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OF A GRADUATE Portrait

from 2023-24 Taft School Viewbook

from 2023-24 Taft School Viewbook, page 76

MAKING A TAFT EDUCATION afford...

Taft’s Portrait of a Graduate places great emphasis on preparing our students to lead, compete, innovate, and excel in the global communities they enter after graduating from Taft. We know that learning does not take place in a vacuum. Our students engage with peers around the world, while measuring their preparation and achievement through a wide range of applied academic experiences. In recent years, Taft students have earned honors and recognition through those experiences and across disciplines. Among them:

B National Merit Scholarship Program

B The American Mathematics Competition (AMC)

B American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME)

B Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament

B Girls in Math at Yale

B U.S. Math Olympiad

B New England Mathematics League

B Technology Student Association (TSA) Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science (TEAMS)

B Boston University Engineering Design Competition

B National Engineering Design Challenge

B Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology

B Yale University Physics Olympics

B Trinity College International Robot Contest

B American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Physics Bowl

B Connecticut Science Olympiad

B Yale Model UN

B Harvard Model UN

B Cornell Model UN

B The National Latin Exam

B Le Grand Concours/National French Contest

B Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

B New York Parliamentary Debate League

B National History Day Essay Contest

Learn more about Taft’s portrait of a graduate at www.taftschool.org/about/ portrait-of-a-graduate

Meet Muffin

HOMETOWN: BANGKOK, THAILAND PASSIONS: ROBOTICS, ENGINEERING, ENTREPRENEURSHIP

COLLEGE: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

“I have always loved interdisciplinary topics that connect multiple subjects, mimicking the interconnected nature of our society,” says Muffin.

It seemed natural, then, that Muffin’s Independent Tutorial (IT) should reflect that passion for connection: Muffin has developed a prosthetic arm connecting, she says, engineering, medicine, and entrepreneurship.

“I was immediately fascinated by the idea of designing and building prosthetics,” says Muffin who, after experimenting with things like Legos, pipes, and wooden pallets, soon had a rough design for a prosthetic arm of her own. That design, coupled with her strong academic background in STEM at Taft, helped Muffin secure internships, first in the prosthetics and orthotics department at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, then at the Sirindhorn School of Prosthetics and Orthotics, the largest prosthetic provider in Thailand.

Muffin’s vision was to create an affordable, functional alternative to high-priced cosmetic arms most readily available to patients. She produced a 3-dimensional-printed arm with six degrees of motion—five fingers and a rotating wrist. It is controlled by electromyography sensors connected to the user’s remaining limb, which detect electrical activity in the muscle.

“The next step I envision for the project is to mass-produce the hand on a small scale, by making the design more modular and interchangeable, allowing me to quickly customize for each patient,” Muffin explains. “In the distant future, I also hope to incorporate emerging technologies in soft robots, to mimic the flexible properties of human anatomy.”

And while clinical setting regulations and connections with doctors and some patients posed challenges for Muffin in her work, she was able to connect with amputees who were eager to test her prosthetic arm outside of a clinical setting, while providing valuable insight and feedback.

“This was also the most rewarding aspect of my work,” says Muffin, “seeing the smiles on their faces as they opened a jar on their own for the first time, or hammered a nail. On the side, I have also been making hands for children with Leprosy/Hansen’s disease. While far simpler, the outcome was equally, if not more, rewarding.”

ARTS & HUMANITIES CENTER

DIGITAL DESIGN

COMPUTER LAB

HULBERT TAFT JR. LIBRARY

B 58,000 volumes

B More than 150 newspapers and journals in hard copy

B Full-text databases with access to more than 12,000 periodical titles

B Home to a 150-year-old Torah scroll from Tashkent, a 1616 King James Bible, a 19th-century Qur’an from Saudi Arabia, and a Tibetan thangka from the Gomang Monastery in southern India

LADY IVY KWOK WU

SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS CENTER

B 48,000 square feet

B PCR machine for replicating DNA

B Two networked computer labs

B Aquatic Biomes Center

B Telescope

B Smart classrooms and laboratories

LAUBE AUDITORIUM

MOORHEAD

ACADEMIC CENTER

B Staffed by certified learning specialists