After I graduated Swarthmore in 2001, I came to MIT for my Masters/PhD. The engineering (especially EE) education and research opportunities at Swat were great preparation for both classes and research at MIT.

For my masters at MIT, I worked on an electromagnetic valve drive i.e. the controls and mechanical design for a motor-driven engine valve actuator that is capable of replacing the camshaft-driven engine valve. The project is still underway at MIT (see http://lees.mit.edu/lees/lees_research.htm for a project poster, and for descriptions of all the projects in our laboratory), though I am not working on it any longer.  For my PhD, I have moved on to modeling and parameter estimation for the cardiovascular system.  If you want to know more about this work, e-mail me (Professor Cheever has my email address).