Žiga Donik, 2022 Junior Fellow, on his Research Visit in Chicago

Žiga Donik, the 2022 ASEF Fellow from Slovenia, has just completed his research visit at The University of Chicago under the mentorship of Luka Pocivavsek, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery.

Žiga worked in the multidisciplinary SurgBioMech lab on a project related to his PhD topic. He focused on the design of cardiovascular stents and the computational modeling of aortic stent-graft deployment in patient-specific models. He gained a lot of new knowledge, especially from the medical field and was also able to observe an innovative surgical intervention by Dr Pocivavsek, which he will try to replicate in-silico.

When not at the lab, Žiga spent his free time exploring Chicago and the Midwest. He visited Door County and Madison in Wisconsin, drove past Amish farms and towns in Indiana, walked on dunes and cliffs in Michigan, and swam in Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. He was also able to visit several midwestern cities, including Cincinnati (OH), Louisville (KY) and Indianapolis (IN), where he saw the IndyCar practice at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The research visit was a wonderful experience for Žiga, and he looks forward to continuing the collaboration with the Pocivavsek lab. He is very grateful to ASEF for making the visit possible, his ASEF buddy Tanja Janko for helpful tips, and, of course, to the whole research group at the Pocivavsek lab for a warm welcome, all the help and productive collaboration.