E36: A Student’s Journey | Paula Gibbons | Biomedical Engineering

Jon Cain: Within every student, there's a motivation, a drive, pushing them to learn, grow, contribute, and give back. Today you'll meet a student who wants to help others live healthier lives by advancing biomedical research. And just like so many students, she's found a launchpad to her journey at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Hi, I'm Jon Cain, and this is another episode of The WPI Podcast. You know, this show is all about sharing news and expertise from our classrooms and labs, but one of my favorite types of episodes is when we get to talk with a student who's about to graduate. So, I'm really thrilled today to be joined by Paula Gibbons. She's a member of the undergraduate class of 2026. She's majoring in biomedical engineering and earning a minor in biology and Paula has really tapped into the wide variety of experiences and opportunities that are available to students here, and I'm so pleased to have her join me today at the Global Lab in the Innovation Studio on campus. Paula Gibbons. Welcome to the WPI Podcast.

Paula Gibbons: Thank you for having me. 

Cain: So, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your background, where you grew up and where you went to high school.

Gibbons: Yeah, sure. So I was born and raised here in Worcester, Massachusetts. And I went to high school just like 30 minutes from here in South Lancaster. I went to a private Christian school called South Lancaster Academy. So very local to Worcester. This is my home. 

Cain: What's next for you after graduation and what's your ultimate career goal? 

Gibbons: Mm-hmm. So, I am gonna be pursuing my PhD at Umas Chan Medical School here in Worcester. I'll be part of their. Biophysical Chemical and Computational Biology program and my ultimate career goal right now, um, I'm sure it'll change is to run my own research lab. I'm interested in regenerative medicine applications for pediatric diseases. 

Cain: Wow, that's amazing. What, uh, motivates you to wanna work in medical research? 

Gibbons: Yeah, so I mean, I've always been interested in the medical field, um, since I was young, but I've had some personal family experiences that have like drawn me toward pediatric research. I've had some family members who have had congenital heart defects, and I've seen how, um, they've gone through the healthcare process and I just wanted to be part of that, like the research and how we can, um, help other people like them. 

Cain: Can you share a little bit more about the health struggles that your, uh, family members who inspired you were diagnosed with?

Gibbons: Yeah. So, um, I've had two of the, like my younger family members, a cousin and like a, a brother adopted in Uganda. And they both had different congenital heart defects where the valves and chambers of their heart weren't formed properly, so they weren't working. Um, unfortunately one of them passed away. Then another one had one where they're just, the blood was not pumping fully, so they couldn't get enough oxygen. And thankfully they were able to get it fixed in, in India. They got, um, just surgery for that. But seeing the journey that my sister went through to get, um, her son to get his heart fixed in India. Like I want it to be part of like, how can we help other families who have a similar issue or like increase access. So I'm also interested in global health perspectives as well.

Cain: Yeah. When you have that in your family and you see what they've had to deal with, it makes sense to have that sort of personal motivation. I wanted to ask you a little bit about regenerative medicine. You mentioned that that's one area of interest for you. What, um, in particular draws you to, um, want to study and maybe pursue that further as a possible career option?

Gibbons: Mm-hmm. I personally would like to just utilize what our bodies are already capable of doing and just, and either enhance that or reactivate it. 'Cause our bodies know how to fix themselves, but sometimes they mess up. So regenerative medicine is just trying to work with our body’s cells or like take them out and modify them in a way that they can just go back to working how they used to.

Cain: I'm wondering sort of what opportunities you've had, um, here at WPI, maybe to intern either off campus or to do some lab work on campus or maybe elsewhere. And what have you learned from those experiences?

Gibbons: Yeah, so I've had the opportunity to work in a biomedical engineering lab here on campus, um, the Whittington lab, and I've worked at UMass in their summer undergraduate research program. And I learned a lot from those experiences just from like basically to how to conduct research. I've worked with bacteria, I've worked with cells, so broadly just how do you conduct cohesive research to answer a question, but also I've learned troubleshooting skills. You know, research doesn't go how you want it to go. So I've learned like, how do we step back? What is the problem? And how can we make a change? And then presenting my research, so scientific communication. So, I've done poster presentations, lab meeting presentations. So getting used to talking about what I've been able to do and communicating that to people who may not have done it or don't even have any association with it is something that I have learned from both my on-campus experiences and off campus. I hadn't had the opportunity to be involved in research before college. So, I always thought it was something I was interested in, but I needed to get that hands-on experience. So getting that hands-on experience really solidified to me that this is something I wanna do for a career.

