Cynthia Holderbaum, administrative assistant for academic programs in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, has received the 2021 Eudoxia Girard Martin Memorial Staff Recognition Award.

The program is another component of the expanding partnership between the Purdue College of Engineering and Indiana University School of Medicine to increase the number of doctoral engineering students who are focused on translating innovative technologies to clinical practice.

Science is an art, but not all scientists are artists. To push our students to their creative capacity while showcasing their research, the Weldon School held its first Art in Research exhibit on September 24, 2021 in Martin C. Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering.

One of the hallmarks of Weldon School is our intense focus on achieving real-world impact with our research. With Purdue BME licensing revenue exceeding $30M, the collective commitment of our faculty and students towards translating our research products from the benchtop to the bedside is more than evident.

Over the past decade BME has offered a series of graduate-level courses focused on Regulatory Affairs and Regulatory Science covering the full life cycle of medical technology. Increased knowledge around medical device regulation is an area that our advisory board, industry partners, and graduates have all shared as an unmet need.

On October 26, the Weldon School held a town hall to discuss the outcomes of the 2021 Weldon School Diversity and Equity Climate Survey. With over 1/3rd of the Weldon School community participating in the survey last year, many areas of strength within the Weldon School community were identified as well as priority areas to further improve the culture and climate of the school.

The Neuroengineering and Neurotechnology research area fills a natural need that has arisen from the influx of outstanding new BME faculty with research aims in neuroscience, alongside the development of the research aims of established faculty and large cross-campus initiatives such as the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience and the Center for Implantable Devices.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. William Hillenbrand’s then anonymous donation of $500,000 to establish biomedical engineering research at Purdue. That initial seed investment brought us Drs. Leslie Geddes, Willis Tacker, Joe Bourland, and Charles Babbs to Purdue who put Purdue BME on the map with more than 30 inventions, many of which focused on implantable electronic devices including and energy-efficient implantable defibrillator and the automatic pacemaker.

To train the best postdocs – that is the motivation behind the formation of the Biomedical Research Associates Group (BRAG). This new initiative at the Weldon School will strengthen the communication between faculty and the sizable group of postdocs, visiting scholars and research scientists in the department. The plan is to facilitate professional development via monthly workshops, seminars, or Q&A sessions for scientists in training as well as including postdocs to relevant faculty events such as grant review roundtable.

The College of Engineering held a kickoff meeting Dec. 3 to officially launch its Center for Internet of Bodies (C-IoB), a new, emerging field that has been gaining global popularity.