January 2012 by Pioneer

VOLUME IV ISSUE 4 JANUARY 2012

PRE-HEALTH

DESIGN

SPOTLIGHT

Reasons to take a transition year and precautions to remember

Adding Professional Manufacturing Details and drawing efficiently

Words from the brainchild of BROS and ways to get involved on campus

Pioneer A WALLACE H. COULTER PRODUCTION

The Past, The Present and The Future of BME History of BME and the State of it at Georgia Tech by Harish Srinimukesh—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

McIntire is the chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. (Photo: William Sessions)

LARRY MCINTIRE, Wallace H. Coulter Chair and Professor, spoke to students on November 3, 2011 regarding the past, present, and future of the biomedical engineering department at Georgia Tech. With ‘Wallace H. Coulter’ referenced everywhere in BME, where did it actually come from? As a student studying electronics at Tech in the early 1930s, Wallace Coulter spent two years at Tech before going on to found Coulter Corporation based on his influential work in developing the industrial fine particle counting principle referred to as the Coulter Principle. The department itself was founded back in 1997 by Don Giddens, Dean Emeritus and Aerospace Engineering Professor, who served as Dean of Engineering up until July 1, 2011. Initially an aerospace professor who moved to Johns Hopkins University to serve as Dean of Engineering in 1992, Giddens was recruited back to Atlanta by the Head of the Emory Health Science Center, Michael Johns, M.D., and the Provost at Georgia Tech to serve as department chair of biomedical engineering. The biomedical engineering program initially maintained a cap for the number of students entering the department with specific GPA requirements and did not have the first students come in until Spring 2001. Fall 2001… Continued on page 4

Resources at the Library Everything You Need to Conquer This Semester by Rachel Stewart—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department WITH THE START OF THE NEW YEAR, new classes bring a cornucopia of projects and papers, like late Christmas gifts that do not come with gift receipts. The mere thought is enough to drive an engineering student to constant daydreams of Spring Break. But be brave! Biomedical engineers at Georgia Tech have a friend in the halls of the library, a guide who can teach the art of finding one’s way amongst the towers of inscrutable information: Lori Critz, the biomedical engineering subject librarian. Critz has all the skills of a librarian, such as the mastery of EndNote, a bibliography management software. On top of this, she also has a background in microbiology and a formidable knowledge of biomedical engineering. She can be reached at any time by email (lori.critz@library.gatech.edu) and is glad... Continued on page 11

Many resources are available to students. (Photo: William Sessions)

Pioneer From the Editor in Chief Welcome back to a fresh, crisp start to 2012! Changes are afoot. Whether personal, academic or organizational, we are excited to meet these new challenges in this new year. Spring semester brings internship searches and other elaborately designed (or procrastinated) plans in anticipation of summer. Within these pages are the experiences of peers who might serve to inform these plans as a variety of opportunities abound.

Established 2007

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Willa Ni

FACULTY SPONSOR

Wendy Newstetter, Ph.D.

OFFICERS

Debika Mitra

WEBMASTERS

Timothy Lin Sara Khalek

STAFF WRITERS

Alex Cooper Dhruv Vishwakarma Amrita Banerjee Subhedu De Belane Gizaw Sarah Gonzales Christine Hang Cathy Heo Asra Rehan Harish Srinimukesh Rachel Stewart Jaemin Sung Guergana Terzieva Steven Touchton Jr. Iva Zivojinovic

EDITORS

Gopi Patel Shalv Madhani Nida Dharani Jackson Hair Ayesha Patel Elina Sarmah Kristen Weirich

LAYOUT EDITORS

Kevin Lam Yeonghoon Joung Kelli Koenig Candace Law Summer Lee Chang Hyeon Lim Xurong Liu Alexandra Low Eesha Mathur Anum Syed

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Virginia Lin Saranya Karthikeyan Arthur Lo Jacob Khouri Sheridan Carroll William Sessions

COLLABORATORS

Karen Adams Paul Fincannon Sally Gerrish Marty C. Jacobson Jennifer Kimble Megan McDevitt Mark P. McJunkin Colleen Mitchell Adrianne Proeller Shannon Sullivan

As for Pioneer, we are in the midst of a transition. The end of this month will herald a new executive board, and, as such, this is my last issue as Editor-in-Chief. I am incredibly grateful for the faculty, staff and students who I have met along this path. Their support, ideas, motivations and feedback have helped me drive this publication to its current state. I wish the new executive board the best of luck and look forward to the ideas they will bring to life in the future of Pioneer!

-Willa Ni

INSIDE: PIONEER PREHEALTH COLUMN………………………………………………………………...3 Mind the Gap

NATIONAL BMES…………………………………………………………………….…... 5 Gilda Barabino, Ph.D., New President-elect

BIOTECHNOLOGY REVIEW………………………………………………………...5 Lab on a TouchScreen Might Make Smart Phones into Pathology Labs

RECENT PUBLICATIONS……………………………………………………………..6 NEW DIRECTOR OF FELLOWSHIPS………………………………………….. .7 Fulfilling the New Role

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT…………………………………………………………..…….8 Aaron Morris, BROS President

GRADUATE SPOTLIGHT……………………………………………………………..10 Alice Li

DESIGN TOOLBOX………………………………………………………………… …..11 Adding Professional Manufacturing Details

That’s so BME THAT Group Member (You know what we’re talking about!): “Hey, I was projectile vomiting only between the hours of 6:30-8 last night. Sorry!” “Hey, I didn’t realize I actually had to write – that’s why I copy and pasted from Wikipedia.” “Hey, quick question… can you summarize what we’ve been working on for the past 12 weeks really fast?”