Cain: And that research experience that you mentioned at UMass, that's at, uh, UMass Chan Medical School, right? 

Gibbons: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Cain: , I also understand you have a senior project that you're working on right now, um, that also has given you some hands-on experience, um, studying cancer treatment. Um, can you tell me a little bit more about that and what you've been working on? 

Gibbons: Yes, so I'm in a four-person team and we are working on creating what we call CAR-T cells. That's chimeric antigen receptor T cells. It's basically a targeted immunotherapy that identifies, um, a key, what we call antigens on cancer cells, and then modifies T-cell or a natural immune cells to be able to detect those. So, there are different methods of creating these modified immune cells. And so we're testing that method that was created by a previous MQP last year. And then we are creating like a procedure to then test our genetically modified immune cells against, um, a cancer cell population. Just to validate that this actually works.

Cain: The MQP, that's the major qualifying project, that's a senior level, uh, research and design project here that all of our WPI students are required to complete, uh, to, to graduate. You mentioned last year's MQP, so the project that you're working on now is a sort of a continuation.

Gibbons: Mm-hmm. Yes. So they created a device and now like a device that actually modifies the immune cells. So now we have been optimizing the use of this device and then again testing the created immune cells on a cancer cell population. 

Cain: These experiences that you've had, you've really gotten a chance to experiment and, um, study. And I'm wondering what has it told you about the power of regenerative medicine or medicine in general, or biomedical engineering?

Gibbons: Yeah, for sure. I think seeing how science has evolved over time, um, like in doing these projects you have to read up on scientific literature and you can see how for example, just with CAR-T cells, they have iterated from the first generation to, we're now at a fourth generation. Just seeing how we can change different components of what we're putting into the immune cells to make it better just so it can be better for people. But conversely, um, I'm seeing like limited access just because it's so expensive to make these things. Um, and that was like a point of the last year's MQP. How can we make it more affordable to make these cells so that people can have access to these lifesaving treatments. So, like I'm really excited for what the scientific community and like research is finding, but I think like a cautionary is like, how can we also make it accessible because it's great that it can work, but we want it to work on actual people and not just like conceptually. 

Cain: Right. It has to be effective, but it also has to be accessible for folks. People probably have a pretty good idea by now based on this conversation that WPIs education is very project based. There are projects that are inside of majors, but we also have required projects that fall outside of specific majors.  All of the required projects for graduation can be done off campus, uh, around the US or around the world, at more than 50 project centers that WPI has. Paula, I'm wondering if you could talk about the project that you did off campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and, uh, why that was meaningful to you. 

Gibbons: Yeah, sure. So I worked with the Santa Fe Children's Museum. I worked in a team of three and our goal was to evaluate the educational value of the exhibits in the museum. We, um, were able to observe the children playing at the different exhibits and see if the educational outcomes that were intended, , like hands-on play or role player, like all these different things that relate to the educational learning of children, we were observing whether they were meeting the outcomes intended by the director, and then we were able to present, future directions or how the director could then improve the display of the exhibits or improve the components so that the children are actually learning what is intended. And that was meaningful to me because, like, it's not at all related to my major, but this museum is working towards helping children before they even get to school, just be able to reach those milestones they need to reach.

And so being able to have like even a small role in that was really impactful, um, to me. 

Cain: And that's a like a seven-week project. And it's the Interactive Qualifying Project typically done junior year. It's a, you know, interdisciplinary project, um, that looks at the intersection of science and technology and societal needs. What was it like to spend that amount of time completely away from this region?

Gibbons: Yeah, it was really fun. I think it was a very nice break from, you know, the regular rigors of WPI, but also being able to put together our various skills. There was two of us biomedical engineers on my team, but also a CS major or data science major. I could not, I can't remember. But we all came with very different experiences and we were able to create a cohesive project that worked well. But I also liked traveling. New Mexico was very different from Massachusetts, so able to learn a lot about the culture there. Um, work with the other people in my cohort to like, explore. We met some really nice people, um, who even hosted us for Thanksgiving at a church I went to. So it was just a really nice, like, new experience being able to integrate myself in a different state.

