Observe. Create. Improve. Repeat.

Hi everyone! This is Shruti Sivaraman and welcome back to my blog!

Finding a problem that you’re passionate about and want to solve can be hard, but observing the simplest things in life can go a long way. I try to see solutions in our world, while others see problems. So, if something is broken, why not try and fix it, there will always be room for improvement! Today I will be talking about how I observed a problem around me as well as how I think 3M scientists are motivated to solve problems in the world.

Over the past year, I have read many articles on diabetes and how it affects people. These articles talked about obesity, weight loss, as well as the effects COVID had on the condition, but I was interested in the fact that out of approximately 37 million people in the U.S. that have diabetes, only 28 million people had had been diagnosed and informed of the condition. So that means more than 9 million people have diabetes but do not even realize that they have it. This is mainly because some people do not have resources like money, time, or the transportation to go and get this checked. More importantly, they do not have a quick and easy access to detect and diagnose diabetic conditions.

I spent a lot of time studying diabetes and how it affects your body. I also researched tests to detect diabetes, but all of them required blood tests to be done at hospitals. This made me realize that the problem was the lack of access, and current methods were too costly for some people, so I wanted to find a way to detect it cheaper and faster! As I began to research more into current solutions, I learnt that my diabetic grandmother had gotten an eye disease due to her diabetic condition. I used this as inspiration to research more into diabetic eye diseases! While researching, I came across diabetic retinopathy (DR) which is a diabetic eye disease and is the leading cause of new blindness in the U.S. Approximately 95 million diabetic patients have DR globally, of which a third have vision-threatening DR. That means they can become blind! My curiosity took me to different eye doctors to learn about DR. The scientist and engineer in me set to task finding a simple and easy solution to detecting, diagnosing, and classifying different levels of diabetic retinopathy.

I think that 3M scientists are motivated by observing their surroundings like this. They observe situations that other people face, sometimes even without realizing they have a problem. One of the first big 3M products is an adhesive tape, and it was originally invented to give a smooth surface to objects, but now, people use it to mend things like fixing the spine of an old book, or even to create a straight border while painting! The scientists at 3M work on a variety of products which help them get the opportunity to be creative and innovate to help the community around us. In my mentor’s words, “Even if people don’t know they have a problem, we try to make the situation simpler!”

That’s all from me, so thank you for reading my blog this week! I hope you great day!
 

See you next time!
 

~ Shruti ❤️