Biomedical Engineering and Technology Research Day awarded and celebrated the innovative research of Biomedical Engineering and Health Technology graduate students.
Held on July 24, 2024, and co-hosted by the NSERC CREATE Training in Global Biomedical Technology Research and Innovation, the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB), the Office of Research Health Initiatives, and the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program (BME), the event successfully fostered collaboration among students and faculty.
The afternoon began with a lunch and discussion followed by a Poster Showcase featuring 34 posters from University of Waterloo’s Master's and PhD students.
Faculty members from related fields acted as judges, evaluating each student on the clarity of their work, originality and contributions to the field, as well as the quality of the students' verbal presentations. The top three scores received cash prizes of $1,000, $500, and $250.
The projects showcased a diverse range of research including Christian Mele’s Biofidelic Knee Mannequin, which acts as a testing platform to better understand and lower the risk for real-life testing, and Piyush Garg’s new approach to ocular drug delivery which allows the drug to stay in place longer and enter deeper into the eye.
Professor James Tung, an expert in rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology, commented on the benefits students gain from taking part in events like these. He stated that students learn how to speak effectively in front of an audience, how to summarize months, or even years, of research into a short pitch and critically analyze and respond to questions.
Although some students focused on very niche topics, Prof. Tung explained that they could lead to significant advancements in those specific areas, potentially setting the stage for broader applications in the future. He emphasized that even niche research contributes valuable insights that can eventually influence mainstream clinical practices and patient care.
Trevor Yu, a Master's student in Systems Design Engineering (SYDE), developed a new way to help computer models better understand and use medical codes. By using a technique called Holographic Reduced Representations, Yu’s method made these models better at predicting medical outcomes, especially for rare conditions. This led to more accurate results in predicting things like death rates and disease.
I always wanted to work with transformer models, but as you work through, you have to adapt.
Yu noted that while he could have made his model more complex, he chose to focus on qualitative results over quantitative. This decision, he believed, allowed him to produce more meaningful and practical outcomes from his research.
The event recognized outstanding contributions from its participants, with the third-place prize awarded to Teresa Marotta, the second-place prize to Piyush Garg, and the first-place prize to Erica Rossi and Catherine Mulcaster. Their impressive work represents the quality research conducted by University of Waterloo’s graduate students.
Following the Showcase, Kathryn Grandfield, Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at McMaster University, presented a keynote address on the latest advancements in biomaterials.
Prof. Grandfield explained how new advanced microscope techniques are being used to study complex biological tissues like bone. She discussed methods like focused ion beam and electron tomography, which help scientists see and understand these tissues better.
This celebration of academic excellence not only highlighted the extraordinary work being done in the field, but also reinforced the importance of continued research and innovation in improving health outcomes.
The CBB website features the complete collections of abstracts for all the presented posters.
Special thanks to Professor Thomas Willett for his help in the successful organization and execution of the first Biomedical Engineering and Technology Research Day at the University of Waterloo.