The goal of this award is to help increase student attendance and participation at the 15th 2013 Summer Bioengineering Conference (SBC) sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to be held in Sunriver, Oregon June 26-29, 2013. The primary purpose of the SBC is to promote state-of-the-art research, collaboration, and scientific discourse in the broad field of bioengineering with focus on biomechanical engineering, encompassing molecular to tissue and organism-level approaches. This conference highlights students, promotes advancement in their education and furthers their careers towards becoming future leaders in bioengineering. The theme for this year is Translational Research. The selections of the plenary speaker, workshops, and highlighted sessions will serve to inform, educate and inspire attendees about the importance of and pathways for translating their technologies.
The award will allow the conference organizers to reduce student registration fees and provide complimentary student registration to 36 Ph.D. finalists in the Student Paper Competition. All abstracts submitted are 2-page extended abstracts and the Ph.D. student finalists are selected after a rigorous review process (3 reviewers per abstract). Six finalists for each technical area are selected by the SPC committee and the students present their work in 6 parallel podium sessions. In addition, the conference also supports an MS and BS poster competition as part of the Student Paper Competition with the awards presentation
All presentations are documented in the two-page extended abstract format and compiled in a CD that is distributed to all registrants. Copyright is provided and an ISBN number issued to allow appropriate archiving of the conference material.
In June, 2013, the 15th Summer Bioengineering Conference (SBC) was held at the Sunriver resort in Oregon. The 2013 SBC had 717 attendees, which compares extremely well with previous conferences. We had a full program of over 600 contributed papers, posters, and workshops. The theme of this year’s conference was Translational Research and the main plenary speaker was Becky Bergman, VP of New Therapies and Diagnostics for Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management at Medtronics. In addition, special plenary sessions highlighted ASME medal winners including Dr. Mehmet Toner, Jeff Weiss, and Jonathan Vande Geest. The conference also hosted the annual Student Paper Competition, the Undergraduate Student Design Competition, and the Grand Knee Challenge. These competitions provided opportunities to compete for awards and recognition for their institutions. For the first time, the finalists for the Ph.D. Student Paper Competition had their registration waived. This is a direct result of the NSF grant. In addition, the grants and industry sponsorships allowed us to maintain our student registration fees well below the cost per attendee. Finally, the workshops provided excellent opportunities to students and investigators to hear about the latest technologies, new teaching paradigms in bioengineering, ways to translate technology, and translational research ranging from orthopedics to tissue engineering.