Prehealth Column Mind the Gap by Jennifer Kimble—Georgia Tech Pre-Heath Advisor THE GAP YEAR. Professional schools prefer the more intentional and structured term "transition year" because a student takes time to make a transition from college student to health profession student. The idea of taking a transition year can terrify a student because school has been the one constant throughout life. Even for those of you who have been in school since you were six weeks old, this transition year does not have to be scary. Why Take A Transition Year(s)? Students have different reasons for taking a transition year. Some students decide to go pre-health late in their college year and they are still taking pre-requisites for the entrance exam their last year at Tech. These students find themselves wondering what to do during the year their applications are being processed. Other students want to apply the classroom knowledge to industry. And for the few burned out students, the thought of another four years of professional school is unnerving. On the other hand, some students do not elect to take a transition year. Instead, it is selected for them, because of the challenge of getting into professional school. If a student finds himself in that situation, the transition year will be spent working on their deficiencies in the application. Does It Look Ok to Admissions Officers? Yes! If you use your time wisely, it can be a wonderful addition to an application. Also, schools do not mind if one transition year turns into two or four or six years. And, as one dean of admissions told me, “Medical schools are not going anywhere. Taking time off before starting can do the mind, body and soul some good!” Admissions officers used to see time off as a lack of commitment, but now they see it as an opportunity to explore another interest that prepares students for work in healthcare. Overall, remember to keep in touch with the Office of PreHealth Advising and stay on the listserv and take note that MCATs have an expiration date. What Do You Do In A Transition Year? This depends on the applicant and his interests. Some students elect to work in industry. A few words of caution on this choice: given the soft job market, a student may spend months trying to find a job. Opportunities are available in contract employment or temp agencies.

We have a number of students who want to “give back” during their transition time. Options include AmeriCorps (www.americorps.gov) , City Year (www.cityyear.org), Teach For America (www.teachforamerica.org/), and Peace Corps (www.peacecorps.gov/) . City Year is a perfect option for a one transition year program, Teach For America is a two year commitment, and the Peace Corps usually take three years. Some of our students want to do research. There are a good number of Tech students doing research on campus who are now applying to Tech. Talk with your faculty about this option. Overall, during your transition time, you need to do some healthcare work to show schools that you are still passionate about healthcare. Can I Do Another Degree? If you want to complete a degree before starting professional school, do it. But many schools require a letter of evaluation from your graduate program and a date as to when you will graduate. Also, programs will not accept an applicant who quit their graduate degree; in that scenario, the best option would have been to go straight into professional school. Cautions! Make sure you talk to your parents/guardians about this. Moving home to volunteer at a local hospital, many students forget that their dynamic with their parents may have changes. Also, many of you are covered by your parents’ plan, if you are a full time student. During that transition time, you might need to purchase COBRA coverage. For students who wish to go abroad, remember that professional schools require you to come back to the states for the interview day. That could get expensive. Defer? I have quite a number of students tell me, “I’m going to go ahead and apply to medical school, and then defer so I can relax next year.” Unfortunately, not every school grants deferments. Check with the schools to which you are applying. Conclusion If the idea of taking a transition year appeals to you, please make an appointment to discuss this in further detail. My office is open to you as a current student and as an alum.

Continued from page 1

McIntire students were minimal. It was also in 2001 that the Coulter Foundation donated $25 million dollars to Tech following the death of Wallace Coulter to help fund the two-part BME department housed in both Emory University and Georgia Tech. As department chair, McIntire reports to both the Dean of Medicine at Emory as well as the Dean of Engineering at Tech. While heavily based here at Tech with 26 to 27 faculty members, the program also has eight faculty members that have tenure lines at labs at Emory University. Since the creation of the department, the size of full-time faculty members has grown from an initial 15 individuals in 2003 to 35 currently. The department is authorized to grow to a total of 40 fulltime faculty members. The biotechnology quad did not exist back in 1998, and did not start to form until 1999 with the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB). McIntire shared that “the ES&T building followed in 2002, Whitaker in 2003, the Molecular Science and Engineering (M) in 2006, and the Marcus building in 2008 in Tech’s Biotechnology Complex.” Created on a $200 million investment a little over ten years ago, the initiative to move into bio -related research allowed for these programs and opportunities available to flourish. With accessibility to the Whitaker building in August 2003, more students could be accommodated with the addition of resources such as labs and more classroom space. As a result, the cap on incoming students was lifted bringing the number of freshman to 196 from a mere eight. Having battled with mechanical engineering for many years to be the largest major among incoming freshman, biomedical engineering finally sits as the largest major among freshman undergraduates. With this exceptional growth, the department will be taking in two more faculty members in January that currently work in BME Departments in the Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Virginia. One of these members works in the field of medicine in the area of orthopedics and the other works in the field of nanotechnology in the area of probes for imaging and therapeutic delivery. “Having started from a clean slate in BME curricula, the department decided to take on problem-based learning

