The following reflection was written by Pablo Guzman.

Living in the fast lane is something medical companies and employees not only do everyday, but are required to do in order to keep up with with an ever so changing technological advanced world. A company called ImpeDx Diagnostics,led by CEO and Caltech Alumni Steve O’Connor, has tasked a group of Rockhurst students in the science department, to research and develop a new way of diagnosing Sepsis, a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection of the blood. This inflection can be fatal to a patient if not properly diagnosed in a rapid manner.

Currently, sepsis is being diagnosed at a rate that is too slow and can definitely be made faster. Therefore a new way of diagnosing sepsis is crucial to the survival of many people in danger of complications due to the illness. In order for Sepsis to be diagnosed faster, the blood analysis of a patient must be expedited both at a molecular level and a laboratory analysis level. At the molecular level, the Rockhurst students are investigating the best and most efficient equation to best fit a data table/set of blood sample results. These blood samples need to be interpreted into data for laboratory technicians in order to formulate a final diagnosis with the least amount of false positives as possible.

In order to do this, the Rockhurst students have also been tasked with the challenge of designing and printing a three dimensional model of a testing system that both speeds the testing process and interprets data more accurately than ever before. This is a great opportunity for these students to have a hands on experience with a real and well respected startup company in a laboratory setting. Additionally, it also benefits the Rockhurst STEAM program as a whole by allowing students to really enter the workplace and see what the future of engineering and science has to offer in a fast paced world.