Cain: That sounds great. In every student's journey, there's uh, always a professor or two or an advisor that really come along and, and, um go the extra mile or really stand out to a student. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about, uh, maybe who have been some of the professors or advisors that have meant a lot to you.

Gibbons: Yeah, for sure. I have a lot, but I'll say two. So, Professor Whittington in the biomedical engineering department, she's my faculty advisor, but what's unique about her is I met her in my junior year of high school. I was doing a careers project investigating like what I wanted to do with my future, and we had to interview people in our intended area of study. So, I interviewed her here at WPI and like she told me about biomedical engineering and all of that. But when I came here. Um, I was able to choose or ask for her to be my faculty advisor, and she's been very pivotal in my journey here. It was her lab that I mentioned previously that I worked in on campus, um, and that lab led me to working at UMass and then being able to do my PhD at UMass. Um, she's super supportive of all of her students and I think that generally can be said for all of the professors here at WPI. They wanna see us succeed and so I really appreciate her. And then I also appreciate, uh, Professor Adrienne Hall-Phillips in the business school. She's the advisor for the National Society of Black Engineers chapter here at WPI, and she's very invested in like students and their, um, success here at WPI. In my freshman year, I met her. Um, she had told all of the incoming freshmen and students to send her their resumes as the career fair was coming up and she would do checks, um, so that everybody was ready for the fall career fair. And because she was able to see my resume, she referred me to the president of the NSBE chapter, and I was able to get on their executive board as a freshman, which is like very uncommon. And that organization has been very key in my success here at WPI. And I was able to serve as president this year, but only because she like had faith in me and was able to recommend me that freshman year. And so she's been huge in my journey here. 

Cain: That's amazing. And you mentioned Professor Whittinngton. That's Professor Catherine Whittington, right? In biomedical engineering? 

Gibbons: Yes.

Cain: And Paula, you mentioned the, uh, WPIs chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. Um, I'd love to dive in a little bit further about some of your experiences with that organization and some of the other organizations and activities that you've been part of on campus. Uh, can you tell us a little bit about what you've been doing outside of the classroom?

Gibbons: Yes. Um, one of my main involvements is the National Society of Black Engineers. We are a student led national organization, um, with chapters all over the country and some internationally, and it's a professional organization aiming to increase the number of black engineers and so we do a lot of career development. We do like workshops with companies, help people prepare for the WPI fall career fair. We do interview prep. We, um, coordinate with other professional societies on campus but this has helped encourage me in my academic journey. It can be hard if you get too isolated and it can be easy to like give up. But being able to have like-minded people to push me to succeed and then being able to be a mentor to incoming students has been really important to me. So, I really appreciate being part of this organization. But outside of like more academic focused organizations. I am also part of the Philharmonic Association. This is our orchestra on campus. I'm a violinist in it, and I really like being part of the music, which is like completely opposite to science and, and academics and it's a great way to unwind, but also interact with other students who love music and be able to put on concerts for the community. And it's fun when you tell your friends, oh, I'm performing at a concert, and they're just like, I didn't even know, like we had an orchestra. I didn't even know these were things we did, um, at WPI. So that's super fun. And another organization I'm in is the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. We have bible studies, and then on Wednesdays we have something called worship and prayer where we like get together and we sing and we pray for each other. , And we just like commune together and like hang out and then we do like retreats and 'cause it's, um, not just at WPI, but this is across the nation. So we have retreats with the local areas like the New England area and we'll go and we'll do hikes and other things. But, um, we also do outreach. They do something called ServeUp where they go to New Orleans and just help with the continued rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. So we do outreach as well. And also volunteer at the soup kitchen in, in Worcester. So like, we like to give back and just be able to support each other as well and the community. I am a Christian and it's nice that you can find a community here and like anyone can find whatever they're looking for. Here at WPI, there's communities for everyone and so being able to find a Christian community that I can involve myself with was also something I appreciated here at WPI. 

Cain: That's great. And, um, on the Phil Harmonic Orchestra, how long have you been playing the violin? 

