From October 23 to 26, the Baltimore Convention Center was abrim with biomedical engineering students, researchers, professors, and scientists from across the world attending the Biomedical Engineering Society’s (BMES) Annual Meeting. Amidst the hubbub of plenary speakers, poster presentations, and social mixers, the Brown BME community was able to connect in all sorts of ways. 

After the group came together to take a department-wide picture, third-year Ph.D. student Lily Cordner was chatting with some friends about where to grab lunch. Dean of Engineering Tejal Desai asked the group if she could join, Cordner recalled. 

The conference is the perfect forum for that kind of serendipitous community bonding — “it’s the one time where … you’re kind of on the same schedule and in the same place with all the people” from Brown BME, Lily said. 

Trinity Williams, an undergraduate concentrating in BME, said that she was able to bond with fellow students by spending time together traveling, exploring Baltimore, and attending conference events. “Sharing moments of learning and discovery reinforced the supportive and collaborative spirit within our community,” she said. 

Unlike many other conferences focusing on a niche within BME, BMES gives a “really great opportunity to see what’s going on with the field as a whole,” Lily said. As a result, Ph.D. student Stephanie Roser said it’s an opportunity to “overlap really with everyone that’s in the BME program.”

BMES had a seemingly endless list of speaker sessions, poster and oral presentations, networking opportunities, and social events for students to explore. And Brown students took full advantage of each moment.

“A lot of good questions:” Students Shared Their Research in Oral and Poster Presentations

For several Brown students, including Stephanie, Lily, and fourth-year Ph.D. student Alec McCall, BMES served as a forum for presenting their research to a broad audience. 

McCall gave a 12-minute oral presentation about his research into how bacterial biofilm could impact skin integrity. Oral presentations are slightly more structurally rigid than posters, he said, noting that there are advantages to both formats. 

During BMES’ poster presentations, students could directly answer interested conference attendees’ questions throughout the hour. For oral presentations, researchers presented their work for 12 minutes and then responded to questions over three minutes. 

Stephanie presented two posters: one focused on revascularization of ischemic tissue post-heart attack and another on re-engineering cardiac conduction systems. “I had a couple of faculty at various institutions come up interested in collaborating or having suggestions about how something they do might help our work,” she said. 

Dr. Hyeontae Jeong, a postdoctoral student in the Wong Lab, said their lab had three poster presentations and one oral presentation. Two focused on the “interaction between circulating tumor cells with other cells” and the other two were centered on “collective cell migration,” he said. 

Lily, one of the Wong Lab students, focused her presentation on why breast cancer cells metastasize to particular secondary locations. She said most people who came up to talk with her about her poster were “already familiar with the field” and asked “a lot of good questions which helped me think about what I want to do next with my research.”

“Valuable insights:” Speaker Sessions Inspired the Brown Community

Lily said that the speakers at BMES are always “very well known in the field.” She said the conference poses a “great opportunity to listen to them talk, listen to them present about their current research firsthand, and be able to ask them questions.”

Lily said she attended several sessions focused on cancer research and particularly enjoyed listening to Gordana Vunjak-Novaković, a BME professor at Columbia University. “She’s a true innovator in biomedical engineering,” Lily said. 

Trinity also enjoyed hearing from Dr. Vunjak-Novaković, saying her talk was “particularly inspiring” and showcased “cutting-edge advancements in tissue engineering.”

Hyeontae focused on going to speakers discussing mechanobiology and cell mechanics — the areas of BME he specializes in. 

Other speaker sessions focused more on advising students on navigating work in the BME field. Trinity attended an informational session about opportunities within the National Institute of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other government agencies. She said the session “provided valuable insights into career paths and research funding that align with my goals.”

Trinity said that hearing from speakers about “innovative research” being conducted across the country “left me in awe and excited about the future of biomedical engineering.”

“A safe space:” BMES Offered a Recruiting and Networking Forum

Alec described the conference as “a safe space” to get to know many people working at universities across the country. There was a room in the convention center filled with booths from different schools, including Brown.

Dary Chheng, program coordinator at Brown’s Institute for Biology, Engineering, and Medicine, helped manage the booth, talking with everyone from high schoolers to postdoctoral students. “We had many different people come by the booth,” she said. Her job was to explain “what Brown has to offer.”

Students also had the opportunity to visit “reception rooms” sponsored by various universities. The rooms featured catered food, drinks, and a chance to network. One room even had karaoke, Alec added. 

“It’s really aimed for people to walk around and talk to people at schools they’re interested in attending,” Stephanie said. Lily described the rooms as a “great opportunity to meet other students … in a more casual setting.”

Trinity attended a mixer for Black students in BME, which offered a networking opportunity while fostering “a strong sense of community and connection.”

Students also found informal ways to connect and network. Even during her poster presentation, Stephanie had undergraduate students asking about her experience working in the Coulombe Lab. They had “a lot of questions specifically about our lab and lab culture and mentorship style,” she said. 

The conference’s various networking opportunities also helped students reconnect with old friends, colleagues, and professors. Stephanie saw friends from her undergraduate education, while Alec met up with his undergraduate research PI. Lily was able to get coffee with a lab collaborator from South Korea. Both Lily and Alec were able to connect with Brown alumni.

“It was a great opportunity to connect because it’s such a big conference,” Lily said.