The Big BENG - Empowering Bioengineering Students
November 8, 2022
A new educational resource has taken off as a go-to tool for bioengineering students at UC San Diego. A Youtube channel, created by students, for students, called the Big BENG is making waves across the bioengineering department at the University.
Maria Sckaff, a bioengineering major and transfer student, first came up with the idea for the Big BENG after struggling with grasping certain concepts early on in her classes. Recognizing the need to understand bioengineering circuit fundamentals, she was shocked at the lack of resources and study tools available for bioengineering students; those that did exist were too complicated to follow or exhaustive in the material. While UC San Diego’s other engineering departments offered tutoring services for their students, there was no such program for bioengineering students. For immediate progress, this would need student-initiated change.
Maria pitched her idea to Dr. Andrew McCulloch, a distinguished professor of bioengineering and medicine and director of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine. He provided much support for the concept early on. Maria then reached out to her talented peers Sarah Schwab, Abbey Ervin, Hope Lang, and Max Pendleton, who formed the original Big BENG team. The team was joined by Dalila Gonzalez-Mejia, another promising bioengineering student. Together, they split up roles of content creation, script and grant writing, animating, editing, and administrative tasks.
Members of The Big BENG team
The group came to UC San Diego with similar backgrounds, all being transfer students majoring in bioengineering or biochemistry. More importantly, however, each member of the team has a clear passion for their studies, inspired by a variety of things such as the experiences of their own family members, intrigue towards subjects like physics and chemistry, as well as their own curiosity to take initiative in solving the problems around them.
The initial intentions of The Big BENG were to assist students who may not have entered the bioengineering major upon their acceptance to UC San Diego. With a program unlike many others, students have three different areas of interest to specify in. The team wanted students to be able to see the content and explore through their videos before making their decisions. Now, prospective and current bioengineering students both can rely on the Big BENG to meet their needs as a supplemental resource.
Multiple series of videos were created to tackle subjects students need to know in various courses at UCSD such as bioinstrumentation (as seen on the left), biomechanics, probability, mass transfer, and thermodynamics and kinetics. The channel has grown to have over 200 subscribers, with over 90 short videos and the group is eager to continue growing their team and developing more content, with a focus on accessibility. Looking back on their production, the team is grateful for different aspects of the Big BENG, from creating a close-knit and friendly community to working closely with professors such as Dr. McCulloch and Dr. Cauwenberghs and watching their channel grow as a result. Hope humbly recalled her pride in producing this tool, saying “if we could just show students that they could understand [course content] as well, then it’s very empowering.”
Additional images from videos on probability (right) and mass transfer (left)
Today, professors and students alike have referenced Big BENG, with the channel being used to assist in educating, reviewing, and even being included in the Bioengineering department’s annual report. The team has enjoyed branching their channel out to explore new themes and concepts. One example is their new series, “Fun Facts” - videos about cool things anyone would want to know.
As for where the team is heading next, there is much greatness to expect from this group of talented individuals. The majority of the group is part of the University’s 2021 graduating class. Maria is headed to UCSF as a Research Associate with the Conklin Lab at the Gladstone Institutes. Hope will be attending Stanford University as a Ph.D. candidate in bioengineering. Abbey will be working on her own application for medical school, and Max has begun his own preparations to take part in the MCAT Exam. Sarah is excited to take time for herself and explore the outside world while preparing for medical school and recently completing a trip to Yosemite National Park. As for Dalila, she is looking forward to enjoying her final year at UC San Diego and looking into doctorate programs.
Want to learn more about The Big BENG? Visit their Youtube Channel and Facebook page.
