Brian Vuong has not restricted himself to engineering while at Brown - he’s spent much of his time outside of class involved in the Applied Music Program. Last year, he won the Brown Orchestra Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist with the orchestra. “Being able to [play music] outside of engineering makes my classes that much more rewarding,” he says. “Music is something that is very integral to my extracurricular life. It gives me a way to relax, a way to enjoy things. It’s been a passion of mine since before college, so it’s something that I’m very glad that Brown and Brown Engineering has allowed me to continue to do.”

Vuong is a rising senior from San Diego, California, concentrating in Biomedical Engineering. He didn’t always know that engineering was the path for him: “Interestingly enough, I wasn’t really as involved with as many science-related things in high school.” He knew he was interested in biomedical science, and wanted a more quantitative approach. “I can definitely say that I’ve grown to like it more and more as time has gone on,” he says. “It sometimes might be hard to see the intersection point between biology and engineering at the beginning, but you’ll realize that the classes you take outside of the engineering department in the first two years might be very useful in the long run.”

Vuong emphasizes the importance of working with other students. “The undergrad Brown Engineering experience is one of the most collaborative I’ve heard of, and experiencing it is a privilege,” says Brian Vuong, BME Class of 2019. “The collaborative environment allows you to learn the most without worrying about what really ends up being trivial matters.” He also mentioned Brown faculty members’ engagement with students. “I’ve never met a professor who’s not willing to help and explain things if you don’t understand them. A lot of professors are very proactive about offering opportunities to students, telling them about other things outside of class they can get involved in if they’re interested in going deeper on the topic.”

Vuong is currently working with Bahar Bilgen in the Duffy Cell Biology Laboratory, and his only regret is that he didn’t get involved with research at Brown sooner. “My previous experiences were all over the summer, not at Brown until just this past semester - it would have been nice to see what it’s like in the engineering department. Hopefully I’ll have a chance in the next year as we do collaborations.” His summer project focuses on preserving cartilage tissues for future implantation. “Tissue banks have all sorts of methods of testing the tissues before they can be used by surgeons for transplants,” he explains. “The issue with that is that biomechanical and biochemical properties deteriorate during that time. So we’re trying…to optimize the preservation medium for storage during the time between procurement of the allograft to when it’s actually being transplanted.” He’s focusing on antibiotic treatment and a specific cell type known as chondrocytes, which secrete the matrix of cartilage.

In addition to his work in engineering, Vuong is also a pre-med student. “Even if there are engineering courses that I know might not be as directly useful for my clinical experience, the mindset of learning the material is what I most cherish,” he says. “Certain pre-meds might have more time to do clinical stuff, and BMEs might do more basic research. You can find a niche to include both of your interests.” He plans to take a few years off before going to medical school. “Definitely I want to carry my engineering background into what I’m doing later on. As I go into medicine, I hope to have the opportunity to do research that has implications in engineering.”