Fifth annual Research Symposium connects biomedical engineering student researchers
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The fifth annual University of Illinois Chicago Biomedical Engineering Research Symposium gave students who attended and presented research a chance to connect and create potential collaborations between labs.
The event, hosted by the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering and organized by its student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), featured a keynote presentation given by Richard and Loan Hill Professor Ian Papautsky and oral and poster presentations from undergraduate and graduate students pursuing research in biomedical engineering fields.
Faculty organizer Associate Professor Kamran Avanaki said there was about a 50% increase in participation this year and the quality of research was also phenomenal. This year, there were 16 oral presentations and 70 poster presentations given by students.
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“It’s always good practice for us researchers in training to be given a chance to present and describe our research,” said Naveed Reza Aghamohammadi, a PhD student in the biomedical engineering department and graduate research assistant in the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. “Especially for students from other research fields or other backgrounds.”
Avanaki, Assistant Professor Beatriz Penalver Bernabe, Clinical Assistant Professor Michael Browne, Professor Yang Dai, Clinical Assistant Professor Hananeh Esmailbeigi, Assistant Professor Muge Karaman, Professor Salman Khetani, Professor Xue-Jun Li, Assistant Professor Zhangli Peng, Professor Tom Royston, and Research Professor Hee-Jeong Im Sampen served as judges for the poster competitions.
“This symposium is a great way for the students to experience what it is like to tell the stories of how they can change the lives of patients in the future with the work they have done or are doing,” Avanaki said.
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Winners from this year’s symposium include:
First Place Graduate Oral Presentation: Juliana Benavides Lara
Second Place Graduate Oral Presentation: Regeant Panday
First Place Post-Graduate Oral Presentation: Mohsin Zafar
First place Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Stephan Cevallos
Second Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Martin Castillo and Besher Jabri
First Place Graduate Poster Presentation: Owen Lally
Second Place Graduate Poster Presentation: Loic Saint-Martin
Third Place Graduate Poster Presentation: Suridh Chakravarty and Ashlin Mitchell
First Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Sara Kishta
Second Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Elizabeth Alsheikh
Third Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Julie Gawenda and Jennifer Meza
First Place Post-Graduate Poster Presentation: Hemalatha Kanniyappan
There was also an Industry Day alumni panel hosted following the symposium. Alumni participating in the events of the day included Jennifer Hollenstein (senior director of R&D, Abbott Laboratories), Jesse Vazquez (Medical Device Specialist, FDA), Maryam Hanif (Engineering Consultant and Principal Device Engineer, Consulting Firm), Kishore Palla (Business Systems Analyst II, Medline Industries, LP), Samuel Dreyer (Senior Product Manager, Level Ex), Aidy Segura (Systems Engineer, Baxter), Subhi Saadeh (Senior Quality Manager, Gilead Services), Charles Ventura (CEO, Ventura Solutions), William Pietrzak PhD (President, Musculoskeletal Publication and Analysis, Inc.), Brian Henry (Human Factors Engineer, Abbott), and Paul Fletter (Futurist, Founder, and CEO, Fletter Consulting Group, LLC).