Senior Spotlight: How Pranav Mukund Found the Humanity in Engineering

Pranav Mukund always knew he wanted to work at the intersection of health and engineering, so the choice to pursue a biomedical engineering degree was a relatively easy one.

What was less clear was where he’d pursue that degree.

Duke was one of several schools that had offered Mukund admission, but at the time all he knew about the engineering program was that it was highly collaborative. That all changed when he learned about Duke Engineering’s signature EGR 101: Engineering Design and Communication course.

“Knowing that I was going to be able to get hands-on experience to design something that could have an immediate impact rather than sit and learn in a lecture hall for semester after semester was really incredible,” Mukund said. “Having that early design opportunity spoke volumes to me.”

In his first year as a Duke Engineering student, Mukund and his team developed a low-cost sensor that can analyze the accumulation of dust over time. Because respiratory illnesses like asthma primarily affect low-income families and people of color, Mukund said, this tool could help individuals monitor the air quality inside of their own homes. There was also a personal layer to the project.

“I have asthma myself,” he said. “This served as a motivating factor that drove me to really embrace the project and create something that could improve the lives of others with respiratory health issues.”

Mukund’s experience with EGR 101 was so positive that he came back to the program after his freshman year––this time as a client who pitched a project to the teams and worked with them on their various designs. One of his most successful projects involved creating toys that could generate electricity.

“We wanted to help children in refugee camps where access to electricity is at best inconsistent,” Mukund said. “For example, one of our toys was a car that generates electricity via a spinning handle on its top connected to a DC motor.”

While EGR 101 may have been Mukund’s gateway into the design process, his desire to work on medical devices was solidified through his time in the BME Design Fellows Program, where he worked closely with Aaron Kyle, a professor of the practice in Duke BME.

“My classes through the Design Fellows program weren’t about passing exams; instead, we had to show that we could build something that worked,” said Mukund. “Our grade wasn’t related to how much we could memorize. We were judged on how impactful these tools could be, and that really reinforced why I wanted to pursue biomedical engineering in the first place.”

Mukund’s final design project as a Duke student involved developing a tool to help diagnose peripheral artery disease (PAD) in remote health settings. Currently, diagnosis requires a patient to come into a hospital or clinic multiple times for repeat testing. If unchecked, PAD can lead to chronic limb ischemia, which can require amputation.

But with the growing closures of rural hospitals, consistently getting patients to a clinic can be difficult.

To address this issue, Mukund and his team designed a device that can automatically and continuously take and compare the blood pressure of the ankle to the blood pressure of the arm. This continuous monitoring can help identify any early signs of ischemia, ideally preventing the issue from progressing to the point where limb amputation is required.

“My time as a biomedical engineer at Duke showed me how we need to look at a problem from multiple perspectives and really consider the patient’s feelings when we’re designing a device,” said Mukund. “You’re constrained by a lot of things when you make these tools, and you need to grapple with the ethical challenges that come from working closely with vulnerable people. We always engineer with the patient in mind.”

This human-centered approach to problem solving also extended beyond Mukund’s engineering courses.

“As I worked on these projects that are meant to help different communities, I found myself also really caring about ways to help my classmates and my community at Duke, and that manifested in me deciding to pursue engineering student government,” he said. “Part of that involved planning events to make sure people could come together outside of the classroom and have an opportunity to relax and have fun. But I was also concerned about keeping my community healthy and safe.”

After an accidental overdose death on Duke’s campus, Mukund led a team that provided Naloxone, a spray that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose and prevents respiratory failure, to every dorm on campus. He also worked with students to lead classes and educate students about how to use the drug in emergencies.

After graduation, Mukund plans to take a gap year where he’ll split his work between a biomedical startup and lab research. He ultimately hopes to apply to medical school with the eventual goal of working as a physician engineer with his own lab.  

“Duke has been a place that has given me the drive I needed to chase my own goals. I’m not leaving here feeling lost or confused,” he said. “I’m leaving here feeling determined and inspired. I’m leaving here with so many connections and support systems to help me succeed, and I think that’s the value of a Duke BME degree.”