approach,” stated Dr. McIntire. He shared that these classes were created to allow students to use the knowledge gained to address large scale problems and ultimately enhance collaboration and communication skills which appeal to many companies. These problembased learning courses also work to alleviate the issue with the studentfaculty ratio that tends to bog Tech down in national rankings. It is also important to notice that research opportunities for students are heavily based on grant money that faculty have available. National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided a total $24.5 million of annual grant funding for 2010. While the department does have other funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) within the Department of Defense, industries, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), pressure on decreasing NIH funding demands that non-governmental funding needs to be pursued as an alternative to NIH funding. The NSF and NIH offers multi-investigative center grants that would work well with the major research areas in the department. Currently we have several of these biomedical engineering partnership grants that can be funded for five years for up to a million dollars a year and composed of teams of three or four investigators per grant. With multiple Ph.D.s available within the Coulter Department, the biomedical engineering joint degree is becoming more prominent than the bioengineering program or the bioinformatics program. The new joint Ph.D. degree that has been started between Georgia Tech, Emory and Peking University has approximately twenty five Ph.D. students enrolled as of 2011, out of a total of approximately 230 Ph.D.s within the Coulter Department. This international Ph.D. program requires co -advisors at both Atlanta and Beijing campuses. Having been approved by the Board of Trustees at Emory, Board of Regents at Georgia Tech and the Ministry of Education in China, this joint Ph.D. program serves as a “novel push forward” in terms of international education. The decision to pick Peking University (“the Harvard of China”) over Tsinghua, “the MIT of China”, relied on “location, growth cycles, and where [each] of their strengths were compared to where [Tech’s] strengths were” shared McIntire. Tsinghua already has around sixty faculty members in each of the classical engineering fields of electrical, chemical, mechanical and

civil, and as a result, Peking University chose to take on bioengineering and nanotechnology-based materials engineering. As far as future plans go at Tech, an Institute of Nanomedicine is being pursued and will continue to be developed. With the hope that the Marcus Building will house some additional biomedical engineering faculty, McIntire shared that “they will serve as a platform to go into [areas] such as treating cancer through nanotechnology as well as other therapeutics, and [will] develop new contrast agents for medical imaging.” Also, the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center and Science and Technology Center Programs could be utilized to develop areas such as neural technology through looking at the interface between electrical interactions and cells, and stem cell bioprocessing. The first Engineered Biosystems Building (EEB1) that is to be built at the bottom of the hill from the IBB near the facilities parking lot facing 10th Street will have Biology, BME, Chemistry, and Biomolecular faculty. EEB2, while still in the planning stages, would be a more computational building and would have the Integrated Biological Systems Institute. With research space reaching capacity, these new buildings will provide more usable area to allocate for various projects. The Marcus building and the Molecular Sciences and Engineering building still have room, but are constantly being filled by new faculty labs and other research projects. In overall engineering education and research, Georgia Tech has moved up into the same groupings as MIT and Stanford. Georgia Tech also continues to move towards prominence in biomedical engineering, where we have moved into the 2nd ranking in the US News and World Report surveys for both our graduate and undergraduate programs. Students as well as faculty are also interacting with many companies throughout the nation. As an example, Ajit Yoganathan, Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering and Associate Chair for Research and Regents’ Professor, has worked with both Medtronic and St. Jude on heart valve projects, and brings biomedical engineering closer to Atlanta. For the future, Georgia Tech will continue to work towards becoming the very best in biomedical engineering excellence.

National BMES Gilda Barabino, Ph.D., New President-elect by Belane Gizaw—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

Barabino, new President-elect of BMES, predicts a strong showing for BMES 2012 in Atlanta. (Photo: Jacob Khouri)

AT THE NATIONAL Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Fall Conference in October 2011, Gilda Barabino,Wallace H. Coulter Department of Emory University and the Georgia Tech professor, was elected the new President of the national BMES. Barabino started as a member of the national BME society in 1990 and over the years started serving on committees, her first being the membership committee. In 1997, she was elected as a member of the board and had served as treasurer of the board for four years. Barabino has many great plans as the new President, such as the promotion of partnerships between the

national society and other professional societies and with other organizations that support our discipline. She is also looking into doing outreach activities by introducing Biology, medicine and engineering disciplines to the K-12 level. She explains that “children are naturally inquisitive about the world and so we need mechanisms in place to help them explore. There are many students who are interested in medicine but do not realize the scope of professions it encompasses. We can help them learn that there are other ways of being involved in medicine.” She is most excited about building talent to make our profession stronger because “the problems we have to work

with are so complex, but the technology is exploding so we need people who are trained to bring the right set of tools and the right background to deal with these challenges that are no longer national, but global.” Barabino is also considering more global partnerships because creating a global network that crosses all nations and all disciplines will not only benefit our society, but also benefit other professions. In 2012, the Annual BMES Conference will be held in Atlanta, GA. Barabino believes that Georgia Tech is very well positioned to host the conference. Aside from our high ranking, “we enjoy our reputation because of our highly skilled talent pool, our high level of research , and our environment, which is cultured to support collaborative technical work which drives our field.” She believes that Georgia Tech can surpass previous records of participation in the national meeting and the quality of the technical program so that members will come to the conference not only to network, but also to see the new technology and to build their skill sets. Barabino sees BMES as the overarching society for our discipline and that it will become stronger in representing the whole biomedical society and areas of specialization. She envisions the future of BMES as the type of organization that people will want to come to for guidance and support. After speaking with her, it is understood that the future of BMES will become a larger network where the people in the BME profession can connect and learn from one another.

