An important and increasingly popular feature at each of the Summer Bioengineering Conferences is the student paper competition. Students from undergraduate to graduate levels submit their work for selection for either poster or podium presentations at the meeting—at which time final judging occurs. At the 2005 meeting, the competition was the largest in the history of the Bioengineering Division. The overall competition was chaired by Amy Lerner with the help of Michele Grimm, chair of the Ph.D. competition (149 papers); James Iatridis and Matt Gounis, chairs of the M.S. competition (70 papers); and X. Sheldon Wang, chair of the B.S. competition (30 papers). 102 of the submitted papers were selected for on-site judging in poster sessions or, for the Ph.D. competition, in both poster and podium sessions. On behalf of the BED, I would like to thank Amy and Michelle and the many judges who contributed their time and expertise to this important endeavor. I would also like to acknowledge and give appreciation to The Whitaker Foundation for sponsoring the competition.
Congratulations to the first-place winners in each of the following technical areas of the Bioengineering Division:
Solids, Design and Rehabilitation
B.S.: Mindy I. Ezra, Tulane University. Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Trabecular Bone Tissue.
M.S.: Casey L. Korecki, University of Vermont. Determination of Baseline Loading Levels and Dependent Variables for Use in an Intervertebral Disc Organ Culture System.
Kristen L. Moffat, Columbia University. Characterization of the Mechanical Properties of the ACL-bone Insertion Site.
Ph.D. (Poster): Andrew E. Anderson, University of Utah. Validation of Bone Strains and Cartilage Contact Stress in a 3-D Finite Element Model of the Human Hip.
Ph.D. (Podium): Blaine Christiansen, Washington University in St. Louis. The Effect of Varying Magnitudes of Whole-body Vibration on Various Skeletal Sites in Mice.
Cell and Tissue, Biofluids and Heat Transfer
B.S.: Vishal Patel, Georgia Institute of Technology. Wavelet-based Characterization of Small-scale Turbulent Structures in a Mechanical Heart Valve Flow.
M.S.: Kristy T. Salisbury, Boston University. Mechanobiological Regulation of Molecular Expression and Tissue Differentiation During Bone Healing.
Ralph D. Nyilas, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Towards a New Geometric Approach to Assess the Risk of Rupture of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Using Patient Specific Modeling.
Ph.D. (Poster): Kelly B. Emerton, The City College of the City University of New York. Biconjugate Nano-labeling of Intracellular Proteins within Fixed and Living Cells.
Veronica Gambillara, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Effect of Cyclic Reversal Flow on Endothelium and SMC Cell Metabolism on Pig Carotid Arteries.
Ph.D. (Podium): Craig L. Duvall, Georgia Institute of Technology. Osteopontin Deficient Mice Display Reduced Vascular Response and Altered Bone Properties During Fracture Healing.
Joan M. Greve, Stanford University. Development of Methods to Non-invasively, Longitudinally Quantify Hemodynamics in a Rat Model of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computational Fluid Dynamics.
As we have transitioned to an annual summer meeting, I urge our more senior readers to encourage their trainees to enter the competition in future meetings. This activity provides focus, motivation, valuable experience and recognition for the next generation of bioengineers.
