KENNESAW, Ga. |
Apr 15, 2024
If she hadn’t change into an engineer, Christina Scherrer may need chosen to be a medical physician, dentist or different sort of well being care supplier.
As a substitute, she has labored for years to use her experience in industrial and methods engineering in areas that enhance the supply of well being care. She loves serving to others, whether or not it’s collaborating on health-related analysis, instructing new generations of engineers at Kennesaw State or volunteering in the neighborhood.
Within the space of well being care, Scherrer, a professor within the Industrial and Programs Engineering
Division throughout the Southern Polytechnic Faculty of Engineering and Engineering
Know-how, has executed analysis on school-based dental sealant applications, fluoride varnish
supply, optimizing the placement of group well being facilities, and modeling the hospital-based
unfold of tuberculosis.
“I’m at the moment collaborating with a number of public well being consultants, dentists and a pediatrician. I feel industrial engineers are particularly well-suited to interdisciplinary analysis, because the modeling and statistical evaluation instruments which might be core to our subject will be utilized to many various issues,” Scherrer mentioned.
Scherrer often applies her experience to initiatives which have a possibility to assist
folks, typically kids. She is at the moment learning fluoride varnish functions for
pediatric practices, which have the potential to enhance the oral well being of younger
kids who might not have the ability to go to a dentist.
“I’ve all the time been most concerned about initiatives which have the potential to positively impression well being, particularly for populations which will have restricted entry to healthcare,” Scherrer mentioned. “It’s thrilling to obtain analysis funding and to publish in revered journals, however for me it’s much more rewarding to be taught that work I used to be concerned with was used to impression well being coverage and even simply to listen to from a well being middle that they’re utilizing our outcomes to enhance their sufferers’ well being outcomes.”
Scherrer doesn’t solely impression folks by way of the outcomes of her analysis. Her college students acquire loads from the expertise as properly. 9 undergraduate college students and one doctoral scholar have been concerned along with her research on fluoride functions, in collaboration with professor Robert Keyser.
“With our faculty’s new Ph.D. program in interdisciplinary engineering, my first Ph.D. scholar, Mahdiyeh Soltaninejad, has been engaged on the undertaking,” Scherrer mentioned. “The chance to mentor the subsequent era of researchers is such a privilege and likewise actually enjoyable. This explicit group of scholars could be very various when it comes to gender, race/ethnicity, and first-generation faculty scholar standing, they usually have all contributed their abilities in a lot of methods to enhance the work we’re doing.”
Scherrer’s recommendation to college students at KSU who need to get entangled in analysis is to achieve out to school of their departments to see what alternatives there are. For incoming college students, becoming a member of the First 12 months Students program will enable college students to do analysis of their first semester.
Scherrer’s ardour to assist others goes past her function as a professor. She is an energetic volunteer in the neighborhood, serving as a mentor to numerous math and robotics groups, an energetic chief in her church’s youth group, and a member of the Board of Administrators of the Georgia Oral Well being Coalition. She mentioned her time in service to others is a mirrored image of those that helped her.
“I like spending time with youngsters, as a result of I can respect the ways in which my life was positively influenced by the mentoring, assist and affirmation I acquired from adults at the moment in my life, and I need to pay that ahead to the subsequent era,” Scherrer mentioned. “I all the time be taught loads from these experiences.”
This text can also be revealed within the present challenge of Summit Journal.
– Kyle Dawson
Photographs by Matthew Yung
Associated Tales
A frontrunner in revolutionary instructing and studying, Kennesaw State College affords undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels to its greater than 45,000 college students. Kennesaw State is a member of the College System of Georgia with 11 tutorial faculties. The college’s vibrant campus tradition, various inhabitants, sturdy international ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw college students from all through the nation and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral analysis establishment (R2), inserting it amongst an elite group of solely 7 p.c of U.S. faculties and universities with an R1 or R2 standing. For extra data, go to kennesaw.edu.