Biotechnology Review Lab on a Touch Screen Might Make Smart Phones into Pathology Labs compiled by Willa Ni—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department With that new smartphone from Santa in hand, angry avians, calendars and even a pathology lab might be at your fingertips. Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have harnessed the capacitive layers of

touchscreens to determine the difference concentrations of Chlamydia in solution. When the sample is applied to the screen, the specific capacitance indicates the concentration. In the future, scientists hope to be able to distinguish between

different pathogens in different biological samples, such as blood, saliva or urine, in the elegant interface of an app. Until further word, we would recommend keeping those liquids away from that new phone.

Journal

ArƟcle Title

Authors

ACS Nano

LeadͲFree NaNbO(3) Nanowires for a High Output Piezoelectric Nanogenerator.

Jung JH, Lee M, Hong JI, Ding Y, Chen CY, Chou LJ, Wang ZL.

Acta Biomaterialia

Eīect of cleaning and sterilizaƟon on Ɵtanium implant surface properƟes and cellular response.

Park JH, OlivaresͲNavarrete R, Baier RE, Meyer AE, Tannenbaum R, Boyan BD, Schwartz Z.

Advanced Materials

Maleimide crossͲlinked bioacƟve PEG hydrogel exhibits improved reacƟon kineƟcs and crossͲlinking for cell encapsulaƟon and in situ delivery.

Phelps EA, Enemchukwu NO, Fiore VF, Sy JC, Murthy N, Sulchek TA, Barker TH, García AJ.

Annals of Biomedical Engineering

The Eīects of a ThreeͲDimensional, SaddleͲShaped Annulus on Anterior and Posterior Spinner EM, Buice D, Yap CH, Yoganathan AP. Leaet Stretch and RegurgitaƟon of the Tricuspid Valve.

Biotechnology and Bioengineering

Combinatorial insulin secreƟon dynamics of recombinant hepaƟc and enteroendocrine cells.

Durvasula K, Thulé PM, Sambanis A.

Cell and Tissue Research

DiīerenƟaƟon of mesenchymal stem cells in heparinͲcontaining hydrogels via coculture with osteoblasts.

Seto SP, Casas ME, Temenoī JS.

CirculaƟon. Cardiovascular Imaging

Correlates of Tricuspid RegurgitaƟon as Determined by 3D Echocardiography: Pulmonary Arterial Pressure, Ventricle Geometry, Annular DilataƟon and Papillary Muscle Displacement.

Spinner EM, Lerakis S, Higginson J, Pernetz M, Howell S, Veledar E, Yoganathan AP.

FronƟers in Bioscience

TͲcell phosphokinome as a ngerprint of eīecƟve graŌ versus leukemia.

PlaƩ MO, Kemp ML.

IEEE Circuits and Systems Society

An Integrated PowerͲEĸcient AcƟve RecƟer With OīsetͲControlled High Speed Comparators for InducƟvely Powered ApplicaƟons.

Lee HM, Ghovanloo M.

IEEE TransacƟons on VisualizaƟon and Computer Graphics

Visualizing Dynamic Data with Maps.

Mashima D, Kobourov S, Hu Y.

InternaƟonal Journal of PharmaceuƟcs

Targeted diazeniumdiolates: Localized nitric oxide release from gliomaͲspecic pepƟdes and proteins.

Safdar S, Taite LJ.

InternaƟonal Journal of PharmaceuƟcs

Delivery of salmon calcitonin using a microneedle patch.

Tas C, Mansoor S, Kalluri H, Zarnitsyn VG, Choi SO, Banga AK, Prausnitz MR.

IntegraƟve Biology

MagneƟc manipulaƟon and spaƟal paƩerning of mulƟͲcellular stem cell aggregates.

BraƩͲLeal AM, Kepple KL, Carpenedo RL, Cooke MT, McDeviƩ TC.

Journal of ComputaƟonal Neuroscience

CoͲvariaƟon of ionic conductances supports phase maintenance in stomatogastric neurons.

Soo W, Archila S, Prinz AA.

Journal of Orthopaedic Research

Eīects of in vivo mechanical loading on large bone defect regeneraƟon.

Boerckel JD, Kolambkar YM, Stevens HY, Lin AS, Dupont KM, Guldberg RE.

The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Rapid membrane responses to dihydrotestosterone are sex dependent in growth plate chondrocytes.

Elbaradie K, Wang Y, Boyan BD, Schwartz Z.

