Biomedical Engineering News

Category: Students

Huskies Pitch Innovation at Northern MI Startup Week

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Presentation capture of Rourke Sylvain with title slide.
Rourke Sylvain presents Real-Time Point-of-Care testing for Thyroid Hormones.


A delegation of Michigan Tech faculty, staff and students painted Traverse City black and gold during the inaugural Northern Michigan Startup Week. From showcasing Brad King’s ventures in space through Orbion, to highlighting top emerging and market-ready technologies from University research labs, Michigan Tech innovation was on full display at events occurring throughout the week (May 9-15, 2022).

At TCNewTech’s University Idea Showcase, prizes were sponsored in part by Michigan Tech’s College of Business. Husky Innovate students Bayle Golden (master’s, engineering management) and Rourke Sylvain (master’s, biomedical engineering) took on students from universities around the state in a pitch competition. Golden placed second and was named audience favorite, receiving $2,000 in total prizes for SafeRow, an innovative wearable device designed to keep children safe. Sylvain also gave a compelling pitch for imi (integrated molecular innovations), an electrochemical biosensor for T4 detection. The event can now be viewed on YouTube.

After pitching, both Golden and Sylvain spent an additional 54 hours at the TechStars hackathon and pitched new ideas to a panel of judges. Both represented Tech well.

“We are grateful to Michigan Tech for their active engagement and support throughout our inaugural startup week,” remarked Eric Roberts ‘93, executive director of 20Fathoms startup incubator. “It’s a fantastic encapsulation of the growing partnership between our communities to propel innovation and economic development.”

Michigan Tech’s presence was an internal collaboration among the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, College of Business, Husky Innovate, Center for Educational Outreach and others. Thanks go out to 20Fathoms, TCNewTech and TechStars for hosting the events, as well as to Husky Innovate and the Department of Biomedical Engineering for making our students’ participation possible. A special thank-you goes to Jay Meldrum (KRC) at Michigan Tech’s Grand Traverse Research Workspace for facilitating all these connections.

By Husky Innovate, Pavlis Honors College.

See also Rourke Sylvain Pitches a TCNewTech University Idea.

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Rourke Sylvain Pitches a TCNewTech University Idea

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TCNewTech

As part of Michigan Tech’s Grand Traverse region initiative, Huskies will be active in Traverse City this week (May 9-15) during a series of events to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship.

Husky Innovate students Bayle Golden (master’s student, engineering management) and Rourke Sylvain (biomedical engineering) will pitch their ideas during the TCNewTech University Idea Showcase tomorrow (May 12). On Sunday evening they will pitch again, competing for prizes.

College of Business alumnus and local business owner David McBride ‘82 will serve as a judge of the showcase. This event will be livestreamed via TCNewTech’s Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn channels beginning at 6 p.m. Register to attend virtually or in person.

Golden and Sylvain have engaged in Husky Innovate events including the Bob Mark Business Model Pitch Competition and the New Venture Competition (NVC), where both took top prizes. At NVC, Golden won first place in the Social Mission category and received $10,000 pitching “SafeRow,” an innovative wearable device designed to keep children safe when every second counts. Together, Sylvain and Ali Dabas (biomedical engineering) won second place in the High Tech High Growth category, receiving $5,000. Their pitch, “imi (integrated molecular innovations),” is an electrochemical biosensor for T4 detection.

Husky Innovate is a collaboration between the Pavlis Honors College, the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, and the College of Business. Thanks go out to the collaborators and the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BioMed) for sponsoring student engagement.

By Husky Innovate, Pavlis Honors College.

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Sylvain and Dabas Place at CMU New Venture Challenge 2022

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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.

Rourke Sylvain and Ali Dabas.
Screenshot of the Integrated Molecular Innovations project page on a voting computer.
Seven people standing together showing challenge placement checks.
Four students standing together at the completition.
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Biomedical Engineering Graduate Students Place at Graduate Research Colloquium 2022

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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.

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Biomedical Engineering Graduates Spring 2021

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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
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Lee Attends Meeting of the Adhesion Society

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AS 44th Annual Meeting

Bruce Lee (BioMed) and former PhD student Rattapol Pinnaratip (BioMed) attended the 44th Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society virtually on February 22-25, 2021. Pinnaratip gave a talk entitled “Utilization of Hydrogen Peroxide Byproduct in Catechol-Based Adhesive for Dermal Wound Healing.”

Lee gave a talk entitled “Antimicrobial Property of Biomimetic Halogenated Catechol Adhesive Moiety”. Lee also chaired two sessions entitled “Biomedical Adhesion” and “Organismal Adhesion”.

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Bruce Lee Group Publishes on Antimicrobial Biomaterials

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Chemical Engineering Journal cover.

Bruce Lee (BioMed), post doctoral researcher Bo Liu (BioMed), graduate student Zhongian Zhang (BioMed), undergraduate student James Roland (BioMed) and collaborator Chao Zhao (Changzhou University) co-authored “Antimicrobial property of halogenated catechols,” published in Chemical Engineering Journal.

This paper demonstrated that the adhesive molecule found in mussel adhesive proteins can be chemically modified to prepare antimicrobial biomaterials that are effective against multidrug-resistant bacteria.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.126340

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Biomedical Engineering Graduates Spring 2020

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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.
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Researchers Attend Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society

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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.

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