Student/Post-doc News


M-Heal Featured on U-M YouTube Channel



University of Michigan Department of Biomedical Engineering sponsored student organization M-Heal (Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives) is featured by U-M's YouTube channel and was showcased on The Big Ten Network for their work on "Inventory Day." The video "Out Of The Blue Episode 5 - M Heal" explains how this fledgling student organization undertook a huge project with superb results. Congratulations M-Heal and keep up the good work.


Posted on November 24, 2009, 4:48 pm


BME International Internship Scholarship Support



Biomedical Engineering supported six undergraduate students with International Internship Scholarships this past summer.

Amir Sabet, interned with the World Health Organization in Geneva Switzerland. He worked in the Diagnostic Imaging and Medical Device unit that is responsible for supporting WHO Member States health technologies related issues.

Mohammadali Jardaly worked in Beirut, Lebanon at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. There, he worked with Dr. Myrna Germanos-Haddad on topics of Familial Mediterranean Fever and Cutis Laxa and gained experience with genotyping analysis.

Nirmish Singla performed outreach services in Andhra Pradesh, India for the Byrraju Foundation. Nirmish helped evaluate risk factors of hypertension in rural clinics with the intention of improving hypertension education.

Leen Khatib was a health education intern at Tomorrow's Youth Organization (TYO) in Nablus, West Bank. She worked in one of the refugee camps to educate the refugees on health issues and how to prevent illness.

Alex Kiturkes took part in the 2009 Duke-Engineering World Health Summer Institute in Central America. Alex's main tasks in a Costa Rica hospital were calibrating and fixing medical instruments, training the nursing staff on the equipment and interviewing the staff for a needs appraisal.

David Kim worked for Mission Mongolia at Huree University in Ulaanbaatar. David taught classes in computer programming and mathematics.


Posted on November 16, 2009, 12:22 pm


Adam Maxwell Wins Student Paper Competition at IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium



Adam Maxwell, BME Ph.D. student working with Professor Zhen Xu, won the Student Paper Competition at IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, Sep 20-23, Rome, Italy, for his paper entitled "The role of compressional pressure in formation of dense bubble clouds in histotripsy". IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium is a prestigious conference in the field of ultrasound research. The student paper competition starting 1991 is designed to encourage active student participation and reward outstanding work. Adam's paper challenged the widely believed concept that peak rarefactional pressure is the only important factor for cavitation bubble generation. His paper presents strong evidence that peak compressional pressure plays an important role in cavitating bubble cloud generateion. Acoustic cavitation refers to bubble activity induced by ultrasound and have implication in numerous clinical and industrial applications.


Posted on October 9, 2009, 1:51 pm


"Mohammad Reza Abidian's paper is featured as a cover article in Advanced Materials"



Mohammed Reza Abidian, BME Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Neural Engineering Laboratory (NEL) recently authored a paper with BME professor Daryl Kipke that was published in Advanced Materials. The article titled "Interfacing conducting polymer nanotubes with the central nervous system: chronic neural recording using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanotubes" explains how Abidian and his colleagues have demonstrated that conducting polymer nanotube coatings could significantly enhance long-term neural recording of microelectrodes in animal models. The paper is published in Oct. 5, 20 edition of Advanced Materials and is featured as the cover article. In addition, an article titled "A step toward better brain implants using conducting polymer nanotubes" posted, September 29, 2009, on the University of Michigan News Services website features this research.


Posted on September 29, 2009, 2:59 pm


U-M BME Post-Doc Receives Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Fellowship



Timothy Marzullo, a Postdoctoral researcher in BME Professor Daryl Kipke's Neural Engineering Lab (NEL), is one of thirteen outstanding individuals named to the first class of Kauffman Postdoctoral Fellows. The purpose of the yearlong fellowship program is to outfit the Fellows with the tools and knowledge necessary to translate their scientific discoveries into commercial products. Uniquely among his peers, Marzullo is receiving support from the New Economy Initiative, an effort to revitalize Michigan's economy through the partnership of 10 Michigan based Foundations.

Fellows will receive a salary and benefits to support their research, an industry internship, as well as mentorship from an experienced academic advisor and an investor or corporate leader to serve as a business mentor. The Kauffman Foundation posted a press release detailing the program and Fellows on it's website.