The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Sundareswaran KS, Haggerty CM, de Zélicourt D, VisualizaƟon of ow structures in Fontan paƟents using 3Ͳdimensional phase contrast Dasi LP, Pekkan K, Frakes DH, Powell AJ, Kanter KR, magneƟc resonance imaging. Fogel MA, Yoganathan AP.

Journal of Visualized Experiments

Adhesion frequency assay for in situ kineƟcs analysis of crossͲjuncƟonal molecular interacƟons at the cellͲcell interface.

Zarnitsyna VI, Zhu C.

MagneƟc Resonance in Medicine

View angle ƟlƟng echo planar imaging for distorƟon correcƟon.

Ahn S, Hu XP.

MagneƟc Resonance in Medicine

AdiabaƟc pulse preparaƟon for imaging iron oxide nanoparƟcles.

Harris SS, Mao H, Hu XP.

Medical Image Analysis

MulƟscale 3D shape representaƟon and segmentaƟon with applicaƟons to hippocampal/caudate extracƟon from brain MRI.

Gao Y, Corn B, SchiŌer D, Tannenbaum A.

Molecular Biosystems

ProͲoxidant and anƟoxidant eīects of NͲacetylcysteine regulate doxorubicinͲinduced NFͲkappa B acƟvity in leukemic cells.

Finn NA, Kemp ML.

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

IsolaƟon and characterizaƟon of stemͲlike cells from a human ovarian cancer cell line.

Wang L, Mezencev R, Bowen NJ, Matyunina LV, McDonald JF.

Nucleic Acids Research

In vitro quanƟcaƟon of specic microRNA using molecular beacons.

Baker MB, Bao G, Searles CD.

New Director of Fellowships Fulfilling the New Role by Sarah Gonzales—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT to do for the rest of your life? If your career goals include developing expertise in a subject area through research and further studies, you are encouraged to look into fellowships. What is a fellowship? Not only do fellowships equate to money in the form of grants, but also they have a prestige attached to them. Instead of being issued on the basis of satisfying short term financial need, as are most scholarships, fellowships are issued to ensure the realization of long-term academic or research goals. As desirable as fellowships are, the process of applying is long and filled with red tape. However, fear not - this is where the mighty mini army of the Office of Fellowships, commanded by Kathryn Meehan, Ph.D., comes in. Meehan is the new director of fellowships, housed in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons in Suite 205. Meehan is ready to help both graduates and undergraduates in achieving their career ambitions. More specifically, the Office of Fellowships helps students identify and apply for nationally competitive awards such as Fulbright, Goldwater Scholarships, the National Science Foundation and many more. Meehan offers this bit of advice to those looking to procure a fellowship. First, do some research and identify several fellowships that you feel you would be eligible for. The Office of Fellowships website is a great place to start, as well as websites, such as Fastweb (www.fastweb.com/) and the Community of Science Scholarship and Fellowship Database (fundingopps.cos.com/). Second, set up an appointment to

speak with someone in the Office of Fellowships to discuss which fellowships you are inclined to apply for. Finally, the real work begins. It isn’t uncommon to begin the application process months in advance. Meehan even says “It is not too early to start looking [at these fellowships as a first year], but the second year is when you begin to be eligible. The same goes for new graduates as well.” Georgia Tech students have a long history of being awarded these prestigious awards with numerous fellowship winners each year. In 2011, Georgia Tech had one Marshall Scholar, five Fulbright scholars and two Goldwater scholars. However, even if a student is not awarded a fellowship, simply applying can lead to a deeper level of personal growth. This is also one of the new director’s personal goals “to help students to not only submit the most competitive application possible, but to also learn through the process.” Meehan says, “because when you’re filling out this kind of application and working on the required essays it’s really an opportunity to learn more about yourself and your goals.” In this manner, the Office of Fellowships is not just about helping students through the application process, but also guiding students to discover more about themselves whilst applying. Like the lottery though, you will never win if you never play. So when it comes to fellowships, the number one most important piece of advice is just to apply. For more information on what Georgia Tech has to offer in regards to fellowships, visit fellowships.gatech.edu.

Student Spotlight Aaron Morris, BROS President by Amrita Banerjee—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

Aaron Morris is currently a fourth year and president of the newly founded organization, BROS. (Photo: Virginia Lin)

FOUNDED OVER A YEAR AGO, BROS (Biomedical Engineering and Research Opportunities Society) was the brainchild of current president Aaron Morris and several other students. Morris, a fourth year BME student, and a couple of his close friends began planning for BROS last summer. They all decided that the Biomedical Engineering Department needed an organization that would create an avenue for incoming and upper-level students in pursuing research. “We started it because we realized that there are a lot of students who struggle through the same things to get into research,” Morris said. One such struggle includes figuring out which BME related research area to get involved in. In order to help students in this endeavor, Morris and his team have decided to participate in the Focus Fair slated to occur next semester in the IBB. The purpose of this poster session is to advertise all of the different BME research that takes place on campus. Through this, students interested can figure out what type of research they really like before getting into the lab or they can find which depth electives to pursue. This will prevent students from ending up in a research lab that does not appeal to their interests. Aside from helping students with research, Morris looks at BROS as a way for students, especially seniors, to get in touch with graduate schools. Since the beginning of Fall 2010, BROS has been in contact with recruiters, such as the University of Arizona, who have come to our department to describe their BME graduate programs. In several cases, this has taught first

