moments I think it is important to take a moment to reflect and observe where we are standing on the road to our goals, objectives and dreams and where we want to go and what opportunities we have that bring us closer to them.

In addition, I think it is also important to think that many times, without realizing it, we become that someone who inspires others, that someone who becomes a leader for others because a leader is the one who through his actions inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and change more and I think we all have that leader in us that makes us be part of the opportunities that bring others closer to where they want to go. So, it is crucial that our actions, even the daily ones, can seek a positive impact on people's lives because we may not change the world in one single action but we can change the world for one person.