The Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) is the world's largest international society of biomedical engineers, with approximately 10,000 members who reside in 97 countries, with the vast majority being in the United States. The annual flagship conference of the EMBS, the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC,) is held to support the society's mission of advancing the application of engineering sciences and technology to medicine and biology, and promoting the profession by disseminating knowledge, setting standards, fostering professional development, and recognizing excellence. The EMBC'14 will be held in Chicago from August 27 through August 31, 2014, and will consist of platform and poster sessions spread across 11 themes in biomedical engineering, including biomedical imaging, biosignal processing, bioinformatics, neuroengineering, biorobotics, micro- and nano-biosensors, healthcare information systems, and biomedical engineering education. In addition to the technical and scientific sessions, there will also be tutorials and workshops that are more educationally oriented, as well as networking sessions and panel discussions related to career choices for students and postdoctoral trainees. The nature, types of activities and scale of EMBC'14 provide an excellent environment can be utilized to promote biomedical research as a potential career pathway among top-notch undergraduate/graduate students and post-doctoral trainees in bioengineering.
The specific aim of the project is to request $10,000 from NIBIB and $10,000 from NCI to support our effort in lowering the financial barriers to the EMBC'14 attendance of students and trainees, and to disburse the funding to top tier of presenting student and trainee authors in the form of ~$400 awards. The grant will play a critical role in establishing an ongoing series of forums within the EMBC in which bioengineering research and/or design work of students and trainees can be presented within a friendly and supportive environment;in providing a unique opportunity for top-notch students to be exposed firsthand to state-of- the-art advances in bioengineering research and the leaders in the field;in encouraging them to participate in networking and mentoring activities that may be critical in encouraging them to pursue graduate study or research-oriented careers in biomedical science and engineering;and in partially defray the burdening costs of travel to conference by the students and trainees. Particular attention will be directed to encourage the participation of woman, underrepresented minority, and disabled students and trainees.
A key goal of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) is to develop a pipeline of future biomedical engineers by fostering education and professional development, and an important focus of its annual conference (i.e., EMBC'14), which will be held at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers on August 27-31, 2014, would be on increasing the participation of undergraduate/graduate students and post-doctoral trainees in the EMBC'14. This would provide a unique opportunity for top-notch undergraduate students to be exposed first-hand to state-of-the-art advances in bioengineering research and the leaders in the field, as well as for them to participate in networking and mentoring activities that may be critical in encouraging them to pursue graduate study or research-oriented careers in biomedical science and engineering. The requested support will be used to provide awards to the top fifty presenting student and trainee authors so that the burdening costs of joining the conference can be partially defrayed and particular attention will be directed to encouraging the participation of woman, under-represented minority, and disabled students.