year student members to start off their academic career well so that they don’t end up “worrying too much about raising their GPAs as a senior when you need to start applying for graduate programs.” For underclassmen, BROS assists first year students with the transition from high school to college. “It can be a little bit of a…difficulty in terms of keeping up with everything. But it pays off at the end,” Morris commented. For example, BROS had a presentation about time management from Coulter Department Assistant Professor, Manu Platt, last semester; future presentations include one on the notion of assertiveness since students, especially in research labs or co -ops, should share their ideas with their colleagues and Principle Investigators (PIs). On top of taking the responsibility as president of BROS, Morris himself has also demonstrated his ideas on various fields of research. As part of a summer fellowship program at the NIH, Morris worked with people from various backgrounds in the interventional oncology/radiology department on a project focused on embolization of liver tumors. Embolization is a minimally invasive procedure that uses catheters to occlude the blood supply from reaching an area deteriorated by tumors on the human body. Morris analyzed tissues from rabbits that had been embolized and tried to determine whether or not the blood flow to the areas that feed into the tumor was stopped. Morris described that this was his favorite research experience by far and encourages all student to apply to this NIH fellowship. Another research opportunity was the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Delaware. Morris spent two summers there working with proteins, first with the alpha-chymotrypsinogen A and second with ã-D-crystallin. During his first summer, he studied the consequences of dimer seeding and various salts on microparticle formations of alpha-chymotrypsinogen A. The researchers working on this assignment realized that the greater onset of impurities would amplify both the deterioration of proteins and aggregation rates. During his second summer, Morris conducted research on the D-crystallin, one of many lens proteins implicated in cataract formation. His part in the project was to understand how the thermodynamics and aggregation kinetics of protein unfolding was affected by various salt and pH states. While Morris has enjoyed researching at the NIH and in his home state of Delaware, he has thoroughly enjoyed and gained much knowledge from his current research in Coulter Associate Professor Steve Potter’s Laboratory for Neuroengineering at Georgia Tech. Potter’s lab studies the connections between neuronal networks. The purpose of Morris’s work is to figure out ways to lower the impedance of in vitro microelectrode arrays (MEAs). Lowering the impedance constitutes many positives, including the capability to bypass higher currents without the use of electrolysis and improved signal to noise ratio (SNR). “My task is to develop a method and system that could electroplate platinum back onto the MEAs while exposing them to ultrasonic agitation.” Morris has been working in this lab for the past year and a half.

After graduation, Morris would like to pursue a Ph.D. in the cell and tissue engineering field. He is especially interested in vasculature, the orientation of blood vessels in an organ, and angiogenesis, a biological method that grows blood vessels from accessible ones. Following this, he is looking at all the different applied engineering areas of BME to find what he really wants pursue. Currently, he is thinking about industry or beginning a start-up. He is also interested in academia, especially since he wants to teach at some point in his life. Whether it’s helping BROS with a new idea, taking classes or doing research, Morris is very passionate about biomedical engineering and has a bright future ahead.

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Design Tool Box Draft & Simple Surfaces “Draft” refers to an angle applied to the sides of a part to aid in the removal of the part from the mold. Virtually all parts any deeper than a Lego (which have no real draft, by the way) should have draft in “the direction of pull.” “Pull” is a term which comes from vacuum forming, but as a nice coincidence, it also means the axis in which parts are “pulled” on or off the main mold. Look at any household garbage can, and you will see what I mean. Flat surfaces are fine in one direction, but not in the direction of pull. The easiest way to model draft into your SolidWorks parts is to use the “Draft” parameter in the Extrude or Extrude Cut command. There is also a “Draft” feature – I have found it to be awkward to use and do not recommend it. You can, of course, use centerlines to establish the angle of draft in a sketch, which you can then extrude longitudinally. An Extrude Cut coming from the other direction bearing the same angle will take care of the edges which are left flat. Undercuts & Excess Detail While I am advocating that you add more detail to your models, don’t add irrelevant or excess detail. Keep your part as simple as it can be while performing its job and being aesthetically acceptable. Most “high design” is really just the elimination of irrelevant details (think iPod), and most users prefer such products. From a technical standpoint, undercuts should be avoided if at all possible. Undercuts are areas where the draft is negative, thereby trapping the part onto the mold. It is not impossible to make a part with undercuts, but it certainly is more complicated, and unnecessary undercuts are a common mistake among students. Treat it as a hard constraint, and come up with a clever solution to avoid it. In this figure, which was produced using the SolidWorks

Draft Analysis tool, the red areas are undercuts, whereas the green areas have plenty of draft. It is possible to manufacture this part, but there will be a cost for doing so, and possibly aesthetic or structural consequences. Parting Lines Due to the thin wall section constraint, nearly all plastic parts end up being combined with others in order to form a finished assembly. Even if you don’t model all the internal details of a plastic part, you should at the very least include a reasonable parting line. This parting line needn’t be exactly down the middle of the part, it can be contoured or even completely 3dimensional. However, the more complex the parting line is, the more costly the required molds and tooling are likely to be. This may be justifiable for some products, but it is certainly something to be aware of and to address. Additionally, the parting line should separate the part so that each individual component has appropriate draft and minimal (hopefully zero) undercuts. Here is an example of the same part (which has an undercut), and how it cut be divided to avoid undercuts. The purple line is the ideal parting line (calculated with the SolidWorks Parting Line Analysis tool).

