Craig Goergen

Craig Goergen has developed a new senior-level course BME 460: Cardiovascular Mechanical Support and Devices, which is introducing students to state-of-the-art medical technologies used in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases. This course emphasizes the role of biomedical engineers in the design, development, and implementation of these technologies for therapeutic impact. A key feature of the course is the integration of clinical shadowing, complemented by didactic presentations, discussions, and laboratory dissections. Together, these components provide students with a comprehensive understanding of cardiovascular physiology, heart failure and vascular disease, treatments and their complications, as well as emerging directions in the field. The clinical shadowing activities were closely aligned with the lecture material and covered a wide range of topics, including heart failure clinics, cardiac catheterization laboratories, heart transplants, and head and neck surgeries. Craig also incorporated guest lectures by clinical experts in cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment to enrich the learning experience. 

This innovative course received very positive feedback from students, with teaching evaluation scores of 4.7 and 4.6, as well as highly favorable comments. Notably, BME 460 is the only course in the department offering a clinical immersion experience for BME students, providing them with practical insights and skills to excel in their future careers in the field. 

Luis Solorio

Luis Solorio has a consistent history of teaching excellence. His most recent teaching evaluation scores are 4.7, 4.7, 4.4, and 4.6, respectively (all in courses with more than 30 students enrolled).  Luis has implemented several innovations in the classroom, including using Kahoots quizzes to both keep students engaged as well as to assess their capture their comprehension of the material in real time in the classroom.  He uses hands on activities during lecture to help students grasp complicated concepts, for example having them make a 3D representation of protein ternary structure from a 2D sheet of paper (representing secondary structure). Luis has considerably refined the BME201 Biomolecules class to expand it from just teaching BME students fundamental organic chemistry biochemistry concepts, to introducing how these concepts can be applied to engineer biomedical systems. Students consistently performed well and are achieving the desired ABET-aligned learning outcomes as assessed by recent annual Faculty Review of Curriculum reports.  

About the Tacker Prize

The Willis A. Tacker Prize is awarded based on student evaluations, feedback, teaching impact, and peer observations. Dr. Willis A. Tacker, a founding member of Purdue’s Biomedical Engineering Program in 1998, was instrumental in establishing the Weldon School. His legacy continues to inspire excellence in teaching and innovation.