Winners from Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference

The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University co-hosted the 47th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference on March 23-25, 2021. With the goal of sharing novel research and educational efforts and stimulating collaboration, the virtual event focused on “New Research Frontiers and Educational Landscapes in Biomedical Engineering” with six key themes:

Neural Engineering
Regenerative Engineering
Biomaterials and Biocompatibility
Computational Biology
Medical Product (Biomedical Devices)
Education in Biomedical Engineering

The three-day event featured an undergraduate design competition, faculty speakers, research and poster presentations, and a special panel discussion on education in biomedical engineering.

The conference welcomed 818 registrants, reaching the maximum capacity of the virtual format days ahead of the event. Twenty-four podium presentations were delivered, and students, postdocs and faculty presented 170 posters in the two competitions. This year’s winners, advised by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members, include:

Podium Presentation Winner, 1st Place
Kalliope Roberts, Carnegie Mellon University (Keith Cook, PhD, advisor)
“In Vivo Development and Testing of an Ambulatory Destination Therapy Low Coagulation ECMO System”

Poster Presentation Winner, 3^rd Place
Patrick Tatlonghari, University of Pittsburgh (Anne Robertson, PhD, advisor)
“Calcification in Cerebral Arteries and its Relevance to Aneurysms”

“Pitt and CMU have established strong cross-institutional collaborations in biomedical engineering, so we were delighted to have an opportunity to co-host a conference that encourages and stimulates collaborations in the field,” said McGowan Institute faculty member Sanjeev Shroff, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering at Pitt. “Though the virtual workspace is not ideal, it opened the conference to a wider audience, increasing attendance from individuals who otherwise might not have been able to travel to Pittsburgh. It was very satisfying to see this level of participation, especially by students, in this non-traditional format.”

Congratulations, all!

Illustration: Roberts and Tatlonghari/LinkedIn; Cook and Robertson/McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.