If you could make something to solve a biomedical problem, what would it be? With this objective in mind, our graduate student researchers set the stage during our Graduate Research Day Event. Our graduate research programs emphasize scientific theories and engineering principles designed to build a bridge between engineering and medicine. To help graduate students sculpt their ideas our program includes an emphasis on health-related problems so that students can develop engineering solutions based on fundamental, knowledge-based paths that lead to implementation achieved through translational methods. 

Our Graduate Research Day is a very special event in our academic year where our graduate students get an opportunity to gain valuable professional development experience, network with industry partners, present research, and learn about the work of their peers and advances in research techniques. On Friday, March 3, 2023, an enthusiastic group of 31 masters and Ph.D. students presented their research in their respective areas, including 5 Ph.D. students who had the opportunity to do an oral presentation about their research. This event serves not only as a platform for students to hone their presentation skills but is also a competition for award prizes. 

Students participating in poster presentations were judged on three different categories: content, display, and oral presentation. We applaud Beatriz Herrera, for winning first place in the poster category with her research titled Error Neurons in SEF Drive Low-frequency Cortical Rhythmicity With a Negligible Contribution To Current Sources, Claudia Ponce Aportela in second place for her research titled Durability Assessment of Unseeded Porcine Intestinal Submucosa Scaffold, and Sophie Ashbrook in third place for her research titled EGFR Inhibition Prevents Calcifying Extracellular Vesicle Biogenesis in Vitro. 

For our oral competition, we’d like to congratulate our first-place winner Kacie Kaile for her work on A Smartphone Based Near Infrared Imaging Device To Obtain Tissue Oxygenation Maps in Diabetic Foot Ulcers. 

Also, as part of Graduate Research Day and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Seminar Series, Dr. Ashutosh Agarwal, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami, presented an eye-opening and engaging seminar entitled Human Organoids on a Chip. During the afternoon sessions, Rudy Preciado from the office of Career and Talent Development presented a timely and essential workshop entitled How to Be a Competitive Interview Candidate: Engineer Majors. We thank both of the speakers for the excellent presentations, and for joining us on this special day! 

Special thanks go out to our judges for their dedication and skill when it came to judging our Graduate Research Day oral and poster presentations. Without your generosity, knowledge, and patience, this celebration would not have gone as smoothly as it did. We appreciate your time and dedication toward our students and their research. 

Congratulations again to all of our graduate students on their outstanding research!