Category: Awards

Rourke Sylvain Places at Michigan Collegiate Startup Challenge

Rourke Sylvain
Rourke Sylvain

On Friday (Nov. 11), four Huskies representing three teams pitched their business ideas at Michigan State University during the Michigan Collegiate Startup Challenge (MCSC). MCSC is Michigan’s university-level business model competition specifically designed for student entrepreneurs across Michigan. MCSC fosters entrepreneurship by encouraging students to commercialize their ideas. MCSC is hosted by Michigan State and sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).

The 20 semifinalists participating in Friday’s event included the following Michigan Tech teams:

  • Jordan Craven, Tall and Small Designs
  • Anastasia (Asia) Motta and Zane Smalley, The Droplet
  • Rourke Sylvain, Integrated Molecular Innovations (MS Student, Biomedical Engineering)

During the event, 20 college students representing nine schools from across Michigan pitched their ideas.

Congratulations go out to Jordan Craven and Rourke Sylvain. Craven took first place, winning $5,000, and Sylvain took fourth place, winning $1,000. In addition, Asia Motta, first-place winner of the Husky Innovate Idea Pitch, and Zane Smalley represented Michigan Tech well during their pitch. We are excited for the future and look forward to the next steps on their innovation journeys!

Read more at the Pavlis Honors College Blog, by Jessie Stapleton.

Student Entrepreneur Rourke Sylvain Advances in Global Pitch Competition

Rourke Sylvain
Rourke Sylvain

From an applicant pool of 600 students, Rourke Sylvain, president of Michigan Tech’s chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO), is among the 100 participants selected to compete in the 39th Annual Global Pitch Competition hosted by the University of Tampa. Over the next month, Rourke, who is a graduate student pursuing biomedical engineering, will create a four-phase online investor pitch deck—the problem, the solution, a business model, and a video pitch.

Read more at the Michigan Tech College of Business Newsblog, by Shannon Rinkinen.

Related

HRI 2022 Fall Fellowship Award for Brennan Vogl

Brennan Vogl
Brennan Vogl

The Health Research Institute (HRI) at Michigan Tech is pleased to announce Fall Fellowship awardees for 2022. Congratulations to all recipients.

HRI Fall Fellowship awardees are:

  • Priyanka Kadav, Chemistry
  • Brennan Vogl, Biomedical Engineering
  • Isaac Wedig, Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology
  • Chen Zhao, Applied Computing

HRI Student Fellowships are awarded three times a year. More information can be found on the HRI website.

By the Health Research Institute.

Sylvain and Dabas Place at CMU New Venture Challenge 2022

Ali Dabas and Rourke Sylvain holding the 2nd place high growth check for five thousand dollars.
Ali Dabas and Rourke Sylvain placed 2nd in the challenge.

Four Michigan Tech teams pitched their idea during the virtual New Venture qualifying rounds and made it to the finals! These Michigan Tech innovators will took their pitch on the road to compete in person at Central Michigan University in the New Venture Challenge (NVC), held from 2-8 p.m. Friday (April 22).

This is the 12th year Michigan Tech has collaborated with CMU to offer our students the opportunity to compete at the New Venture Challenge in Mount Pleasant. Students were allow to compete in either the two-minute elevator pitch competition or the seven-minute business model competition, as well as a gallery competition.

Qualifying in the Two-Minute Pitch competition:

  • Jakob Christiansen with ProBoard, an e-commerce platform to solve issues in the construction material supply chain.

Qualifying in the Seven-Minute Pitch competition:

  • Bayle Golden with SafeRow, an innovative wearable device designed to keep children safe when every second counts.
  • Rourke Sylvain with imi (integrated molecular innovations), an electrochemical biosensor for T4 detection. BME MS student Rourke Sylvain and BS student Ali Dabas traveled to CMU last Friday and won 2nd place.
  • Jordan Craven with Tall and Small Designs, a technology company that provides software as a service to retailers who sell clothes online.

The competitions offer over $60,000 in prizes and in-kind services. The awards ceremony began at 7 p.m. and was livestreamed.

