BMES E-Board Elections
February 4th, 2019 was definitely a day to remember. Some members of BMES were sad, yet excited to leave their E-Board positions and pass it on to their successors, while some were nervous and hopeful to make it to the prestigious E-Board. Approximately 15 members ran for E-Board positions that day; a record-breaking number since all past elections! Chantelle Lim, our former President, conducted the elections with the help of the rest of the former E-Board and after solid two hours of tough decision making, the new E-Board was selected. So now I present to you, BMES’ new E-Board for this semester…. drum roll please…
President: Ananya Goyal
Vice President: Joe Madejski
Business Manager: Lam Nguyen
Secretary: Tram Nguyen
Social Chair: Alex Rivera
Publicity Chair: Thu (Tracy) Le
Outreach Chair: Ruyi (Lauren) Li
Mentoring Chair: Caroline Stockwell
Newsletter Chair: Reshul Narhari
Webmaster: Priscila Passeroti
by Reshul Narhari
BMES Game Night – Mentoring Event
The event took place on February 7th from 5 – 7:30 pm, in the Munnerlyn Atrium, Goergen Hall. It was the first mentoring event of the semester, and the theme of the event was BMES Game Night. We brought playing cards, UNO and paper for origami for activities, and students from the BME Dept. were invited to meet and socialize with each other. The aim of the event was to help first and second year students get advice about course registration and schedule planning, as registration is coming up soon. Pizza and soda were also served.
by Ananya Goyal
STEM Superstar
BMES participated in our first outreach event of the semester in Rettner Hall on February 9th, 2019. Along with several other student organizations, we taught a science lesson to six groups of ten to fifteen girl scouts of elementary school age who had an interest in science! With our brand new heart model, we taught the girls all about how blood is pumped through the heart and lungs and then sent into systemic circulation. The model pumps “blood” (water with dye) through labeled chambers of the heart to show filling and emptying of the chambers with each heartbeat.
They learned fun facts like “The heart beats 112,000 times per day” and “Whales have the largest hearts of all animals”. The girls also filled out a worksheet where they labeled all the parts of the heart, so they could take it home and look at it again.
The girls got to feel their heart in action by taking their pulse and counting for one minute to find out their heart rate. After running in place, they felt their pulse again and were excited to find out that their hearts were working much faster after exercise. We explained how hard the heart has to work hard every day, and how sometimes there are problems with the heart that Biomedical Engineers can fix. They asked many great questions and learned a whole lot about one of the most important organs in their body! The event was overall a very successful start to semester full of outreach events, and we can’t wait for the next one!
by Caroline Stockwell
Study Abroad Event
The Biomedical Engineering society had a study abroad panel on January 30th, 2019 in Goergen hall. Students heard valuable information from representatives from the study abroad office as well as Professor Lerner. They emphasized that there are numerous options for fitting study abroad into the BME curriculum. You can even choose to go abroad in the summer or do research abroad.
Students also heard directly from their fellow BME students about their own study abroad experiences. Each student gave a brief presentation on their trips to destinations including Ireland, Germany, Ecuador, and New Zealand. Pizza was served and the attendees learned a whole lot about study abroad as an Engineer!
by Caroline Stockwell
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
On the 15th of February, 2019 I attended a lovely banquet hosted by the University of Rochester chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The event began with half an hour dedicated to networking, during which I personally got to speak with some notable faculty of the Rochester Institute of Technology as well as faculty in some our very own U of R labs. For the next hour there was a catered dinner (the food was great) and some more nice conversation over dinner. Then, promptly at 7:30, Dr. Mike Campbell began his talk.
Dr. Campbell is the Director of the Laboratory of Laser Energetics and is really good at his job. He began by giving a bit of insight as to what exactly they do at his lab, and by explaining the core principles of physics and engineering around which their research revolves. As a BME major, much of this was foreign to me, as it’s quite drastically different from my field of study. However, Dr. Campbell held my attention by frequently putting the research into perspective, and carefully stating why it is such an important field of study. Without going into too much detail, the Lab for Laser Energetics is an astonishing place with some extremely knowledgeable faculty, and I suggest doing some reading into the phenomenal work they do there.
by Alexander Rivera