By Lauren Sklba

Madeline Ford, a UW-Madison engineering student, developed a passion for her subject out of her family’s experience with the medical field. Having a younger sister born with a congenital heart defect, Ford and her family are no strangers to hospital systems. The time spent in the hospital has contributed to her way of thinking, and in response, Ford wants to be able to help families like her own by improving processes in the medical field.

“I knew that I wasn’t patient enough or tedious enough to be a surgeon or even a doctor, so I thought that something in the engineering field related to healthcare would be the best for me,” Ford said.

Ford is studying industrial engineering with a focus on health systems. After she graduates, Ford said her ideal job would be in a children’s hospital as a health systems engineer, specifically in a cardiology unit. Her end goal is to be a chief operating officer.

According to Ford, it is important that the world continues to advance. For this reason, she values her specific education at UW-Madison.

“We have so many resources, it’s incredible,” Ford said. “There’s so many people that are willing to help us, and they really value groupthink, just everyone helping each other and helping to understand the concepts and make the world better.”