Gibbons: Yeah, I've been playing violin for 16 years, so since I was in kindergarten. So it's been a long time. 

Cain: That's great. And I know you mentioned that, you know, the music sometimes feels very, uh, separate from the science and the engineering and all that. Um, do the worlds ever collide in any of the pieces that, um, the orchestra performs? 

Gibbons: Yeah, so actually we have a concert and it's commemorating Dr. Robert Goddard. He was a, a student here at WPI a while ago, but it's the hundredth anniversary of, um, his firing of a liquid fueled rocket. And so we're doing, um, some more planetary type, um, music. We're playing Holst’s The Planets, ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Mars’, and we're also playing a new commissioned piece just like commemorating the flight. But it's pretty cool. Yeah. Like music is not all that separate from science. We still have some, um, crossover as well,

Cain: Can't always escape, right? 

Gibbons: Yes. 

Cain: That is cool. No, it's so true. You look around every corner and there's different student organizations and activities. And yes, we're very proud of Robert Goddard, the father of Modern Rocketry here at WPI. Um, Paula, I want to ask you how you think you've grown as a result of your time uh, here at WPI? 

Gibbons: Yeah, I've definitely grown a lot. I'd say all the different things I've been involved in or all the opportunities I've had here have helped me grow as a leader, have helped me grow as well, like to get outta my comfort zone and be in contact with people who don't have like the same like worldview or mindset as me, but it's very good to be in contact with, with people who don't always see eye to eye with you or don't see the world in the same way because it expands our thinking and helps you see that there’s other ways of navigating the world or other ways of interacting with others. And I think that's gonna be very useful for me in my future career because, um, my goal is to work with humans, I can't just take my own worldview and like place it on others. I have to be able to see where people are coming from and how I can help them or how I can communicate to them what I'm interested in and how it can help them, I think is a way I've significantly grown. I would say that I've also grown in my, obviously my scientific communication, like the skills that I've learned, like obviously you learn a lot of skills in college, but I think WPI and the project-based experiences give us a lot here, which I do really appreciate. And yeah, but getting me outta my comfort zone. I did karate here for a term which is like completely opposite to myself if people know me. But there's so much opportunity here at WPI to do things you've never either heard of before or never thought you could do. We have a space for everyone here, 

Cain: As you're getting ready for the next chapter of your life, I'm wondering what you're thinking about as you reflect on everything that you've accomplished so far and, and what's still ahead of you. 

Gibbons: Yeah, there's a lots to think about, but I think I've been thinking about how I can stay involved in the community while continuing to pursue my education. I've had a lot of opportunity here at WPI to be involved in the community in various ways so I've been actively thinking about ways I can continue that without like the structured environment provided by a college. I've also been thinking about how I can have a positive impact in the world. It can be very easy to focus on my own goals, but how do they affect others is what I've been thinking about. How can I stay human centered or human focused and not get so like in the weeds of my own research, but still try to point back to how I can help others, is what I've been thinking about. 

Cain: Paula, you've been pursuing your degree as a commuter student, so not living on campus. Just kind of wondering what that, um, experience has been like for you. 

Gibbons: Yeah, so it's definitely evolved over time as a freshman when I wasn't in a dorm, which was very hard. 'cause that's where students form their communities early on when you don't know anyone. I did feel a little isolated. I used to go home like after every class or just sit in the library 'cause I didn't have like that community. So, it was a little hard then. But before I came to WPI, I knew I wanted to be in like the orchestra and I knew I wanted to be in, um, NSBE. So I made the effort to go to those things even though I didn't know people, I'm like, well, I need to find a way to get to know people. It's hard to do it in classes when you're actively in lecture. So, what really helped me is getting involved in clubs. I like used to go to everything. If there was an event, I would just show up. And so just naturally I was able to integrate myself into the community. By joining those clubs and then as I, I moved on and I was able to get like, form those friendships, then it was not as hard for me to be a commuter 'cause I had like friends to hang out with and I lived like super close. So if they ever wanted to hang out, it was just like a 10, like maybe 15 minute drive. Really integrating myself into clubs and organizations here helped me find my communities that made being a commuter not that big of a deal.

Cain: You had talked a little bit about exploring careers and, and kind of finding Professor Catherine Whittington, but um, just wanted to ask you sort of what drew you to WPI and how, how you ended up deciding to come to school here?

