Fellow:Natalia Suarez

Serving as a UIF Since: Fall 2018

School: Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Uruguay

What she does now: Studies Human Biology at Universidad de la República. Before that, she completed the first three years of Biomedical Engineering at Universidad Tecnológica (UTEC), and she also has a background in Computer Science. She is mostly interested in bioengineering, tissue engineering, and neuroengineering, although her projects have a habit of taking her into completely different areas.

What that means: A mix of studying, research, teaching, programming, designing things, and occasionally figuring out why something that worked yesterday suddenly doesn't work anymore. She currently works as a Computer Science teacher and as a G1 Teaching and Research Assistant at the Biomedical Engineering Nucleus (NIB) at Hospital de Clínicas, Universidad de la República.

About Natalia

Natalia Suárez is a University Innovation Fellow from Uruguay. She became a UIF in 2018 while studying Biomedical Engineering at UTEC, and later became a UI Guide, helping other Fellows through their own UIF experience. A lot has changed since then: she changed degrees, discovered new areas of science, worked on many different projects, and somehow ended up with even more things she wants to learn about.

Her main interests are bioengineering, tissue engineering, and neuroengineering, but her path has never been particularly linear. She has worked and collaborated on projects involving assistive technologies with Teletón and Aprodime, infusion pumps, biomedical signal processing, digital fabrication, biomaterials, programming, and other technologies for healthcare. She has also participated in programs and academic experiences in Argentina, the United States, and Peru, including Argentine Society for Bioengineering, MIT, Aspire Institute and International Science Club.

Natalia's interest in technology and health started long before she knew exactly what she wanted to study. Growing up, she was always looking for something new to learn or build, and computer science became one of the first ways she found to turn curiosity into something tangible. Later, biomedical engineering gave her a way to connect that interest with helping others. Moving into Human Biology was another step in that same process: getting closer to the biological questions that originally made her interested in healthcare.

She currently works at NIB-UdelaR, where she participates in research and development, and teaches Computer Science at highschool. She is also involved in IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), currently serving as Professional Development Coordinator for Latin America, and participates in different student and scientific initiatives.

One of the things she values most about the communities she has been part of is the people. Being a UIF, becoming a UI Guide, working with students, and participating in different scientific communities have all given her the chance to meet people who are curious about completely different things and still find ways to build something together.

She still likes the same things that brought her into this path in the first place: learning, making things, asking too many questions, and finding unexpected connections between ideas. She just has a much longer list of questions now.

When she is not studying or working, she is probably drawing, playing video games or watching a series.