The Biomedical Engineering Society student chapter won 30 percent of all project awards at the 2017 Engineering Open House (EOH)—an annual two-day event that attracts thousands of visitors and showcases the talent and ingenuity of Illinois engineering students through exhibits and competitions.
BMES Technical Director Kate Love is pleased with her group's showing at EOH. "Every year we use our passion for bioengineering to take our projects to the next level, and, as always, I've been reminded how amazing it is to be surrounded by so many brilliant minds," said Love, who was inspired to pursue engineering as a child after attending EOH.
In all 11 BMES projects received prizes. Congratulations to the prize winners and all the BMES students who presented their work at EOH. Here’s a rundown of the winners in each category.
Discoveries in Engineering
1st place: Immunology: The Science of Fighting Back explained the role vaccines and antibiotics play in fighting disease and infection and included a simulation of the body’s response to a bacterial or viral attack.
2nd place: BioBot Speed Racing featured biological robots made of engineered muscle cells and 3D printed structures.
3rd place: Illuminating the Brain demonstrated a model brain that generated words when certain areas were stimulated with light.
Best Kickoff of EOH
1st place: Hydrogellin Like a Felon included an interactive demonstration of hydrogels and how they deliver drugs to certain parts of the body.
2nd place: Growing Prosthetic is an innovative project that’s designing a cheaper prosthetic arm to fit a child as he or she grows while maintaining gripping functionality.
3rd place: StabiliTeeth showcased a device that enables people with severe hand tremors or paralysis to be able to brush their teeth.
The Real World
2nd place: Swimming Prosthetic featured a lower-arm prototype that was 3D printed and made from a moldable thermoplastic.
3rd place: Honey, I Shrunk the Oncologist centers around fabricating microfluidic devices using Shrinky Dink toys. Students aimed to develop an inexpensive diagnostic tool for detecting circulating cancer cells within the blood.
Just for Fun
2nd place: Starship Neuro-Gamer video game allows users to battle alien forces with a combination of brain power and muscle control by amplifying filtering and processing raw signals from the brain with electroencephalograms (EEG), and electrical signals flowing through motor neurons with electromyograms (EMG).
Just for Fun-Just Because
3rd place: Painting With Bacteria used synthetic biology to turn microscopic bacteria into colorful works of art visible to the naked eye.
Most Innovative Exhibit
1st place: PhantomCor, a cost-effective, dynamic, multimodal phantom for the accurate calibration and testing of novel imaging sequences, which project participants hope someday will be used in clinics and hospitals for patient cardiac simulation.