On May 14, 2020, the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) held a "Meet the BME Professors" event with the inaugural class of students enrolled to pursue their bachelor's degree in BME this fall. In April, the UK College of Engineering had announced a new BME--the only BME program powered by Design Thinking. It will welcome its first class of students at the sophomore level beginning this fall. About twenty students joined the event.
Guigen Zhang, chair of the BME department, began the event by highlighting its true intent: to help students maximize their educational experience in BME by preparing them to embark on a career as a professional biomedical engineer through extracurricular activities, such as faculty mentoring, research experiences and leadership and service activities. Associate professor David Pienkowski also highlighted unique features of the program
During the virtual event, BME faculty shared their personal educational experiences, the careers they had before coming to UK, how their experience contributes to student development and their current research areas. Student leaders from UK student chapters of two professional societies also attended the event and introduced their student organizations, which offer students leadership opportunities and involvement in extracurricular activities. The event also offered the opportunity for Q/A and for students to share their own thoughts. You can read remarks from some of the participants below.
Taylor Young: "I’m a rising sophomore. I’m really excited about biomedical engineering. It’s really the reason I came to UK. I’m actually looking to go into prosthetics. That’s my dream. I’m really excited to get involved and get to know all the faculty and students."
Ruth Imarhiagbe: "I’m a rising sophomore. I came to UK with the hope to first get a bachelor’s degree in biosystems engineering and then get my master’s in biomedical engineering. But now we have a biomedical engineering degree, so that’s good. I’m really interested in doing surgical robotics and working on projects and create devices that reduce invasion during surgeries."
Jade Townsend: "I originally came to UK for the biomedical engineering program. I was in chemical engineering, but now excited to apply for this program. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to do this. I plan on going to med school."