The work that we do as scientists and engineers is made more meaningful when we are connected to the problem we are trying to solve. I realized early on in my graduate school career that there is a major difference between an idea that has intellectual and academic merit and one that addresses a real societal need. I identified entrepreneurship as a way of having far-reaching impact by connecting real societal needs with promising and fascinating scientific innovations. The New Venture Development program, organized by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, has been a highly rewarding ..read more

A week before the College of Engineering’s 2nd annual, “Eggs-Travaganza Hallway Hunt,” scheduled for Thursday, April 14th, nearly 20 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) students joined Biomedical Engineering staff members Cassandra Parks and Austin Blevins in putting together special BMEG eggs for the department’s portion of the egg hunt. “We had a lot of fun, and it went faster than I thought it would,” said Cassandra Parks, BMEG’s fiscal support manager. “We listened to music and finished putting the eggs together quickly because we had so many students help thanks to Fah Sysavanh.” Sysava ..read more

..read more

Being a part of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has provided me with a safe space while on my journey to completing my degree. I knew that being a minority in the STEM field would come with its challenges, but the burden is easier to carry when you have a supportive network of people encouraging you along the way. Overall, NSBE is one of the largest student-governed organizations based in the United States; there are over 600 chapters in the country! NSBE’s mission is “to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally ..read more

The week of Aug 30 – September 2, I attended the National Council of University Research Administrators’ (NCURA) 63rd Annual Meeting. The conference, held in Washington DC, was a hybrid meeting with virtual and in-person attendees. Over 1,250 individuals attended, five representing the University of Arkansas. The theme was “Reconnect,” as this was the first in-person annual conference since the COVID pandemic occurred and most people worked from home for the last year and a half. Throughout the conference, communicating and connecting with others were stressed. I didn’t know exactly what to ex ..read more

What is the Alpha Research Program? The Alpha Research Program was designed by Alexis Applequist, a University of Arkansas (U of A) biomedical engineering (BMEG) undergraduate, and Bladen Ketron, a U of A marketing undergraduate. It was set up and launched through the U of A Biomedical Engineering Society with the help of BMEG undergraduates, Ashley Fernandez and Smit Patel. This program is an opportunity for any undergraduate at the U of A to engage in research regardless of experience level. Spring 2021 was the first active semester of the program. Why was the program created? A large need e ..read more

           Dr. Xianghong Qian                Dr. Young Hye Song             Dr. Rebekah Samsonraj   What challenges have you faced on your path to a faculty position and how have you addressed them? Qian: The major obstacle in my path to a faculty position is the two-body problem since my husband was a faculty member at Colorado State during my postdoctoral training at Max-Planck Institute in Germany. Song: I think the ..read more

As a junior biomedical engineering student, I had already been working in Dr. Kyle Quinn’s lab for two semesters and had participated in a summer research program at the Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center. My passion for biomedical engineering research was already strong, and as such, I was looking forward to participating in another research program during the summer of 2020. I applied to several programs and was accepted to an REU at the University of Georgia. Dr. Ross Marklein reached out to me the day after I received the acceptance email. We had an excellent Skype call where we discussed the ..read more

From left to right: Ishita Tandon, Kartik Balachandran, and Prashanth Ravishankar. A University of Arkansas biomedical engineering professor and two doctoral students presented their cardiovascular research at the International Conference of Tissue Engineered Heart Valves in Abu Dhabi earlier this semester. The conference, ICTEHV for short, holds yearly meetings all over the globe to create a dialogue between researchers that might direct and/or translate engineered heart valve treatments. The researchers traveled to the conference before travel restrictions caused by COVID-19 were in place ..read more

Ishita Tandon and Olivia Kolenc are both PhD candidates for the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. This past year they attended SWE’s yearly conference for women in California. Below they discuss networking benefits, memorable experiences, leadership knowledge, and awareness and ability to navigate challenges faced by minorities within the field of engineering. Olivia Kolenc: In November of 2019, I had the privilege of traveling to California to attend WE19, the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) largest conference to date. WE19 was held at the Anaheim Convention ..read more