Take the extra time to model the extra detail. With all the time you put into your background research and concept generation, your 3D model should be just as thorough. I can tell you from my own experience, you will benefit from it for the rest of your career.

Examples of thoughtful manufacturing details by BMED2300 students, including Rachel Cornelius, Kanav Jain, Karan Patel, Rakshya Katri, and Nick Patel (Photo: William Sessions)

Graduate Spotlight Alice Li by Iva Zivojinovic—Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department AFTER GRADUATING from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009, Alice Li matriculated to Georgia Tech where she quickly became involved in the biomedical engineering community. Li is currently a graduate research assistant in the Guldberg Musculoskeletal Research Lab and works primarily with composite models and tissue engineering. Li makes animal bone defect models, one of which involves removing a small

differentiated through markers. Li also worked in the University of Texas Learning Center tutoring fellow students in subjects such as organic chemistry and calculus. After graduating with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009, Li choose to come to Georgia Tech because “Tech has a really good program for tissue engineering, and the atmosphere and social life were somewhere [she] saw [herself] fitting in really well.” Since coming to Georgia Tech, she has become heavily involved in the community, participating in BBUGS Bioengineering and Biosciences Unified Graduate Students. Li served as the Research Committee Co-Chair and organized the Techniques Symposium as well as seminar talks. Li has also been involved with the Biotechnology Career Fair as the Advertising Co-Chair where her main responsibilities include increasing student participation in the career fair and contacting biotech companies. When not occupied with research, Li enjoys participating in GT Salsa. In the Guldberg Musculoskeletal Research Lab, Li develops composite models to help demonstrate what the after effects of an injury – such as a bullet wound - would be on a bone and to study the methods through which the affected tissues regenerate. When a bone is injured, multiple cracks and trauma to surrounding tissues and muscles occur; rarely are there single, clean breaks. The composite model simulations have helped point out several areas which must still be explored, such as the loss of cells which could help with healing properties as well as problems with blood vessels. In the future, this research will expand to encompass more areas of research - including that of stem cell - and to provide advances in treatment for composite injuries. For all undergraduate students, Li has a few words of advice: “Georgia Tech is such a great school with excellent biomedical research; it's a good opportunity for Graduate Student Li studies animal bone defect models and regeneration. undergrads to get their hands wet with (Photo: Arthur Lo) research. It also provides you with some portion of a rat’s femur, fixing it with a plate, and allowing it to hands-on experience that companies typically like. Explore a heal to study regeneration. lot of different things and find yourself a hobby - this is the As an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at best time to gain lots of different experiences. Also, find Austin, Li participated in a research program sponsored by yourselves some really good friends; once you head out to the Women in Engineering (WIE). Through this program, Li work force (if you're not going into higher education), most of performed research on kinesiology, the study of human the people that you meet will probably not be the same age or movement. She mostly focused on the effects of fatigue on will not have the same hobbies/interests as you. College is a muscle coordination and stability. In addition, Li spent a year good time to make some great friends that you can stay in researching embryonic stem cells and how the cells can be contact with for the rest of your life.”

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Resources to introduce students to intricate new software, to give a tour of Georgia Tech’s complex system of databases and to explain the complicated dance of searching through them. Of course, not all of the library’s resources rely solely upon Critz. There are nearly a hundred free classes for students hosted by the library every semester, encompassing a wide variety of topics including Adobe InDesign, Dreamweaver, EndNote, LaTex, a technical typesetting language or the basics of web design or a literature review. The full schedule of classes can be found here: www.library.gatech.edu/ calendar/libcalendar.php

calendar january 11 CABSS Annual Retreat 8am — IBB Building, Room 1128 12 Involvement Fair Come see what student organizations you can be involved in as a BME major! BMES, The Pioneer, GTNeuro, EWH, and more! UAWhitaker Lobby 17 Stem Cell Engineering Center Seminar Series Pluripotent Stem cells: Opening Another Avenue for Craniofacial Regeneration Paul Krebsbach, DDS, PhD 11am - 12pm 18 GaP Seminar Series Billy Wang (Sulchek Lab) and Archana Boopathy (Davis Lab) 12pm - 1pm 20 BBUGS Bowling night at Midtown Bowl 8:15am – 10:30am 24 Distinguished Lecture Series in Systems Biology New approaches to studying the growth and size regulation of mammalian cells Marc Kirschner, Harvard University 11am — Klaus Building, Room 1116E

Despite all the electronic resources the library has to offer, don’t forget to take advantage of all the print materials (Photo: William Sessions)