Biomedical Engineering Graduate Students Place at Graduate Research Colloquium 2022

Fatemeh Razaviamri poster with two people standing by it.
Fatemeh Razaviamri Poster
Brennan Vogl by his poster.
Brennan Vogl Poster
Mohanish Chandurkar by his poster.
Mohanish Chandurkar Poster

The Graduate Research Colloquium 2022 was held March 29 and 30. Graduate Student Government (GSG) would like to thank everyone who made the event possible. Over the two days, we had 50 poster presentations and 49 oral presentations.

The winners are as follows:

Poster Presentations

  • Third Place: Mohanish Chandurkar (Biomedical Engineering), “Shear stress sensing on endothelial cells using traction force microscopy (TFM)”
  • Second Place (tie): Laura Schaerer, “Division of Labor in Polyethylene Terephthalate Degrading Microbial Consortia”
  • Second Place (tie): Brennan Vogl (Biomedical Engineering), “Effect of aortic curvature on bioprosthetic aortic valve performance”
  • First Place: Arslan Amer, “Selenoprotein Sepp1 Determines Cysteine Dependence in Pancreatic Cancer”

Oral Presentations

Due to an unlikely four-way tie, we have decided to present the awards to our top four presenters in no particular order:

  • Arslan Amer, “Selenium and Cysteine in Pancreatic Cancer Therapy”
  • Fatemeh Razaviamri (Biomedical Engineering), “Moisture-Activated Antiviral Coating based on Mussel Adhesive Chemistry”
  • Rishi Babu, “Study of a source rich region to understand the origin of PeVatrons”
  • Isaac Wedig, “A Practical Application of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise”

A hearty congratulations to all the winners at this year’s colloquium. GSG would like to thank everyone — presenters, judges, volunteers and GSG supporters — for making this a great event!

View the Photo Gallery

By Graduate Student Government.

Biomedical Engineering Graduates Spring 2021

Commencement activity on the campus mall.
Commencement

See BME Student Awards 2021

Graduate Students

  1. Ellen Meiling Lindquist
  2. Alexander Ray Fetner
  3. Pegah Kord Forooshani
  4. Ellen Meiling Lindquist
  5. Kevin William Sunderland
  6. Karl Lawrence Schneider

Undergraduates

  1. Will O. Ark
  2. Michael S. Bachman
  3. Kaitlyn M. Beesley
  4. Hannah E. Bekkala
  5. Cem B. Cedetas
  6. Gina R. Chamberlain
  7. Lukas J. Cherney
  8. Danielle M. DeVine
  9. Hunter P. Dercks
  10. Jacob C. Evans
  11. Madeline G. Fike
  12. Katelynn L. Flom
  13. Samuel R. Fuhrman
  14. Dairion N. Hartshorn
  15. Madison J. Hicks
  16. Malary F. Hiney
  17. Lynnsey S. Hooker
  18. Jesse M. Jacobusse
  19. Lidia T. Johnson
  20. Clare R. Lalonde
  21. Zonghan Lyu
  22. Nathan D. Marus
  23. Kaylee M. Meyers
  24. Elisabeth N. Miller
  25. Lea M. Morath
  26. Quinn T. Murphy
  27. Molly E. Niska
  28. Ethan G. Odriscoll
  29. Elizabeth S. Park
  30. Keanan M. Peterson-Rucker
  31. Kyle J. Pike
  32. Skylar E. Pond
  33. Braeden A. Rai
  34. Maxwell C. Reaume
  35. Joshua R. Robles
  36. Shaina P. Royer
  37. Lindsay L. Sandell
  38. Erican J. Santiago
  39. McKenzie M. Schulist
  40. Christiana T. Strong
  41. Joseph A. Stuck
  42. Marina L. Visser
  43. Samuel R. Wade
  44. Kathryn M. Waineo
  45. Jeremy P. Wales
  46. Austin T. Yakes
  47. Alana N. Young

Biomedical Engineering Graduates Spring 2020

Procession and audience in during commencement.
BME Chair Sean Kirkpatrick (center) attends the previous commencement in support of our graduates.

