Michael Finn-Henry awarded a Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Scholarship

Michael Finn-Henry, a current SyBBURE student and Junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering, received the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Entrepreneurial Scholarship. He was awarded this scholarship based on his interest and aptitude in entrepreneurship, as well as recommendation by the School of Engineering faculty. Congratulations, Michael!

SyBBURE alumnus, Orlando Hoilett writes for Hackaday about the reliability of consumer-grade and research-grade wrist-worn heart rate monitors

Orlando graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. He was a member of the SyBBURE Searle Undergraduate Research Program from 2012-2014 and did research on peroxide detection in microfluidic pumps and electrical resistance measurements of the blood-brain barrier. He recently wrote an article Hackaday comparing the accuracy of consumer-grade and research-grade wrist-worn heart rate monitors based on the work of researchers at The Big Ideas Lab. Some important notes from his article were: skin tone had no effect on the accuracy of the monitors, and the accuracy decreased with increased levels of activity. Surprisingly, research-grade heart rate monitors were less accurate during activity compared to consumer-grade monitors. Read his entire article here: https://hackaday.com/2020/04/07/reliability-check-consumer-and-research-grade-wrist-worn-heart-rate-monitors/

SyBBURE alumnus, Kevin Cyr, Designs a Face Shield for Doctors Treating COVID-19 Patients

After being mentioned in an NBC article, Kevin Cyr was approached by an Ohio based 3D printing company, MakerGear, to design a rapid response face mask. Kevin spoke to a New York based medical resident to assess needs and designed a face shield to protect physicians from the virus while intubating infected patients. The face shields are currently in production and will be sent to hospitals experiencing the most need. Information in this post was retrieved from http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/04/medical-students-lend-a-hand.html

SyBBURE Student, Ben Wong, Makes It To Top 7 Final Teams in the Hult Prize Global Competition

The Hult Prize has been referred to as “The Nobel Prize for Students”. Each year, the Hult Prize team challenges students from 121 countries to solve a challenge and the best team wins a $1 million seed funding award. This year’s competition’s challenge is ‘Building Startups That Have A Positive Impact On Our Planet With Every Dollar Earned’. Ben Wong and his team are part of the top 7 global teams, making up one of the only two teams from the United States. Congratulations Ben and good luck!

SyBBURE student, Dinh Chuong (Ben) Nguyen, receives the Robert D. Tanner Undergraduate Research Award 2020

The Robert D. Tanner Undergraduate Research Award is awarded to a graduating Chemical Engineering senior who conducted the best undergraduate research at Vanderbilt University according to the chemical engineering faculty. Ben has been a member of SyBBURE Searle Research Program in his undergraduate career, conducting research on sustained and localized immunomodulation with hydrogel-polymer nanoparticle composites. Congratulations Ben!

SyBBURE student, Hannah Anderson, awarded the Ernest A. Jones scholarship 2020

The Jones scholarship is awarded to mostly first years and sophomores who intend to major in physics and astronomy. Professor Emeritus Ernest A. Jones established it in 1985 to encourage students to major in physics and astronomy and to support those programs at Vanderbilt University. Hannah is a rising junior majoring in physics and mathematics who has been a member of the SyBBURE Searle Research Program since her freshman year. Her research is on improving existing sensors including LHC, GEM, electron detection, photonics and subatomic. She received this award for being an outstanding sophomore majoring in physics. Congratulations Hannah!

SyBBURE Student Stephanie Molitor Receives Departmental Award

Stephanie Molitor, a SyBBURE senior majoring in Biomedical Engineering, and her team received the Thomas G. Arnold Prize for Biomedical Engineering Systems and Design Research. This award goes to the team of seniors who present the best design of a biomedical engineering system. Congratulations, Stephanie!

Amelia Taylor awarded the EAS Student Research Award

Amelia, a current SyBBURE student and rising senior majoring in Chemistry received the Eastern Analytic Symposium and Exposition (EAS) undergraduate research award 2020. She has been recognized multiple times for her outstanding research, adding this award to her already impressive portfolio. Way to go Amelia!

SyBBURE student, Amelia Taylor, named a GoldWater scholar for 2020

Junior, Amelia Taylor, received the prestigious Goldwater scholarship in 2020 for her research on better understanding the link between diet and Alzheimer’s disease through quantitative metabolomics. She says that she is currently studying the changes that occur in amino acid metabolism in a mouse model of familial Alzheimer’s disease and obesity/diabetes. Amelia is currently double majoring in chemistry and philosophy and hopes to pursue a doctorate in chemistry. She has been a part of the SyBBURE Searle Research Program since her freshman year. Read more about the three Goldwater scholars at Vanderbilt, including Amelia here.

SyBBURE alumnus Kevin Cyr commented on an NBC news article on crowd sourcing and 3D printing equipment to combat COVID-19

Kevin Cyr, who is currently a clinical student at the Stanford University School of Medicine and researches 3D printing for medical devices, said there are a few challenges in crowd sourcing solutions to deal with equipment shortage due to the influx of COVID-19 cases nationwide. His direct quote, "The concerns are quality and the ability to manufacture at scale, with sterilization and the safeguards that are necessary for medical equipment. And that's really been the topic that I've seen from the medical field and the FDA that they're still grappling with, which is trying to ensure the quality at a localized manufacturing facility.” Cyr was a member of the SyBBURE Searle Undergraduate Research Program while an undergraduate as Vanderbilt University. Read more of the NBC news article here.