Gibbons: Yeah, so I had already known about WPI, not just 'cause I lived in Worcester, but I did do some summer programs here in middle school. I did one at Mass Academy and then I did one here. That already had WPI like on my mind as a place I could go. And then looking at biomedical engineering programs in like junior, senior year of high school. Obviously WPI stood out to me and then when I came to the tour here, like learning about IQP, our interactive qualifying project and having the opportunity to do an off-campus project that is inbuilt into, um, our coursework really is what brought me here because my brother had gone to a school where if you go abroad, like you have to do an extra year of school or an extra semester, and I didn't want to add extra years on, but having it inbuilt and then like having a positive impact in the way that it does really did draw me here to WPI. 

Cain: I'm wondering if you have any advice for prospective students that might be listening to this, trying to figure out where they want to go in life, not just what school, but you know, what degree, what career, what interests, what clubs to join. You know, you've gone through this experience. Do you have any sort of guidance and words of wisdom for folks that are following in your footsteps? 

Gibbons: Yeah. Well, I'd say that first, evaluate what you want, what are you interested in? What are you passionate about? I think sometimes we can go into things that we just feel like we have an aptitude for, but you may not necessarily be passionate about. I think it's important to have that passion because like sheer willpower might not fuel you, um, to do something that you're just good at. So really sit down with yourself and evaluate what do I actually wanna do? Yes, what am I good at? But if you have a passion for something and you're reasonably good at it, like you can acquire those skills and get better to be good at it, but also be passionate about it. As for like college and like interest in things, I wouldn't limit yourself to things that you know about or that you've done before. Um, like clubs and stuff. Like really open your horizons and be able to try anything, um, because you'll find things that you never knew you were interested in. Like karate was not at all. 

Cain: I was gonna ask

Gibbons: anything I had known about, um, or thought I could do. But it was like really fun to do it and like I've learned some really valuable skills because of it. So don't limit yourself, obviously don't do too much like pace yourself, but really get out of your comfort zone and be able to try new things. 'cause you will regret it if you don't. Obviously you have to know yourself and what you're interested in and your boundaries, but be able to push through that if there's something you're really interested in or something you feel like draws you, um, whether that's your career or just like a club. Also talk to us, talk to people who have done it before you. Uh, they'll probably have better advice than me, but we've gone through it and we're always willing to help. So if you know anybody who is in college already, or if you go on a tour and you just see people, you can ask us.

Cain: Great advice. We've talked a little bit about project-based learning, being a real hallmark of WPI. What has that project-based approach meant to you. And do you have any advice to students that might be looking at that and say, it's interesting, but I don't know if it's for me. 

Gibbons: I'd just say that WPI's project based learning really does work. I think it can be a lot when you're in it, but that hands-on learning, really applying what you've learned in lecture or applying what you have read in a textbook really does help. I'd say like for advice for incoming students or students who are looking for where they wanna go, just think about yes, like a school's fit and, but also like, are they gonna give you the skills you're going to need for your future career? 'cause you wanna make sure the time and money you're investing will have that return on investment for you. So I'd say think about that regardless of where you go.

Cain: Paula, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us about your story and your journey. I know everybody listening to The WPI Podcast is gonna wish you the best of luck. I wish you the best of luck, and, uh, we hope that, uh, you'll keep in touch as, uh, you continue with your, um, education and your career journey. Thanks so much for being part of the show. 

Gibbons: Of course. Thank you again for having me. 

Cain: Paula Gibbons is a member of the class of 2026 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She's majoring in biomedical engineering and earning a minor in biology. I wanna wish a congratulations to Paula and to the rest of the WPI class of 2026. We invite you to check out all our coverage of commencement 2026 on wpi.edu. That does it for this edition of the WPI Podcast. Thanks so much for listening. We invite you to follow us wherever you get your podcasts, so you can get all the latest episodes. You can also find us at wpi.edu/listen. There's also audio versions of news stories there about our students, faculty and staff. You can get WPI news anytime by asking Alexa to “open WPI”. I'd like to thank PhD candidate Varun Bhat for the audio engineering help. And join us next time for another episode of The WPI Podcast. I'm Jon Cain. Talk to you soon.