See BME Student Awards 2020

Graduate Students

  1. Bule, Stephanie
  2. Chandurkar, Mohanish (Graduated w/MS continuing PhD)
  3. Jia, Wenkai
  4. Kord Forooshani, Pegah
  5. Langfoss, Claire S.
  6. Nagam Hanumantharao, Samerender
  7. Pinnaratip, Rattapol
  8. Polega, Elizabeth A.
  9. Que, Carolynn A.
  10. Sandy, Lauren A.
  11. Sunderland, Kevin William
  12. Tyo, Ariana G. (Graduated w/MS continuing PhD)

Undergraduate Students

  1. Al Dulaim, Ahmed H.
  2. Atkin, David T.
  3. Bartkowiak, Sarah J.
  4. Biolchini, Clare F.
  5. Black, Sarah L.
  6. Brandmire, Adam M.
  7. Caspers, Kiaya M.
  8. Chica Toro, Juan Felipe F.
  9. Colaianne, Matthew B.
  10. Creamer, Olivia A.
  11. Daniels, Becky S.
  12. Demaree, Olivia A.
  13. Dertinger, Samantha C.
  14. Fetner, Alex R.
  15. Fournier, Tristan N.
  16. Geschke, Josh E.
  17. Golden, Nick R.
  18. Ha, Tony
  19. Halanski, Nathan
  20. Hill, McKenzie P.
  21. Jackels, Mariah J.
  22. Johnson, Colin M.
  23. Kautzer, Amanda R.
  24. Kostenko, Evan M.
  25. Kugler, Lydia C.
  26. Lasky, Taylor M.
  27. Leithauser, North O.
  28. Lemay, Kelsey F.
  29. Lindquist, Ellen M.
  30. Lohrenz, Gabrielle X.
  31. Marche, Marie
  32. Mills, Ian R.
  33. Ping, Rachel C.
  34. Piotrowski, Ryann E.
  35. Roland, James D.
  36. Schneider, Karl L.
  37. Steupert, Juergen C.
  38. Thomas, Melanie M.
  39. Tuomi, Jacob M.
  40. Turowski, Nicholas A.
  41. Vogl, Brennan J.
  42. Wang, Katherine
  43. Weaver, Jeremy M.

Researchers Attend Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society

Adhesion Society Meeting Graphic

Rupak Rajachar (BioMed), Bruce Lee (BioMed), Ariana Tyo (BioMed) and Saleh Akram Bhuiyan (BioMed) attended the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society in Charleston, South Carolina.

Rajachar chaired a session entitled “Biomedical Adhesion.” Lee gave an oral presentation entitled “Tuning the ROS Release from Catechol-containing Bioadhesive.”

Tyo gave an oral presentation entitled “Adhesive Antimicrobial Polydopamine Surface Coatings to Prevent Biofilm Formation on Stainless Steel.” The content of this talk was recently published in Frontiers in Chemistry.

Bhuiyan was a finalist for the Peebles Award for Graduate Student Research in Adhesion Science and gave an oral presentation entitled “In Situ Deactivation of Catechol-Containing Adhesive using Electrochemistry.” The content of this talk was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and was highlighted in the Michigan Tech News.

The meeting was February 23-26, 2020.

Sangyoon Han Wins Best Poster Award for Cell Adhesion Research

Sangyoon Han Accepts Award
Sangyoon Han (left) accepts the poster prize. Image from Alessandra Cambi.

Sangyoon Han (biomedical engineering) was awarded the Dutch Society of Cell Biology’s Best Poster Award for his work on cell adhesion and migration in inflammation and cancer.

The title of his poster is “Talin-vinculin pre-complex formation dictates maturation of nascent adhesions by accelerated force transmission and vinculin recruitment.”

The 6th ZOO Meeting took place at Blijdorp Zoo, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, May 15-18, 2019.

The ZOO meeting series has become a landmark event in the field of cell adhesion and migration due to unique theme selection, high scientific profile with excellent speakers and limited number of attendees.