Once a student has mastered the navigation of Tech’s databases, there is a whole world of information outside our school available through the Interlibrary Loan (ILL), an online system by which the library will acquire articles from outside sources. ILL is not alone in being underused, however; the library offers online handbooks that are a boon in finding experimental information and techniques. The list of handbooks and their descriptions can be found here: libguides.gatech.edu/content.php?pid=88915&sid=1039003 The library is not only useful in the preparation of written reports; given the classic rehearsal space in the library alongside four new rehearsal spaces in Clough, a student can select the room in which he or she wants to practice an oral presentation based on its “feel,” and can record the practice presentation for future review. In addition to these strictly academic resources provided by the library, there are other features for students involved in research, interested in current affairs or simply enjoy an interesting discussion. Three times every semester, the library hosts Blended Research @ The Library, which features a panel of experts or students from varied fields sharing their opinions on relevant and interesting topics, such as nanomedicine, sustainability and human-computer interactions, in terms that every student can understand. So be brave, Tech students, and do not procrastinate while dreaming of the next break from school – at least not yet. With the abundant resources provided by Critz and by the library at large, there are no barriers between you and the information you want or need for your next project.

24-25 Georgia Tech Internship Fair Over 80 Employers Present in 2011 25 GaP Seminar Series Yun Lee (Voit Lab) and Deepraj Ghosh (Dawson Lab) 12pm - 1pm 25 Bioengineering Seminar Series Frontiers in Ultra High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging: From Brain Function and Connectivity to Angiography in the Human Torso Kamil Ugurbil, PhD - University of Minnesota 12pm - 1pm 27 Chemistry & Biochemistry Special Seminar Yasuhiro Tachibana, RMIT University 4pm — MoSE 3201A 31 BME Young Innovators Seminar Inertial Microfluidics: High-throughput cell manipulation and analysis Dino DiCarlo, PhD, UCLA 11am — Whitaker Building, Room 1103 Distinguished Lecture Series in Systems Biology The ESCRT pathway in HIV Budding and Cell Division studying the growth and size regulation of mammalian cells Wesley I. Sundquist, Ph.D.,The University of Utah 11am — Klaus Building, Room 1116E

february 1-2 Virtual Career Fair Looking for a Job, Internship, or Co-op? Register at www.gatech.careereco.net

Design Toolbox Adding Professional Manufacturing Details by Marty Jacobson—Coulter Department Instructor AS THE FALL SEMESTER CLOSES and the Spring semester begins, many students are putting the final polish on their design projects. One of the things you can do to gain the most credibility and professionalism for your presentation is to build 3D models with thoughtful indications of the intended manufacturing process. We will focus on injection molding, but the principle is the same for any process. To gain insight into other processes, talk to some people who work with those materials. After getting some initial insight, analyze a similar product to see what features were included. You can use that information to help establish constraints – for example, parts machined on a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Mill may have 90 degree corners along the outside perimeter of a part, but since it is a subtractive process using a cylindrical cutter. Thus, inside or concave corners will generally be radiused. To a professional audience, your model won’t look finished without these kinds of details. 1: Thin, Consistent Wall Section You might have noticed that plastic parts are nearly always hollow. For consumer goods to be strong and quickly manufactured, they must have as thin a wall section as possible while retaining sufficient strength. Otherwise parts will have cosmetic defects, structural inconsistencies or take too long to cool to be cost-effective. Bear in mind that a part with a fairly thin wall thickness can still be very strong. This is achieved using ribs and bosses. As is common in engineering, the goal is to minimize the cross -sectional area while keeping a tall cross section. When in doubt, start with a 1mm thickness for small parts,

2mm for ordinary phone-sized parts, and 4mm for loadbearing parts. There are a few ways you can get a consistent wall thickness when working in SolidWorks. The most straightforward method is simply to model the outside of the part first, as a solid chunk, and then use Extrude Cut and other subtractive features to remove the inner portion. Once the main inner mass is hollowed out, you can add ribs and fastening features back up using additive features. Be mindful that your resulting wall thicknesses should all be identical, or nearly so. The Section View tool is your friend, as is the careful use of the Offset tool. The Shell command was basically designed for streamlining this process, but it’s not always the easiest choice. Try it out before anything else – often, it works beautifully, and is an excellent timesaver. When it doesn’t, try following these troubleshooting steps: x Remove all hard corners on the outside of the part, by filleting everything with a minimum of 3x the wall thick ness. (This is a good plastics rule of thumb.) x Minimize the number of features in your part. For example, combine multiple fillets of the same radius into one feature. x Increase the shell thickness – small features can cause errors if your shell thickness is also small. x Roll back to earlier in the part’s history, and apply your shell there. Careful, though! Fillets larger than the wall thickness are impossible once the shell has been done.

This example (Fig. 2) shows how to use the Extrude Cut tool, set to “Offset From Surface”, to establish a consistent wall thickness. Prior to running the Extrude Cut command, an Extrude Boss had been made with 30 degrees of outward draft. Then, a sketch was made on the top surface of that boss. Using the “Offset” tool set to 3mm yielded the sketch for the Extrude Cut, and the matching 30 degrees of draft was selected.