Senate Appropriations Committee Tour - FDA/CDRH 2021

Silver Spring, Maryland, June 21, 2021

On 6/21/2021, I represented CDRH during a tour for the Senate Appropriations Committee, alongside Jeff Shuren (Director, CDRH), Ed Margerrison (Director, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, OSEL), and Ellenor Brown (CDRH/OSEL/DBP). It was an incredible honor to be one of only four people representing the entire Center that day, and to meet people from Congress- to greet and shake the hand of Senator Baldwin, and to personally put her inside both a virtual reality headset and an augmented reality headset.

The VR application she experienced was one I had built entirely on my own, so having her step into something I created from scratch (and hearing her compliment it!) was a genuinely profound moment. As the developer behind the demo, and someone well-versed in the current regulatory landscape for MXR, I was also able to answer her questions about AR and VR quickly and accurately, which Ed and Jeff both seemed pleased by. I got a "thank you" and a "fantastic job" from both of them in person, and again by email afterward.

I took the lead on talking through the demos and answering questions, and Ellenor guided other members of the group through the headsets as well. That included all of the prep work, including several after-hours sessions the week before to make sure everything ran smoothly, and building Senator Baldwin's name directly into the VR scene so she'd feel welcomed inside the virtual space. Several people in her entourage came up afterward with comments like "wow!" and "I studied the wrong thing in school, THIS is really cool!" — which I think was exactly the reaction Ed had hoped for when he asked me to lead the demos.

[image: standing in front of the virtual scene, with both my name and Senator Baldwin's name inside]

#virtualreality #augmentedreality #cdrh #senate