The Department of Biomedical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering welcomed students, judges and guests back May 2 for the first in-person BME Day since 2019. The celebration rounds out a year of learning with senior design competitions, research awards, faculty presentation and the Frank C.P. and Grace C. Yin Distinguished Lecture.
Student teams took part in the senior design competition, where they present projects addressing a biomedical problem that they designed during the yearlong capstone course.
“BME day is a great opportunity for our seniors to present their capstone design to the community, getting real-world feedback about their hard work,” said Joe Klaesner, professor of physical therapy and of radiology in the School of Medicine and senior lecturer of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering.
Carley DeGennaro, Julia Miller and Gillian Saperstein developed the first-place senior design project, Premature Infant Movement Analyzer, which measures the movements of premature infants to aid in a study designed to reduce stress levels of premature infants in the NICU by playing recordings of their mother’s voice.
“Winning first place felt very validating,” DeGennaro said. “To me, it is not only a reflection of the work put in over the past two semesters, but also all I have learned over the past four years.