Systems Design Engineering Symposium-day Alumni Lunch and Lecture

All Systems Design Engineering alumni are invited back to campus for our annual Systems Design / Biomedical Engineering lunch, lecture, and capstone design symposium. Like last year, this year is a little special: last year we celebrated our 50-year anniversary, this year will be holding the alumni event and the whole symposium in the brand new Engineering 7 building!

Join us for a complimentary lunch, reconnect with the department, and enjoy a cutting-edge research presentation exclusively for Systems Design Engineering alumni. Professor Parsin Haji-Reza will speak about the unusual imaging domain of photo-acoustics, which he is pioneering. Yes, you read that right: This is light-based imaging but using pressure waves, a little like ultrasound, except that you don't need to touch the object being imaged. His primary research focus is on the development of real-time high resolution (cellular level) techniques, with the key goal of transforming cancer surgery. That is, accurately distinguishing between cancerous and healthy tissues is currently impossible during surgery, and oncologists have to rely on a detailed study of frozen tissue samples, a process which can take from days to weeks, with significant implications of time, cost, and anesthesia risks. The key goal of Prof. Haji-Reza's work is to develop a non-contact, high-resolution technology to image and reveal the healthy-cancer tissue margins in real time, during surgery, with dramatically shortened operation times and improved patient prognosis.

Following the lunch and research overview of Professor Haji-Reza, you are invited to the System Design Capstone Design Symposium, also in the Engineering 7 building, where you can spend the rest of the afternoon (or as much time as you'd like) connecting with current 4th year Systems Design Engineering and Biomedical Engineering students who will be displaying their design projects until 4:00 p.m.

Event program

11:30 a.m. - Arrival, check in and networking
12:00 p.m. - Lunch and update from Paul Fieguth, Chair of the Department of Systems Design Engineering
12:30 p.m. - Lecture and Q&A on Photo-Acoustic Imaging by Professor Parsin Haji-Reza
1:30 p.m. - For those who are interested, view Capstone projects at the SYDE / BME Symposium

Parking: Lot C and Lot Q are available for entry by coin or credit card at a rate of $5 per day.

Note: HST number R119260685