Posted on August 7, 2009, 9:59 am


Skyline Health and Biomedical Sciences Summer Camp



The University of Michigan Department of Biomedical Engineering was honored to help host the Skyline Health and Biomedical Sciences Summer Camp the week of July 13-17 2009. The camp, sponsored by the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), supports high school girls' interest and engagement in sciences and engineering. The activities included a wide variety of subjects including tissue engineering, microbiology, neuroscience and volunteering for M-Heal. The students were from Skyline High School's health and medicine curriculum in Ann Arbor.


Posted on August 3, 2009, 8:18 am


BME Ph.D Student Wins Cellular Biotechnology Training Program (CBTP) Fellowship



Andrew Loeffler, Ph.D. student in BME working with Dr. Peter Ma, is the recipient of a fellowship from the University of Michigan Cellular Biotechnology Training Program (CBTP). This fellowship includes tuition and stipend support for two to three years beginning in September 2009. The Cellular Biotechnology Training Program (CBTP) at the University of Michigan, is dedicated to uniting academic and industrial scientists interested in basic research to further enhance career opportunities for Ph.D. graduates. One of the goals of CBTP is for all students in the program to gain experience in an industrial research setting. Accordingly, all students supported by CBTP must participate in a 1-3 month industry internship.


Posted on July 17, 2009, 4:35 pm


BME Student Receives MBSTP Fellowship



Pete Galie, Ph.D. student in BME, is the recipient of a Microfluidics in Biomedical Sciences Training Program (MBSTP) Fellowship. Pete is working with BME associate professor Jan Stegemann. This fellowship covers most of Petes stipend, tuition, and fees for the 2009-10 school year.

The MBSTP leverages the strength's of Michigan's engineering, basic sciences, and biomedical research community to create Ph.D. level scientists with cross-training in microfluidics and biological research. Their intent is for students leaving the program to be able to identify and define biomedical problems and then design and implement microfluidics tools that can be used to solve those problems. They train students to communicate and collaborate across these disciplines and ultimately lead interdisciplinary research teams of the future. Such students are - and will continue to be - in high demand by instrumentation, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as research universities.


Posted on July 16, 2009, 1:34 pm


BME Doctoral Students win the Controlled Release Society-Illinois Student Chapter Annual Symposium Awards



Yen-Ling Lin and Scott H. Medina, third year PhD students working with Professor Mohamed E.H. El-Sayed in the Cellular Engineering & Nano-Therapeutics Laboratory (CENT LAB), received the First and Second Prize in the poster competition at the Controlled Release Society-Illinois Student Chapter Symposium, respectively. The symposium took place in Chicago on May 29 and featured multiple speakers from academia and pharmaceutical industry who shared their research work in the area of parental drug delivery. Yen-Ling presented a poster titled "Development of smart particles for enhanced intracellular delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids" showing her work on the development of stimuli-sensitive polymers that can effectively shuttle therapeutic nucleic acids past the endosomal membrane and into the cytoplasm of tumor cells for treatment of breast cancer. Scott's poster was titled "Uptake of N-acetyl galactosamine functionalized dendrimer carriers into hepatic cancer cells" and displayed his work along with Dr. Venkatesh Tekumalla, a postdoctoral fellow in CENT LAB, on the development of galactose-coated particles that can effectively bind to specific receptors displayed on the surface of hepatic cancer cells and trigger efficient internalization into these targeted cells.


Posted on June 2, 2009, 8:47 am


BME PhD Student wins ISMRM Conference Award



Hesam Jahanian, a third year PhD student working with Professor Luis Hernandez-Garcia and Professor Douglas Noll in functional MRI lab, received the "Best student poster" award of white matter study group at the 17th annual meeting of ISMRM (International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine). ISMRM, the most prestigious conference in the field of magnetic resonance imaging, took place in Honolulu, Hawaii this past April 2009. Hesam's poster focussed on a paper he co-authored with BME student Azadeh Yazdan-Shahmorad of the Neural Engineering Lab. The paper, titled "White matter tractography by diffusion tensor imaging in Insular Epilepsy," presents a reproducible and non-invasive method to target insular epilepsy patients using magnetic resonance imaging techniques.


Posted on May 19, 2009, 3:12 pm


Meha Pandy Attends Summit at Duke University



Meha Pandey, a BME junior, represented U-M BME at the 2009 Summit on the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges hosted at Duke University.

