Fischell Institute Spotlight: Kat Pacheco

Kathryn "Kat" Pacheco is a second-year Ph.D. mechanical engineering student in Fischell Institute Fellow Don DeVoe's Maryland MEMS & Microfluidics Laboratory. In 2022, Pacheco earned her Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

During her senior year of high school, Pacheco decided to study theatrical set design in college. However, she switched to studying engineering to challenge herself intellectually.

"I knew I liked building and making things, but I didn’t know anything about engineering or what engineers did," she said.

During her undergraduate study, Pacheco wanted to get some hands-on engineering experience and interned with Lockheed Martin getting experience in robotics. In addition to her internship, Pacheco worked in a lab at UMass Amherst that explored how robotic technologies can be utilized in a healthcare setting.

These experiences, combined with growing up under the poverty line and struggling with healthcare access, inspired her to work in the medical field. Her curiosity to learn more about intersecting the medical field and engineering led her to DeVoe’s lab and his work with the Fischell Institute.

DeVoe's lab focuses on microfluidics, where Pacheco uses many of the skills she gained when working in robotics.

"The fabrication of microfluidic devices presents exciting problems to solve using the fabrication skills I learned in undergrad," she explained. "I can apply many of the same problem-solving skills to microfluidics."

Pacheco is developing an affordable desktop polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device that can be powered through USB. Her current focus is creating a microfluidic chip that uses tuned hydrophobicity to collect water in specific spots as it rolls across the chip.

In the future, Pacheco would like to work on developing medical devices, either commercially or academically. In her free time, she enjoys sewing, antiquing, hiking, rock climbing, and gardening.

Published November 2, 2023