Profs. Kristen Billiar (BME) and Frank Hoy (School of Business) presented a poster at the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference in Sunriver Oregon about the innovation and translation modules integrated into the WPI IGERT curriculum. Prof. Billiar also organized a workshop at the conference entitled “Lost in Translation: Helping Educators Teach Translational Skills” which featured speakers from academia, industry, and the FDA.
Category: Research
IGERT fellow Sarah Runge is in China for three months completing the International component of the IGERT training by working on a research project in the labs of Prof. Wei Sun at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The goals of the International Experience module are to provide students with in-depth research experience alongside international experts in their field of investigation and to help students observe and acquire experiential knowledge of culture-specific drivers of technology, innovation, and policies that govern technological development in other countries.
Recently Sarah attended a reception that was hosted by WPI graduate and Trustee Glenn Yee and attended by Eric Overstrom, (Provost), David Cyganski (Dean of Engineering), Linda Looft (Assistant VP of Government & Community Relations)and Professor Tahar El-Korchi who headed WPI’s participation in the Solar Decathlon -China.
Pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau has been involved in numerous outreach events during the past year. Lindsay particularly enjoys introducing STEM education to k-12 students. Here are some of the outreach events Lindsay has participated in.
December 17th, 2012 Recruiting Visit – Pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau visited her undergraduate institution, the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI, to recruit students to apply for the WPI IGERT program in Biofabrication. Here she gave information booklets about the IGERT program and spoke to undergraduate students in the chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, and biology and biotechnology departments about being a fellow. Future recruiting efforts may take place at URI and other schools around New England, as well as the Tau Beta Pi National Convention in September.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day – Members of the Camesano lab, IGERT fellow Todd Alexander, pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau and graduate student Kathleen Wang volunteered on February 19th for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, held at WPI as a part of National Engineers Week. Here, they taught a group of over 60 girls from local elementary and middle schools about the states of matter using liquid nitrogen. Following a short presentation by Professor Camesano about women in engineering and medicine, liquid nitrogen-frozen hot dog smashing was among the favorite demonstrations, and the students could leave with freshly made liquid-nitrogen ice cream and a frozen flower.
4th Grade Science Demonstration – On Tuesday, June 4th, Professor Terri Camesano and pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau visited the Midland St. Middle School in Worcester to teach 42 fourth-grade students about pH. Lindsay and the students had a short integrative discussion about chemical reactions, hydrogen and hydroxide ions found in acids and bases, and the scientific method. Then, the students learned how to use pH paper, their newly-understood concept of pH, and the scientific method to determine the identity of 6 mystery household products.
Part of the worksheet that Lindsay handed out to students.
TouchTomorrow@WPI – On Saturday, June 8th, with help from NASA and quite a few other vendors, companies and individuals, the WPI campus turned into a giant interactive air, space, science, and engineering museum, free for all ages to attend. Over 10,000 people walked through the campus that day participating in a number of exhibits and demonstrations, and even attending a talk given by an astronaut. Pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau volunteered at this event all day greeting and helping guests find their favorite exhibits, one of over 160 volunteers for the entire event.
2013 Midland St. 4th Grade Science Fair – Over 40 fourth-grade students gathered on Friday, June 14th at the Midland St. School in Worcester to present science and engineering projects to a panel of judges from industry and academia, two of which were Professor Terri Camesano and pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau. Projects ranged from veterinary science to aerospace, to inventing new devices, physics and biotechnology. After judging 20 projects each, certificates were given to the top projects. The results were a tie for 1st place, 2nd place and a “Judges’ Choice”. Top posters covered topics like evaporation of liquids, friction in car tires, and the filtration/separation of dirty water to drinking water using activated carbon.
IGERT fellow Heather Cirka is completing a summer internship at Harvard Apparatus. Heather will be working for the Director of Regulatory Affairs to help set up testing guidelines and protocols. She will also assist in writing them. She will interact with scientific groups and engineers using her cell culture and engineering knowledge. Heather is glad to have this experience and thinks the internship is the perfect complement to the IGERT class related work.
In May of 2013 Pre-IGERT fellow Katrina Hansen attended the first International Advanced Course on Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing. The course was held on the Algarve in Tavira, Portugal and attracted students, faculty and other professionals from across the globe. There were roughly 30 trainees from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Portugal and another 20 presenters from academia and industry. The course was chaired by Todd McDevitt from Georgia Tech, Chris Hewitt from the University of Loughborough in the UK, and Joaquim Cabral from the Instituto Superior Technico in Lisbon, Portugal. The week consisted of classes given by several presenters, oral and poster presentations given by the trainees, a group project, and several social events. Topics from basic stem cell biology to large scale bioprocessing were covered.
The course focused on the challenges facing the field of regenerative medicine in terms of the scale up needed to bring cellular therapies to the clinic. Most cellular therapies will require billions of cells for only a handful of patients. Currently, the technology to culture that volume of cells does not exist. One of the techniques used to get the trainees to think about these issues was to create a group project where the trainees had to pitch an idea to a company about a regenerative medicine therapy. As part of the project the trainees had to think about cell source, scale up, and the business side of the technology. At the end of the week they presented their work in front of everyone.
Katrina enjoyed the full experience of learning from and connecting with leaders in the field and the opportunity to work with people of different backgrounds from around the world.
IGERT fellow Karen Levi is the first to depart for a summer of research experience at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Karen will spend three months in Milan working in the research labs of Prof. Tanzi. Here she has created an electrospun silk tube that can be used in small vessel bypass grafting. This complements the work being done at WPI of building blood vessels.
As part of the IGERT grant, students can experience research at an International University or Industry internship during the summer.
IGERT fellows, Sarah Runge, Karen Levi, Todd Alexander and Heather Cirka have entered into the NSF’s IGERT 2013 video and poster competition. They are competing against over a hundred other IGERT fellows in three different award categories. The Judges award, Community Choice and Public Choice. You can view the video and poster at http://posterhall.org/igert2013/posters/415 and place a vote.
Professor Camesano, Professor of Chemical Engineering, has graduated from the inaugural class of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE at Drexel™) Fellowship program. The ELATE program provides academic leadership training and support for women through a one-year fellowship program. Fellows received instruction in different dimensions of leadership, such as personal and professional leadership effectiveness to address strategic, operational, and relational challenges; strategic finance and resource management; organizational dynamics; and development of communities of leadership practice that sustain leadership development beyond the fellowship year.
The ELATE program has been specially developed for senior women faculty in computer science and engineering, at the associate or full professor level, who demonstrate the greatest potential for assuming executive leadership positions at academic institutions within the next five years.
As part of the year-long program, Professor Camesano developed an Institutional Action Project entitled Center for Interdisciplinary Research in a Global Context. She developed the concept for a Center that would facilitate international research experiences for graduate students and international collaborations. The Center builds upon international collaborations that Professor Camesano is developing with Politecnico di Milano and Tsinghua University, as well as inclusion of plans for new partnerships and programs.
The Koerner Family Fellowship is in its second season here at WPI. The family wishes to aid graduate and undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in academia. Heather Cirka of the IGERT Grant and Biomedical Engineering Department was selected as one of the 2013 graduate fellows. Heather is currently studying mechanobiological sensing in valvular interstitial cells and the implications for treatment of calcific aortic valve disease.
Igert fellow Sarah Runge recently presented a poster at the Epigenetics and Chromatin conference from March 11th to the 13th at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The poster title was Acquisition of regeneration Competence in Adult Fibroblasts is Accompanied by Upregulation of Arginine Methyltransferase PRMT8, Sarah Runge and Tanja Dominko.