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Kristen DiConza wearing a straw hat leaning against the stone bridge overlooking the Arno River in Florence, Italy

Kristen's story

A glimpse into Kristen DiConza '27 experience with SpinLabs at the Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering in Politecnico di Milano, supported her academic and career goals in medicine. 

I was hosted by Professor Barbieri at SpinLabs, within the Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering at the Politecnico di Milano. The Lab collects, studies and analyzes various biosignals to convey central and peripheral nervous system activity. I collected data and participated in a project studying listening effort, which is a specific form of mental effort that occurs when a task involves listening. I also assisted with projects on emotion detection, speech recognition, and ECG electrode placement. The experience supported my academic and career goals by furthering my understanding of biosignals that are not only important in research, but also in medicine. Furthermore, it allowed me to gain skills in MatLab, which will be vital in many classes and opportunities at MIT.

My family is 100% Italian, so I've always known that I wanted to explore more of Italy. Additionally, I knew that the Politecnico has a strong bioengineering department. The work in Professor Barbieri's lab was fascinating to me, so I saw it as a perfect fit.
 
 
 
  • Kristen DiConza taking a selfie on a walk in Italy with a grey building and bike parking to the left
This experience impacted my future personal goals by confirming that I want to go to medical school and become a doctor. Also, it opened my eyes to more areas of the world I want to travel to and more fields of science I want to learn about.
Kristen DiConza '27
Major & Minor, Class
Brain and Cognitive Sciences & Biological Engineering, class of 2027
MISTI program
Internship
MISTI host
Politecnico di Milano
Location
Milan, Italy
Jared Stein standing in front and to the right of a 8 ft tall abstract artwork with a gold frame

Jared's story