The purpose of the two-day Summit was to motivate student interest in engineering and science, and to address the importance of the collaboration between the fields of engineering, law, and public policy. The Summit focused on how to achieve the NAE's Grand Challenges by dividing the discussion into several main areas, with speakers and panels on energy and the environment, health, entrepreneurship, security, and understanding the brain. Specific Grand Challenges include providing access to clean drinking water, engineering better medicines, and securing cyberspace. The conference provided great breadth and depth on relevant issues such as these for future engineers to look towards.

Meha had the opportunity to hear and interact with notable speakers making advances in the field of medicine, including Robert Langer, Bill Hawkins (Medtronic CEO), and Anna Barker (deputy director of the National Cancer Institute). She learned about the challenges of medical innovation, including policy-related issues that affect the development of new technology.

Last summer Meha had participated in the Duke-Engineering World Health program in Central America, where she trained hospital technicians in Honduras to fix medical equipment. At the Summit, she asked the Entrepreneurship Panel about the best way to motivate leaders and companies to work on researching medical equipment technology geared towards the developing world.


Posted on May 13, 2009, 1:26 pm


M-HEAL Press



The University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering Department is pleased to recognize the continued appearance of Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives' (M-HEAL) most recent accomplishments and publications. The M-HEAL Lamp Team has recently finished a prototype surgical lamp that is currently being tested in Uganda. The lamp is a low cost, easy to produce, battery-operated, alternative to more traditional surgical lamps. The device is well suited to be used in parts of the world where electricity is sporadic and blackouts during surgery can be disastrous. For more information see the U-M News Services article, the feature in Good Magazine, and link to a video describing the device and its function.


Posted on May 1, 2009, 12:00 am


Team Endocutter Invited to Compete in iShow 2009



One of the University of Michigan BME design teams, "Endocutter," was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2009 ASME Innovation Showcase (IShow) competition. The team project, The Endocutter, is a medical device for gastroenterologists who require a more effective means of removing blood clots from the stomach during episodes of stomach bleeding. It is an endoscope attachment that breaks down blood clots which allows their easy removal through a conventional endoscope suction channel. Unlike current methods such as snares, forceps, or lavage tubes which are time consuming and ineffective, our device offers an efficient alternative that makes the procedure quicker, safer, and more cost-effective.

The competition will be held in Palm Desert, CA, June 14, 2009 in conjunction with the ASME Annual Meeting. To prepare teams will conduct intensive strategic thinking with team members and receive hands-on mentoring and instruction specific to their venture. Participants will experience 3-4 days of intensive class-time and several weeks of coaching and strategy sessions, leading to a sound and investor-ready pitch.


Posted on May 1, 2009, 12:00 am


Julia Samarezov of BME named Student of the Year



Julia Samarezov, a BME senior, is honored as a University of Michigan Student of the Year. Her subtitle reads "the biomedical matron," and she certainly lives up to the name. Between her other interests, Julia is the vice president and co-founder of Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives (M-HEAL), a U-M BME sponsored student organization founded in 2006. A full article appears in the April 7, 2009 Michigan Daily. See the Michigan Daily website for the full article.


Posted on April 8, 2009, 2:39 pm


MHEAL Inventory Day



On Saturday, March 28, 2009, BME-sponsored student organization M-HEAL is hosting a volunteer event at World Medical Relief in Detroit. Volunteers are needed to inventory donated medical equipment and supplies in order to complete the inventory project that was begun last march. Once the inventory system is up and running, it will improve World Medical Relief's efficiency and increase the organization's impact on developing nations throughout the world. To sign-up visit M-HEAL on the web.


Posted on March 28, 2009, 11:27 am


2009 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship Awards



Joe Olberding is the recipient of a 2009 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship Award. Joe's research focuses on the development and validation of multiscale, multiphysics computational models with a corresponding scaffold-free, parallel-fibered engineered-tissue culture system to study the biomechanics of soft-tissue growth and remodeling. The central theme of this work is the integration of in silico and in vitro approaches for soft-tissue biomechanical characterization toward the vision of "computer-aided tissue engineering" for regenerative medicine.

BME's own Andreja Jovic of the Takayama Lab is also honored as a recipient of this years awards.


