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2019 Summer Internship Guest Blog Post #3 by Mitry Anderson

Sydney Everett (Staff)
June 13, 2019
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Throughout the summer, Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program participants will be writing guest blog posts about their internship experience. Following is one such post. 

Vials and Wires and Bolts – Oh My! 

By Mitry Anderson (EN ’21)

Hello, I’m Mitry Anderson. I’m studying mechanical engineering here at Wash U, and I’m especially interested in robotics. This summer, I’m interning at Auragent Bioscience, a Saint Louis based biotech startup whose innovative bio detection technologies increase the fluorescence of biological samples in an effort to increase disease detection in an application-agnostic cost-effective way.

As it may seem from the alphabet soup that was the previous sentence, there is a lot of complicated chemistry involved in the day to day operations of this company. I am not a chemist. However, I do have a passion for robotics, and so the way I’ll be helping the company this summer is by building an automated liquid handling system to help with some of the more repetitive laboratory tasks. This project will involve aspects of many engineering disciplines—computer science to control the robot, electrical systems to power the moving parts, elegant mechanical design to ensure everything functions, and of course the actual application is biomedical.

This diversity of required components will likely result in a range of problems to encounter. As such, one of the main challenges I will face is likely the sheer complexity of the project. Although this will likely be the biggest project I’ve ever done, I have had a variety of robotics experience through the classes I’ve taken at Wash U and clubs like ASME. I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned in the past to this new challenge. I expect that I will learn a lot along the way—about robotics, sure—but also about how to be a proactive part of a small team.

Beyond the nuts and bolts of working this summer, I’m also excited for the Skandalaris Center programming focused on getting to know St. Louis, especially its startup culture. I don’t know for sure that I want to work for a startup after college, but since I was a kid I’ve always thought about becoming an entrepreneur and this internship seems like the perfect opportunity to explore that side of industry. I’ll also have a chance to explore St. Louis. I’m excited to poke out of the Wash U bubble a bit and see what the city has to offer.

When complete, my robot will vastly improve the speed and reliability of fabrication for Auragent’s products. It will make life easier for the employees, freeing up time and energy that can be spent thinking about tomorrow’s solutions, rather than drudging through the manual labor of today. And apart from its benefits to the company, I’ll have the satisfaction of another completed project, as well as a trove of knowledge found along the way.

If you’re still curious about Auragent Bioscience and what they do, you can find out more on their website at https://www.auragentbio.com/.