At the 2019 Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC), held at Rutgers University on March 20-22, BME PhD student, Bryan Choate, won the 2nd Place Graduate Poster Award for his research with Professor Karen Troy on developing methods to validate a subject-specific magnetic resonance based finite element model to predict strain in the femur. Bryan enjoyed explaining his work on developing a safe technique for estimating bone strength in adolescents and ultimately contributing to research on osteoporosis prevention.
WPI’s Biomedical Engineering Department never stops on its search to uncover the next advance in therapies, devices, and products to help people live longer, healthier lives. Our department is leading diverse, cutting-edge research and product and thought innovation to develop new breakthroughs in this rapidly changing field.
We work on advances as diverse as wound-healing sutures, blood vessel engineering, vital sign monitoring for firefighters, and braces for joint stabilization. We seek to understand how physicians and patients will use devices, making these devices more user friendly and useful.
Our students and faculty collaborate on ambitious research projects to push the boundaries at the intersection of engineering, biology, and medicine, often making groundbreaking discoveries and industry-changing developments to move the field forward.
At WPI’s Bioengineering Institute, we identify emerging technologies and help launch them through development and commercialization. Students work on teams here to help advance new developments and connect theory and practice of the university.
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Degrees & Certificates
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Bryan Choate wins 2nd Place Graduate Poster in the 45th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference
2019 Prof. Robert A. Peura BME Founder Scholars
The Prof. Robert A. Peura Founder Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering provides recognition and reward to a junior or senior, majoring in BME at WPI, who, among other accomplishments, has achieved truly outstanding academic credentials. This year’s recipients are Sarah Boermeester ’21 and Jessica Brewster ’20. The BME Department thanks the Potvin and Peura Families for their generosity to endow these scholarships.
Professor Billiar is Awarded 3-year Collaborative NSF Grant
With a three-year, $446,563 collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation, Kristen Billiar, professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), hopes to close an important gap in our understanding of physical factors that help regulate the life and death of cells in our bodies, and the important roles they play in the development of a wide range of disorders—from heart disease to cancer.
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Billiar works in the lab with Monica Leigh Whitehorn, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering.
Professor Rolle is Engineering Human Blood Vessels
Take a look at one of the ways that tissue engineering is being applied in the BME department at WPI. Professor Rolle's lab is creating artificial human blood vessels to be used as a model for vessels affected by intimal hyperplasia, a complication of caridovascular surgery.
BME Salisbury Award Winners
"The Salisbury Prizes are awarded to highly meritorious members of the WPI graduating class who have faithfully, industriously, and with distinguished attainment completed all requirements for the Bachelor degree." This year, there were 22 winners from the class of 2019. The BME department congratulates their three talented and accomplished winners, Shion Matsumoto, Olivia Leavitt and Rosanna Heidt (from left to right).
Announcements
April 26, 2019
March 27, 2019
March 19, 2019
In the News
The Worcester Business Journal is the latest to report on research by Kristen Billiar, professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, who hopes to close an important gap in the understanding of physical factors that help regulate the life and death of cells in our bodies, and the important roles they play in the development of a wide range of disorders. Co-principle investigators include Nima Rahbar, associate professor of civil & environmental engineering, and Qi Wen, associate professor of physics.
Glenn Gaudette, the William Smith Dean’s Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Value Creation Initiative, was quoted in a Forbes article about the importance of training engineering students to think entrepreneurially. The article focused on the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), of which WPI is a member.