Posted on March 24, 2009, 8:11 am


2009-10 Barbour Scholarship Award Winner Hails From BME



Congratulations to, BME PhD student, Mekhala Raghavan for being named one of the winners of the 2009-10 Barbour Scholarships. Mekhala is a fourth year PhD student in BME working with Prof. Michael Morris of the Chemistry Department. She specializes in the study of bone tissue mechanics using polarized Raman spectroscopy. Her research interest is to understand the role of water in bone tissue and the quality of bone tissue as an indicator of the incidence of fracture.


Posted on March 9, 2009, 3:57 pm


David Lorch Wins 2009 GSI Award



BME is pleased to have one of the recipients of the 2009 Outstanding Student Instructor Award, David Lorch. The awards ceremony will be held on Friday, April 17 at 4:00 p.m. in the Rackham Amphitheatre with a public reception to follow. All University community members - students, faculty, and staff - are invited to attend the event and congratulate our accomplished GSIs.


Posted on March 6, 2009, 11:42 am


Post-Doc Paper Accepted by Advanced Functional Materials



BME Post-doctoral Research Fellow Mohammed Reza Abidian recently authored a paper with BME professor David Martin that was accepted by Advanced Functional Materials. The paper is published in volume 19 issue 4 of the journal and is featured on the cover. The article, titled "Neural Interface Biomaterials: Multifunctional Nanobiomaterials for Neural Interfaces," was judged as very urgent and was highlighted in Advanced in Advanced page on www.afm-journal.de and will be highlighted on MaterialsViews.com.


Posted on February 19, 2009, 9:51 am


2009 Leaders and Honors Awards



Eight BME students are recognized as recipients of the 2009 Leaders and Honors Awards given out by the University of Michigan College of Engineering. Congratulations to the winners:


Posted on February 16, 2009, 12:00 am


M-HEAL Article appears in Michigan Daily



The University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering Department is pleased to recognize the appearance of an article highlighting Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives' (M-HEAL) most recent accomplishment. Twelve M-HEAL members are currently working to design and produce a battery-operated surgical lamp to aid surgeons during frequent blackouts. World Medical Relief will test their first design prototype in Liberia this March. To read the full article from the Michigan daily site please see: "M-HEAL invents battery-operated surgical lamp."


Posted on February 3, 2009, 3:40 pm


BME Ph.D. Student Authors Most Downloaded Paper



BME Ph.D. student Wei Guobao, from Professor Peter Ma's lab, receives distinction this month for having the most downloaded article in Advanced Functional Materials for the month of November 2008. The paper titled "Nanostructured Biomaterials for Regeneration" was the number one download and a featured article on the AFM website. Congratulations to Wei and Professor Ma.


Posted on December 15, 2008, 5:14 pm


BME Engin Grad Symposium 2008 Winners



Many students from BME took part in the 2008 Engineering Graduate Symposium. The Symposium, held on Friday, November 7th, brought together around 200 students from both the University of Michigan and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Students presented their research in both posters and oral presentations. Many U-M BME students received awards in their respective categories. The oral presentation winners from BME include, 1st: Matthew Gibson, 2nd: Rebecca Schewe, 2nd: Mekhala Raghavan, 1st: Jungwoo Lee, 2nd: Shelley Brown, 1st: Sheereen Majd, and 1st: Manuel Hernandez. For the poster presentations BME also did very well with winners, 1st: Sheereen Majd, 2nd: Stephanie Grainger, 3rd: Pratik Rohatgi, 1st: Francesco Migneco, 2nd (tie): Katie Ewing, 2nd (tie): Jennifer Baltich, 1st: Chloe Funkhouser, and 2nd: Helen Fuller. The participants were judged in areas of quality of research and quality of presentation. Awardees will receive monetary awards for their excellent research and exemplary presentations. Congratulations to all of the BME winners!


Posted on November 11, 2008, 8:53 am


BME Post-doc Jun Cheng Published in Nature



BME Post-doc Jun Cheng has the distinction of being first author of a paper published in the online journal Nature. The paper titled "Centrosome misorientation reduces stem cell division during ageing," was published on October 15, 2008. U - M news service features an article highlighting the research.


Posted on October 16, 2008, 2:29 pm


BME Translational Fellowship Award



Rebecca Schewe-Mott was awarded the BME Translational Fellowship. Rebecca is a third year PhD student who works with Professor Keith Cook. Her area of specialization is Biomechanics (BioFluids) and her research topic is the Optimization of the BioLung ® Artificial Lung Fiber Bundle. Her research involves creating new artificial lung designs using computational and experimental methods with the goal of developing thoracic artificial lungs as a bridge to lung transplantation.


