Author: FORW-RD NRT

Lindsay Lozeau and Sarah Hernandez, who earlier in April won WPI’s i3 competition, were invited to present at the Tech Advisors Network (TAN) on April 30th.  TAN is a virtual incubator comprising about 40 entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders who advise and support students and faculty who hope to turn ideas and research into commercial ventures. TAN members offer experienced advice on business plans, marketing strategies, and potential partners and funding — bolstering WPI’s role as a hub of innovation and bringing jobs and economic growth to the region.

On April 29^th, Sigma Xi held its induction ceremony at the Goat’s Head restaurant.  Interim President Ryan gave the keynote speech where Sarah Hernandez and Lindsay Lozeau were nominated for a full year of free membership because of their success in the i3 competition.

Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering. Membership in Sigma Xi is by nomination. Full Membership is conferred upon an individual who has shown noteworthy achievement as an original investigator in a field of pure or applied science or engineering.

The Northeast Bioengineering Conference 2014 (NEBEC) was held in Boston on April 25-27^th during which two IGERT fellows had presentations. Sarah Hernandez had a poster in the Cell Engineering session titled Regeneration competence accompanies increased expression of arginine methyltransferase PRMT8 in human adult fibroblasts. While Lindsay Lozeau had a poster in the Biomaterials session titled Effectiveness of a Surface-Bound Antimicrobial Peptide as a Function of Tether Length.

IGERT Fellow Todd Alexander is a recipient of an NSF I-Corps award where he will be the Entrepreneurial lead.  The primary goal of the I-Corps is to foster entrepreneurship that will lead to the commercialization of technology that has been supported by NSF-funded research. By the end of the I-Corps session the entrepreneurial team should be able to come to a decision about continuing the commercialization of the research. The curriculum centers around getting outside of the building and talking to real customers in order to figure out the proper business model and improve their value proposition. The grant is for $50,000 dollars, but much of this money will be used for travel expenses to go out and meet the customers. The goal is to talk to over 100 different customers before the 1.5 month program portion award finishes.

On April 14, 2014 WPI held the final stage of the i3: Investing in Ideas with Impact competition. In this competition the graduate student participants make a 3 minute pitch describing the benefits and marketability of their innovations without any visual aids. The IGERT program had four students make it to the final round. The 12 finalists’ presentations were judged by panels of business leaders and entrepreneurs who selected winners for Best Concept and Best Presentation; each winner received a $1,000 cash prize. The Best Concept Prize was awarded to Lindsay Lozeau for: “AMProtection: Preventing Implant Infections in the First Place.” Advisor: Terri Camesano and the Best Presentation Prize went to Sarah Hernandez for “Diagnosing Pre-Cancer.” Advisor: Tanja Dominko. Sarah Hernandez also received the People’s Choice with a $250 cash prize.

In addition Lindsay and Sarah were also awarded a Gordon Research Conference prize. This prize was awarded by Nancy Ryan Gray, PhD, director of the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) and one of the i3 judges. The prize will make it possible for these students to attend GRC conferences, which are forums for presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies.

There are four IGERT fellows that are moving on to the final level of the i3 Competition this month.  They are Sarah Hernandez, Biology; Lindsay Lozeau, Chemical Engineering, and Heather Cirka and Hannah Strobel, Biomedical Engineering.  The i3: Investing in Ideas with Impact is about translating research into value and real-world impact. It encourages graduate students to consider how the ideas and innovations they are developing through research could become the foundation of new products, new commercially valuable processes, and even new companies.

In April 2013, IGERT Fellow Todd Alexander was awarded second place in the university-wide i3 Competition.

AMProtection, a company formed by IGERT Fellows Todd Alexander and Lindsay Lozeau, competed against nine other entrants in The Venture Forum’s 2014 Five Minute Pitch Contest held on March 11, 2014.   AMProtection is a company that uses antimicrobial peptide coating to reduce infection in orthopedic implants.  Todd and Lindsay won the poster contest portion of the event for which they will receive $250.

The Pitch Contest has become an integral part of The Venture Forum’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and the growth of technology-based businesses, and is designed to generate investment interest for participating entrepreneurs.

Recently, as part of the IGERT class -Translational Engineering for Dissertation Research, the fellows toured the Johnson & Johnson DePuy facility in Raynham, MA.  Here they learned about the state of the art facility that trains surgeons from all over the world to use their internal medical device products, ranging from craniofacial products to spinal supports. Overall, they were all impressed with how such a large company had such a small company feel. 

Kristen L. Billiar, associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Only about 2 percent of ASME’s more than 130,000 worldwide members have attained the fellow grade.

The first biomedical engineering professor at WPI to receive this honor, Mr. Billiar, who has an appointment as an adjunct associate professor of surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, has also been named to the executive board of ASME’s Bioengineering Division and appointed an associate editor for ASME’s Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.

The IGERTs participated in the ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’ held at WPI on February 18th. They did a demo on bones, fractures, and fracture fixation. Watch for them on the news with WBZ’s Paula Ebbons Eye on Education Monday the 24^th at 5pm.

This event was part of the numerous activities that WPI organized to celebrate National Engineers Week.