This award will support the 2017 Summer Biomechanics, Biotransport and Bioengineering Conference (SB3C2017) being held in Tucson, Arizona; June 21-24, 2017. The SB3C meetings, and their predecessor SBC meetings, are generally considered the premiere annual meetings for biomechanics. The primary purpose of the meeting is to promote state-of-the-art research, collaboration, and international scientific discourse in the broad field of bioengineering with focus on biomechanics, biotechnology, biotransport, biomaterials, tissue engineering, rehabilitation and design. The organizing committee for SB3C2016 is drawn from individuals in academia and the industry with significant experience in running the previous summer meetings. The meeting and its precursor meetings have traditionally provided a high-quality, multidisciplinary biomedical engineering event since the early 90's and contributed to training many generations of academics and researchers. Notably, the summer meetings series has, since its inception, prioritized the integration of students into the meeting to support their professional development and future connection to the biomechanics, biotransport and bioengineering research community. For many years, students have made up more than 50% of attendees and presenters. The theme of this year's meeting is "Growth, Development, Remodeling, and Repair". In addition to the direct impact this conference will have on the mainstream bioengineering community, it serves an important cross-fertilization role, since attendees are drawn from a very broad range of disciplines beyond the biomechanics community.

The aims of the project are to sponsor travel fellowships for females and under-represented minorities; and, to sponsor the prestigious Student Paper Competition by covering the meeting registration costs of the top 40 BS and MS competition submissions. Finalists and winners in the student paper competition can add this information to their resumes, and the competition provides an opportunity for students to develop as researchers and is a significant career boost, enhancing retention of the most talented students and providing role models for all student attendees. Through the technical proceedings and conference web site, information presented at the meeting will be available to multiple societies and to the public at large. Further, the conference has historically had, and is expected to continue to have more than 50 percent of the attendees being students and postdoctoral fellows and more than 25 percent female attendees. For the second time, the organization committee has been extended to include a Diversity Chair. Through the travel fellowships and associated workshops, the PI plans to establish this meeting as the "go to" conference for female and under-represented minority attendees.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2017-04-15
Budget End
2018-03-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
$25,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Virginia
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904