Posted on September 24, 2008, 4:19 pm


BME Merit Fellowship Award



Hesamoddin Jahanian was awarded the BME Merit Fellowship. Hesamoddin is a third year PhD student who works with Professor Luis Hernandez-Garcia and Professor Douglas Noll. His area of specialization is biomedical imaging and his research topic is fast, high SNR cerebral perfusion measurement using MRI. His research aims to improve arterial spin labeling (ASL) technique so that it can be used routinely in clinical applications for: 1) baseline cerebral perfusion measurements in both White Matter and Grey matter; and 2) functional neuroimaging. Selection criteria for the award included: academic excellence, clarity of research plan, and progress toward degree. The new fellowship generated a great deal of interest and the selection process was extremely competitive. Congratulations!


Posted on September 17, 2008, 11:14 am


Luyun Chen Wins American Society of Biomechanics Award



Luyun Chen, a Ph.D. student in BME working with Dr. James Ashton-Miller, won the Journal of Biomechanics Award from the American Society of Biomechanics at their annual meeting in conjunction with the Fourth North American Congress on Biomechanics held in Ann Arbor, MI August 5-9, 2008 for her paper entitled: "A 3-D Finite Element Model of Anterior Vaginal Wall Support for Evaluating Mechanisms Underlying Cystocele Formation."


Posted on August 12, 2008, 8:15 am


BME Ph.D. Student Amy Hsiao Receives MBSTP Fellowship



Amy Hsiao, Ph.D. student in BME, is the recipient of a Microfluidics in Biomedical Sciences Training Program (MBSTP) Fellowship. Amy is working with BME professor Shuichi Takayama. This fellowship covers most of Amy's stipend, tuition, and fees for the 2008-09 school year. Amy also received this fellowship for the 2007-08 school year.

The MBSTP leverages the strength's of Michigan's engineering, basic sciences, and biomedical research community to create Ph.D. level scientists with cross-training in microfluidics and biological research. Their intent is for students leaving the program to be able to identify and define biomedical problems and then design and implement microfluidics tools that can be used to solve those problems. They train students to communicate and collaborate across these disciplines and ultimately lead interdisciplinary research teams of the future. Such students are - and will continue to be - in high demand by instrumentation, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as research universities.


Posted on June 26, 2008, 11:28 am


BME Ph.D. Student Stephanie Grainger Earns Fellowship



Stephanie Grainger, Ph.D. student in BME working with Dr. Mohamed El-Sayed, is the recipient of a fellowship from the University of Michigan Cellular Biotechnology Training Program (CBTP). This fellowship includes tuition and stipend support for two to three years beginning in September 2008.

The Cellular Biotechnology Training Program (CBTP) at the University of Michigan, is dedicated to uniting academic and industrial scientists interested in basic research to further enhance career opportunities for Ph.D. graduates. One of the goals of CBTP is for all students in the Program to gain experience in an industrial research setting. Accordingly, all students supported by CBTP must participate in a 1-3 month industry internship.


Posted on June 24, 2008, 9:37 am


M-HEAL



On Saturday, March 29, members of M-HEAL joined World Medical Relief, Inc., to inventory the Detroit warehouse full of donated medical supplies. M-HEAL is a student group at Michigan composed of mainly BME graduate and undergraduate engineering students with a shared concern for global health disparities. Before this event, physicians from developing countries would wander the warehouse to select the items they needed for their clinics. The goal of the massive inventory project was to create a computerized database of every single item in WMR to make the whole operation more efficient and the equipment more accessible to those who need it. Stephen Dewitt, Annie Mitsak, Pratik Rohatgi, Julia Samorezov, David Turer, and Kristen Wolff, M-HEAL's officers, have worked tirelessly to accomplish this goal.

