Rahaf K Bashmail

Proudest Moment: Completing and presenting both my capstone and honors research projects with my parents in attendance!

Thesis: UnTape: Temperature-Sensitive Medical Tape with Pain-Free Removal

Rahaf Bashmail is graduating with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering. She is an international student from Saudi Arabia who is dedicated to empowering women in STEM. This led her to take the initiative to reinstate the Women in Materials Science and Engineering (WiMSE) club as the new president to help support and mentor females in the major. Additionally, as an Engineering Peer Educator (EPE), she served as an instructor and mentor to first-year undeclared engineering students. Rahaf’s primary research interests are in tissue engineering and medical device development, due to her passion in making a tangible impact in medical advancement for societal benefit. Throughout her time at UW, she has cultivated an interdisciplinary approach in her research projects to translate innovation in biomedical research to solutions for healthcare providers. As a CoMotion Mary Gates Innovation Scholar, she worked on developing an automated image processing sequence on MATLAB to segment and measure the fluid volume in the kidney, to aid in assessing the degree of hydronephrosis. For her capstone project, and as part of the Engineering Innovation in Health Program (EIH), she designed and developed a point-of-care diagnostic tool for intestinal obstruction that detects the presence of bile in neonatal gastric fluid. This year, as a Mary Gates Research Scholar, she completed her honors thesis in developing a medical tape that has stronger skin adhesion for critical medical devices while concurrently reducing the risk of medical adhesive-related skin injuries (MARSI) upon removal. Rahaf’s future goal is to earn her doctoral degree and work as a professor and researcher, acting in translation and application of biomedical research.