WSU Rower training to make Canadian National Team

By Shawn Hutchinson

Students can take a year off from school for a variety of reasons. For Nicole Hare, that reason is to train with the senior team for Rowing Canada, the nation’s national governing body for the sport. That year off could lead her to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, should she be selected for the Olympic team in June.

“I started with the U-23 team in 2012 and participated in the Canadian nationals,” Hare said. “My performance there allowed me to get into U-23 camp, and I’ve been competing for Canada every summer since.”

It’s not every day that there’s a potential Olympian at Washington State University. Hare has gotten to this level with the help of WSU rowing coach Jane LaRiviere, who allowed her to participate in the U-23 camp.

At WSU, the junior studies marketing and management, and has a certificate in leadership as well. She plans on completing her degrees in the next academic year.

Hare started rowing at 12 years old in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the Calgary Rowing Club.

“I joined the junior program there, and I’ve been rowing ever since,” Hare said.

Hare said rowing for the Cougars has been a great experience for her.

“Going from a junior level to a collegiate level is an extreme jump,” Hare said. “There’s great support at WSU, both from the athletic community and the university as a whole. I was inspired by a lot of the leaders, and I want to row for the rest of my life.”

Training is a critical part of being an elite rower, and Hare spends a lot of time practicing to keep her career going.

“At school, I would do the prescribed training program, plus an extra 10 to 12 hours each week individually,” Hare said. “Now, we’re training three times a day, every day. We only get Sundays off, and it’s quite intense. You can’t have a job or go to school because it would take up too much time.”

The selection for the Canadian Olympic team is not until June, but Hare has thought a bit about what participating in the games would be like.

“It would be a huge accomplishment, and there would be so many emotions,” Hare said. “Confidence, nerves, excitement. A little bit of everything.”

The Rio Olympics, to be played in August, are not without controversy. Media reports have indicated high levels of pollution in the water used for aquatic sports. The mosquito-borne Zika virus is also a concern for female athletes who might want to start a family after the Olympics. Hare said part of this is built up by the media to be a bigger issue than it actually is.

“There are safety precautions that the Canadian team is taking,” Hare said.

Regarding the pollution, Hare said the rowing team is less affected because they are not submerged in the water. For the Zika virus, Hare said there’s not much else that the team can do other than being prepared for the risks and hoping for the best.

Hare said she sees herself potentially going for her master’s degree in the future. She also would like to continue with the national team.

“The lifestyle is unique,” Hare said. “It can be stressful, but it’s also fun. I’d like to come back and train with the senior team in the future.”

For aspiring athletes, Hare had a piece of advice.

“Work hard, work smart, and most importantly, love what you do,” Hare said. “Don’t let the passion for it get away from you.”

WSU bioengineering students develop prototype of needle sterilizing device

The prototype of SafeShot, a needle sterilizing device (photo by Shawn Hutchinson)

By Shawn Hutchinson

The device that senior engineering students Emily Willard and Katy Brandenstein made for their senior project has the potential to change medicine in developing nations. Based on numbers from the World Health Organization, this could mean as many as 1.3 million lives could be saved, all because they received medical injections with a sterile needle.

“We knew we wanted to work together, and we knew we wanted to do a social impact project,” Brandenstein said of her partnership with Willard, which created a startup company called Engage.

The device, pictured above, is very simple to produce, and they made their prototype on a 3D printer. Engage named the device SafeShot.

Such a device comes at a time when blood-borne diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C are spreading as a silent epidemic across many developing nations. One of the causes for the spread of these diseases is unsafe injection practices.

“There are 16 billion injections given every year in developing countries, and about seven billion of those are with contaminated needles,” Willard said.

The idea for SafeShot has led Willard and Brandenstein into both health and business challenges. On March 3, they won first prize at the University of Washington’s Health Innovation Challenge. Of the 18 teams involved, Engage was the only team not from UW. Their win earned them 10 thousand dollars. According to reporting by Clare McGrane of GeekWire, the team received more ideas for where they could market SafeShot outside of their intended area of humanitarian medical facilities.

Engage will also be competing Washington State University’s Business Plan Competition in April, where they could receive an additional 15 thousand dollars if they can take first prize again.

There is sometimes a stereotype that women are not as good in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Willard and Brandenstein both said they have faced some challenges in being accepted, but more in entry-level courses than in senior classes that they are in now.

“We have definitely gotten some comments in some of the larger classes, like circuits and physics,” Brandenstein said.

Willard said the classes for bioengineering are smaller, with 20 to 25 students, and that allowed people to get to know each other more and judge each other less.

Brandenstein also said that her sorority is happy to have an engineer in the house, which illustrates that she’s had positive reactions to being in the sciences as well.

Another typically male-dominated field is business, which is what Engage could become if they choose to take it there. Willard said her mother has provided her with inspiration.

“My mom is an executive of a company, and she’s used to being the only female in the room, so she’s definitely helped with that,” Willard said.

Both women mentioned a long-time interest in math and science as another reason they chose to study bioengineering.

“My dad has worked in biotech for over 25 years, and his dad was an engineer,” Brandenstein said. “He told me I should be a bioengineer, and it really stuck with me. We both get a lot of support from our parents.”

As for any criticism based on their gender, the teammates and friends have a simple response.

“We just ignore them,” said Willard.