This project will support the 27th Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference (SBEC), to be held at The University of Texas at Arlington during April 29-May 1, 2011. NSF funds will be used for partial support for student registration and partial cost of conference publications and dissemination.
The conference brings students, engineers, scientists, and industry leaders in biomedical engineering to disseminate information in this rapidly growing field. It provides a multidisciplinary educational forum to discuss new ideas and concepts, covering a broad range of topics in biomedical engineering including the full range from clinical to basic science. Most significantly, it encourages and facilitates student attendance by encouraging student paper submittal, holding a student paper competition, and subsidizing student registration fees. The intellectual merit and broader impact of this project are as follows.
Intellectual Merit ? The field of Biomedical Engineering is rapidly evolving. The Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference provides the means for individuals to promote and disseminate advances they have made, subject to peer and professional critique. The gathering is a most valuable venue for discussing new directions, ideas, and approaches for research and education. They also aid both in reinforcing contacts and collaborations and establishing new ones. While SBEC draws heavily from institutions and organizations in the South, Southwest, and Southeast regions of the US, many from outside of the region and even other countries have actively participated in this conference. Hence, it is most conducive for enhancement and elevation of knowledge of biomedical engineering.
Broader Impact ? This is beneficial to all attendees but particularly important for students and young investigators. Indeed, the conference?s emphasis on students encourages them to be actively involved, not just by attending, but by participating and contributing to the conference through their individual presentations. It is important to note that some of the organizers of recent SBEC conferences did their very first conference presentation at SBEC when they were doctoral students or young assistant professors. Hence, the conference will bring the opportunity to learn, teach, and establish collaborations to the broad audience of students as well as established researchers and professionals.
The SBEC enabled a significant number of gifted students and talented researchers come together and exchange the latest research results from various laboratories around the country and the world. With three keynote speakers from top institutions around the country ? Columbia University, University of Pittsburg, and University of California Davis ? the attendees had the austere opportunity to hear about the outlook of research in key areas of bioengineering: Bioimaging, Bioinstrumentation, and Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. This conference also provided the first time opportunity for many of the attendees to conduct a podium oral presentation in front of their peers from other institutions. Larger national bioengineering conference may not offer such exciting opportunities for younger bioengineers, as the large number of submissions at those conferences (e.g. exceeding 1500 papers) precludes oral presentation for most of the submissions. Another, achievement of the SBEC is that it attracts participants from states surrounding the site of the conference. This was particularly advantageous for the SBEC 2011, as Texas is surrounded by 5 states and attendees from these states got a chance to explore possible collaborations. The proximity of the institutions of the attendees of the SBEC 2011 with each other fosters future collaborations.