In just one year, M-HEAL has developed a very strong relationship with World Medical Relief, Inc., a private non-profit, multi-funded organization based in Detroit, Michigan. World Medical Relief exists exclusively for charitable purposes and seeks to relieve human suffering throughout the global community by collecting and distributing pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and recycled medical equipment. The staff works to supply low-cost prescription drugs and durable medical goods to impoverished individuals in the Detroit area, as well as provide medical supplies to international medical facilities. Approximately 100 shipments of medical goods are sent annually to hospitals in over 75 countries with the recipients of these items paying for only the cost of shipping. World Medical Relief is constantly receiving requests for supplies from international hospitals and the current list of most-asked for equipment includes: hospital beds, ventilators, fetal monitors, ultrasound machines, defibulators, operating tables, autoclaves, and ECG monitors. Such requests could not be met without the generous donations of local hospitals. When area hospitals such as Beaumont and St. John's undergo periodic equipment upgrades, they often call on World Medical Relief to pick up the discarded equipment. This is an environmentally-friendly, socially-conscious and tax-deductible method of recycling the hospitals' "outdated" equipment.

Two Saturdays each month, M-HEAL members join four volunteer medical technicians from Beaumont Hospital at World Medical Relief. Together they spend the morning testing and repairing donated medical devices. These technicians offer their expertise, teaching the University of Michigan students about the equipment, as well as effective validation procedures. Additionally, World Medical Relief has restored a large engineering validation room within its facilities exclusively for the use of M-HEAL members and is extremely excited about the work that the students are able to accomplish. World Medical Relief's Chief Operating Officer is enthusiastic about further building the World Medical Relief's relationship with the University of Michigan.

M-HEAL students also are working on a low-cost surgical lamp as their current design project. This lamp will be capable of operating with intermittent electricity, making it suitable for clinics in areas frequently plagued by power outages. A prototype is in development, and will be sent for testing with World Medical Relief members to the Philippines this summer. As part of the planning process for future design projects, M-HEAL members have created a survey of need to assess hospital and clinic conditions in developing nations. Several University groups have already taken these surveys on their medical aid trips to Cuba, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. The goal is to distribute the survey to as widely as possible, thus enabling M-HEAL to undertake relevant design projects that can make a real difference in the global community.


Posted on June 23, 2008, 9:25 am


Kelly Baker Wins BME Departmental Service Award



Kelly Baker is the first recipient of the BME Departmental Service Award. This award is given in recognition of her exceptional leadership and service to her peers and to the mission of the Department of Biomedical Engineering while maintaining a successful academic career. Kelly's commitment to Biomedical Engineering and her actions as an advocate of the department to fellow students and the administration are truly worthy of recognition. She participated in M-Heal, led BMES as President, and mentored BME underclassmen during her time here. Kelly's service extended beyond the BME community as well. She led tours of the college, took notes for the hearing-impaired, and volunteered in the community through several organizations.

Today's industry environment calls for mentors and leaders capable of working with others, who are able to collaborate, innovate, and inspire without dominating any project. Kelly brought this skill to the projects she undertook, and BME benefited greatly. We are very proud to count Kelly among our alumni, and wish her success in her future career.


Posted on June 19, 2008, 3:31 pm


2008 Margaret Ayers Host Award



Geeta Mehta, a Ph.D. student in BME, has been awarded the 2008 Margaret Ayers Host Award, and will receive $5000 in support. Nominees for this award must be women actively pursing a doctoral degree who have demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement, a sense of social responsibility, and an interest in the success of women in the academic community. Geeta was also awarded a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship in 2007.


Posted on May 13, 2008, 4:33 pm


NDSEG Fellowships



BME graduate student David Lipps has been awarded a three-year National Defense and Science Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. David is a member of Professor James Ashton-Miller's research group. As a means of increasing the number of U.S. citizens and nationals trained in science and engineering disciplines of military importance, the Department of Defense (DoD) awarded nearly 200 new three-year fellowships. The DoD offered these fellowships to individuals who have demonstrated ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering.


Posted on May 12, 2008, 4:44 pm


2008 NSF Fellowship Grants



Four Michigan Biomedical Engineering graduate students are the recipients of the 2008 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award. The BME department would like to congratulate David Thompson, Darcee Nelson, Marian Adamson, and Adam Maxwell on their impressive achievement. These 4 outstanding winners are associated with BME core faculty members Daryl Kipke Ph.D., Susan Brooks Ph.D., Michael Mayer Ph.D., and Charles Cain Ph.D. respectively. The awards are extremely competitive, especially this year, with fewer than 4% of applicants receiving honors.

