BME student presents poster at Society for Neuroscience Conference in Chicago

OU BME graduate student Julia Tang presented her poster “Big-Data Analytics of Human Brain Network Dynamics: A Simultaneous EEG-fMRI Study” at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Chicago this October. Congratulations, Julia!

SBME Seminar Series: Larry McEnerney

This Friday, November 8, the SBME Seminar Series will continue with a seminar from Dr. Larry McEnerney, Director of Writing Programs at the University of Chicago. Dr. McEnerney will present “Writing Effectively for Biomedical Engineering: The Value of Creating Value” at 1:30 p.m. in Gallogly Hall Room 127. See you there!

OU BME seniors win award at prestigious engineering competition

Four Biomedical Engineering undergraduates from the University of Oklahoma won a prestigious award in the Coulter College Program, a rigorous nationwide engineering design competition. Accompanied by Professor Marc Moore, OU seniors Daniel Cheong, James Elias, Benjamin Seibert, and Osamah Mian flew to Minneapolis to participate in the product innovation and biomedical engineering competition hosted by the Biomedical Engineering Society. This is the first year OU students have competed in the program: “I had no idea what it was until we got there” says Elias. However, the newness of the program and the stiff competition they faced didn’t faze Cheong, Elias, Seibert, and Mian, who won the award for “Best Venture Capital Pitch for Diabetes Disease Management.”

The Coulter College program is a hybrid of a training program and competition that fuses the complexity and innovation of Biomedical Engineering with the ingenuity and nuance of business. Twelve teams from top BME programs across the country were given one of three problems facing doctors and patients: hypertension management, heart valve defect, or diabetes management, and were tasked to invent, design, and market a feasible solution to their assigned problem. Aided by business professionals and doctors, the teams developed their idea over several days and presented their idea in a venture capital pitch setting. Late nights and early mornings were the reality for these high-achieving students as they prepared for the presentation, “It was one giant whirlwind of a weekend,” says Cheong. The OU team competed against top BME schools from across the nation, including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, and the University of Akron. 

Given their problem area, diabetes management, Cheong, Elias, Seibert, and Mian began the competition with an idea in mind: an app that could check the glucose levels of a diabetic. The idea morphed into a portable device like a phone case before the team, with help from their business mentors and design professionals, decided on a publicly available testing option. As the team researched the current products in diabetes management, they discovered the current medical need for this design. One in three Americans are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and the team knew their design could make a difference in raising awareness: “We can help save people,” says Elias. 

As they continued researching their idea, the team met with industry professionals to determine the logistics of pitching, marketing, and developing their product. “At the end of the day, engineering is the first step, and the business and marketing comes next,” says Mian. This business experience, he says, is “very valuable for engineering students to have. Not all schools emphasize it, but OU does.” These business and marketing elements of their design not only helped them win the competition, but have also provided these students with opportunities beyond the program. 

Even after the Coulter College Program, Cheong, Elias, Seibert, and Mian are continuing to work on their diabetes management project as their senior capstone. Alongside applying to medical school and making plans for post-graduation, they are working to secure a patent for their design. With help from entrepreneurship professionals, the team is beginning the process of expanding their design into a fully-fledged business.

All four students credit their success in the Coulter College Program to their education at the University of Oklahoma: “We were only capable of [winning this award] because the BME program here is amazing. Having this new program has given us the opportunity to grow up with the program as it grows to the best BME program in the region,” says Mian.

SBME Student Spotlight: Daniel Cheong

The first student in our BME student spotlight series is Daniel Cheong. Daniel is a third-year student from Muskogee, Oklahoma and is currently the president of the OU Biomedical Engineering Society. He got involved in BMES his freshman year and served as the treasurer for a year before assuming his current role as president. One of his favorite BMES memories is performing a sodium alginate experiment with touring high school students and teaching them how to cross-link hydrogels in 3-D printed neuron molds. Post-graduation, Daniel will be applying to medical schools and aiming to complete his M.D. or M.D. Ph.D. 

Last week, the University of Oklahoma Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering sent 18 students to the 2019 Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Congratulations to our graduate and undergraduate students who were selected to present their posters at the conference.

Thank you to the OU Community for celebrating the opening of Gallogly Hall with us this past weekend. The new building is the home of the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering and the Diversity and Inclusion Programs and provides new and exciting opportunities for current and future University of Oklahoma students and faculty. 

Next time you find yourself on the Engineering Quad, walk around Gallogly Hall to see the new, state-of-the-art facilities! We are located between Felgar Hall and the ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility, at 173 Felgar Street. 

Gallogly Hall Grand Opening

The Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering invites you to the formal dedication and official ribbon cutting of Gallogly Hall, the new home of the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering and the Diversity and Inclusion Programs. With ten classrooms and teaching labs, collaborative learning spaces, and specialized student research labs, the addition of Gallogly Hall will benefit students both in the Gallogly College of Engineering and throughout the larger University of Oklahoma community.

Join us for the formal dedication of the newly completed building on September 27 between 1:30-2:30 p.m. at Gallogly Hall, located on the Engineering Quad between Felgar Hall and the ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility. Tours will follow the dedication. 

Dr. Nanyin Zhang outstanding presentation on “Synergizing Phototherapy and Immunotherapy for Metastatic Cancers”

Dr. Nanyin Zhang has given an outstanding presentation on “Synergizing Phototherapy and Immunotherapy for Metastatic Cancers”. His lecture at our seminar last week was very interesting and informative; in fact, it was the highlight of the day. The family members of our Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering would like to thank Dr. Nanyin Zhang for attending the seminar and sharing the valuable information.

Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering AND the Clara Luper Department of African and African - American Studies Presents Cato Laurencin

It is a great pleasure to announce that Dr. Cato Laurencin is going to give a joint presentation on “Success is What you Leave Behind”, Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 6:30 in the early evening. Please see the seminar announcement below for more information about Dr. Laurencin and his seminar topic.

#OUGivingDay ## Give back. Make an impact!

Support @uofoklahoma on #OUGivingDay September 10th and #GiveSooner! 

(OU.EDU/GIVINGDAY)

Join us for a 24-hour fundraising campaign to raise support for OU's Greatest Need, student programs. Each year, thousands of OU alumni and friends join together to provide important resources to ease the financial burden on students and provide the best educational experience possible — but the need is still great.

#OUGivingDay

Will you #GiveSooner on September 10th? Join us for ONE DAY, ONE PURPOSE, ONE SOONER FAMILY, and give back to (#University of OKlahoma). #OUGivingDay (OU.EDU/GIVINGDAY)

SBME Students Place First at BMES Coulter College Program

The SBME family congratulates Osamah Mian, James Elias, Benjamin Seibert and Daniel Cheong for their award-winning presentation entitled "Designing a public blood glucose monitoring system." The award was given during the BMES Coulter College program at Medtronic in Minneapolis. The team's presentation was ranked first over other projects, including those from John Hopkins, George Washington and Temple University. OU ranked in the top three overall in the Coulter College Program.

Dr. Moore and his student's design project is in type 2 diabetes management: providing more personalized, affordable and actionable insight for patients.

This award represents a significant achievement for the team's hard work and dedication.

Osamah Mian, James Elias, Benjamin Seibert and Daniel Cheong are advised by Dr. Marc Moore.

BMES Coulter College program at Medtronic in Minneapolis

The SBME family congratulates Dr. Moore, Mian Osamah , Elias James, Seibert Benjamin and Cheong Daniel for representing University of OKlahoma by participating in the BMES Coulter College program at Medtronic in Minneapolis.

Dr. Marc Moore’s and his lab students are wandering and brainstorming for the best solutions. Hopefully they will identify a medical need and then develop an innovative solution for it.

Dr. Moore’s and his students's design project is in "type 2 diabetes management": providing more personalized, affordable, and actionable insight for patients managing their T2D.

Samant Pratik awarded first place at the OU 3MT final competition

The SBME family congratulates Samant Pratik, a PHD student in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, for his award-winning presentation on "Listening for Cancer with X-ray Induced Ultrasound" at the OU 3MT final competition on February 22, 2019. He was awarded first place

His research is focused on “Designing and constructing the hardware and software for a 3D nanoscale photoacoustic tomography for in-vivo label-free imaging of red blood cells at super-resolution (on the order ofnm)” and “Designing and constructing the hardware and software of an X-ray Acoustic Computed Tomography for 3D x-ray imaging with a single projection and high resolution x-ray absorption contrast”. Bio medical Engineering (IBEST & SBME) are very proud of Samant for representing the University of Oklahoma at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 3MT Competition.

This truly represents a significant achievement for his hard work!

Samant Pratik is advised in research by Dr. Lei Ding.

Please refer to the following YouTube link to see the video of Samant Pratik’s winning performance at the OU 3MT 2019. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagGrlMjMTA&t=4s

Robinson to present on “Emulsion Electrospun Fibers June 14

It is a great pleasure to announce that Dr. Jenny Robinson is going to give a presentation on “Emulsion Electrospun Fibers for Sex-Dependent Fibrocartilage Regeneration,” on Friday, June 14, 2019 at 1:30 p.m. We hope everyone can join us. Please refer to the flyer below. 

Ali Khan selected to Open Finalist of the Student Paper Competition at the IEEE EMBC’19

The SBME family congratulates Ali Khan, recently selected as the Open Finalist of the Student Paper Competition at the IEEE EMBC’19, the prestigious flagship annual conference for the largest international society of biomedical engineering (i.e., Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS).

Ali Khan will compete in the oral presentations for the first three positions at the conference on July 25th, in Berlin, Germany. He was rated TOP THREE out of more than 200 student papers from all over the world (ranked number 2 for North America Regions).

This truly represents a significant achievement for his hard work!

Ali Khan is advised in research by Dr. Han Yuan and Dr. Lei Ding.

Thomas Selected to Receive Astronaut Scholarship Award

The SBME family congratulates Emily Thomas, recently named recipient of the prestigious Astronaut Scholarship Award.

Emily, a junior from Chickasha, Oklahoma, will travel to Washington D.C. in August to attend the Innovator's Gala, during which she will be presented with the ASF award.

As part of this honor, Emily will receive the following:

• Up to $10,000 award
• Expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the Innovators Gala featuring the Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence
• Opportunity to present and represent their institution at the Scholar Technical Conference
• Mentoring for one year by a scholar alumni, C-suite executive or astronaut
• Opportunity to participate in the Professional Development Program
• Opportunity to participate in Foundation events
• Membership in the Astronaut Scholar Honor Society

Emily is known for her enthusiasm, positivity and hard work. Emily is advised in research by Emi Kiyotake, Stephenson Graduate Fellow and PhD candidate from Dr. Detamore's group. She is currently doing summer research in the Bioengineering Program at the University of Colorado, Denver.