BME Commencement 2012

   

 

Hundreds of purple-robed undergraduate students, master's students, and PhD candidates graduated from the McCormick School of Engineering on June 15 and 16 as part of a sunny and warm weekend of Commencement festivities.

Several BME undergraduates were awarded department awards including:

Biomedical Engineering Award for Research

This award recognizes outstanding achievement in research by a graduating BME student. The criteria for the award include the quality, originality, and importance of the research.

Austin Culver

Title: Characterization of downstream targets of Foxc1 and Foxc2 nuclear transcription factors during vascular endothelial differentation of embryonic stem cells.

Departmental Honors

Yuanjia Zhu: Morphology Markers of Buccal Mucosa Cells for Lung Cancer Diagnosis: Optimization of Optical Detection Technology, Partial-wave Spectroscopy (PWS) Microscopy

Jin Tao

Title: Synthesis of Silver Releasing Antibacterial Hydrogels and Evaluation of Redox Reactions Between Substituted Catechols and Silver

Robert B. Taggart Best Design Award

This award recognizes outstanding achievement in design by an individual or a team of graduating BME students. The criteria for the award include the innovative aspects and significance of the design. The design can be one from a course (such as BME 390 or DSGN 398) or from an extracurricular activity. 

Honorable Mention:
Team of Nate Davidson, Charles Hwang, John Kulesa, Jenny Sulak

This team has developed a breast tissue malignancy simulator to train medical practitioners to perform a clinical breast exam. What is different about their version as compared to existing versions is that it has a very realistic feel. They did this by removing known geometries of material from the interior to soften it. They are also able to implant variable abnormalities in any position throughout the model.

Winner:
Team of Brian Ambielli, Austin Culver, Ford Culver, Jonathan Miller 

The Lyle F. Mockros Outstanding Senior Award

This award recognizes outstanding leadership, scholarship, and service by a graduating BME student. The recipient of this award will be selected based on accomplishments in one or more of the folowing areas:
1.     Leadership in department or university community
2.     Outreach to campus, community or profession
3.     Teaching service 
4.     Exceptional initiative in research
5.     Academic achievement*
6.     Contribution to society
 

Winners:

Charles Hwang

Yuanjia Zhu

Outstanding Academic Record

Yuanjia Zhu - 3.92

Michael Pukala - 3.92

At the ceremony itself, three teams of students were awarded the Mickelson Prize, which is modeled after the Margaret and Muir Frey Memorial Prize for Innovation and Creativity, established by the late Donald Frey in 2002. The Mickelson Prize competition recognizes the senior who submits the best insightful, innovative, and/or creative project.

BME winners of the prize included:

First prize: Sabeen Admani, Razna Ahmad, Zahra Ali, and Jin Tao for "Shoulder Dislocation Simulator"

Second prize: Nathan Davidson, Charles Hwang, John Kulesa, and Jenny Saluk for "A More Realistic Training Simulator for the Clinical Breast Exam"

Third prize: Jennifer Haag, Zong-yi Liu, Sylwia Migas, and Robin Stiller for "Medical Simulator for Second Trimester Uterine Evacuation"

Congratulations to all BME graduates!