The purpose of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program is to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and to reinforce its diversity. Each year the NSF awards approximately 1,100 Graduate Research Fellowships to outstanding individuals who are in the early stages of their graduate study. The fellowship provides three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based masters or doctoral degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

BME Professor Kate Barald held an NSF application workshop in October of 2007. More than 40 students from many Engineering College and Basic Science departments, including 3 of the 4 BME awardees, attended the informational workshop. This workshop will be given again in the fall of 2008. Dr. Barald is also willing to help students with their submissions, including editing their essays and research proposals. Kate Barald Ph.D. has served as a member of the NSF GRFP


Posted on April 8, 2008, 11:29 am


BME Student Received 2008 Fellowship Award



Hesamoddin Jahanian, Ph.D. student in BME working with Dr. Douglas Noll, is the recipient of a Rackham International Student Fellowship for 2008 and will receive an award of $7,500 which can be used toward his stipend or tuition. Nominees for this fellowship must have a strong academic record, be making good progress toward the degree, and demonstrate outstanding academic and professional promise.


Posted on March 24, 2008, 4:38 pm


Research Fellow Mohammad Abidian Receives Accolades



Mohammad Abidian received the Graduate Student Silver Award from the Materials Research Society (MRS) and his article in Advanced Materials was selected as the cover and most popular article of 2006. Mohammad was awarded the the Graduate Student Silver Award during the Materials Research Society (MRS) spring 2007 event for his contribution "Aligned Conducting Polymer Nanotubes for the Controlled Release of Neurotrophins and Contact Guidance of Regenerating Neurons" - his thesis work conducted in Prof, David Martin's lab in MSE.

His paper (Abidian et. al. "Conducting Polymer Nanotubes for Controlled Drug Release" Adv. Mater. 18, 4, 405-409) was published in Advanced Materials one of the high impact journals (impact factor 9.2). This paper was selected as the cover illustration of volume 18 issue 4 in 2006. Also, according to WILEY VCH publisher for Advanced Materials this paper was one of the most popular and accessed articles in 2006-2007.


Posted on March 18, 2008, 4:29 pm


Sheereen Majd Selected for Barbour Scholarship



BME Graduate student Sheereen Majd has been selected to recieve the Barbour Scholarship ("which recognizes women of the highest academic and professional caliber") for 08-09. The Barbour Scholarship program was established in 1914 at the University of Michigan to train young women in modern science, medicine, mathematics and other specialties critical to the development of their native lands.


Posted on March 12, 2008, 11:32 am


BME Ph.D students finish as finalists in business plan competiton "Nanotechnologies 2007"



University of Michigan graduate students Jungwoo Lee and Meghan Cuddihy were named one of the finalist teams in the "Nanotechnologies 2007" international business plan competition. Although they did not take home the top prize, the team, along with the help of their advisor Professor Nicholas Kotov, finished as one of seven finalist teams from around the world.


Posted on March 11, 2008, 9:43 pm


BME 599 Teams Awarded External Funds to Develop Prototypes



Student design teams from the BME 599 Graduate Innovative Design class have been awarded external funds to develop their prototypes. Two groups from the BME 599 class were awarded $500 (per group) from the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies Dare To Dream Grant Program on February 15, 2008.

Those 2 teams are:

Moduline
Daniel Greenwald
Jeffrey Meng
Auresa Thomas
Bryan Callow

Fontis Medical:
Matthew Gibson
Erin Purcell
Takashi Yoshida

The Fontis Medical group (from the BME 599 Graduate Innovative Design class) finished first place in the COE Center for Entrepreneurship Business Idea Competition. The group members will share the $1000 first prize award. The group also won a spot on the Bay Area Innovators trip in February.

Two teams from BME 599 won $500 Stipends from the BMEidea Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Award. Those two teams are:

NeuroSensor
Sean Xuan Li
Tia Chakraborty
Sunjay Dodani

Morphocor:
Kelly Lynn Baker
Chloe Marie Funkhouser
Heidi Nicole Howes
Christina Dahlin

One team was awarded $3,000 from the UM COE Center for Entrepreneurship:

Fontis Medical:
Matthew Donivan Gibson
Erin Kay Purcell
Takashi Daniel Yoshida


Posted on February 21, 2008, 12:00 am


Luyun Chen Wins Outstanding Paper Award



BME PhD candidate, Luyun Chen won the Basic Science Outstanding Paper Award at the 2007 American Urogynecological Society (AUGS) annual meeting in Hollywood, FL. The research paper is entitled: "3-D Finite Element Model of Anterior Vaginal Wall


Posted on November 21, 2007, 12:00 am