Purdue BMES Chapter Recipient of 2012 Outstanding Outreach Award

The Purdue student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) has been selected as the recipient of the 2012 Biomedical Engineering Society Outstanding Outreach Award.

The Purdue representatives will give a brief presentation in "How to..." at the Student Affairs and Chapter Development Session of the BMES annual meeting, to be held in Atlanta, George, October 24-27. The award is supporting travel and registration for two chapter members, who will receive a plaque at the meeting.

The Purdue chapter of BMES focuses on several specific areas to nurture and develop their members into well-rounded biomedical engineers, providing activities and events that hone the skills required both during the members' academic careers and their future endeavors. These activities include industry and professional development and social, outreach, and mentoring activities.

There are currently approximately 90 graduate student members and 180 undergraduate student members. In the 2011-2012 academic year, they helped host a distinguished speaker, held an all-day research symposium, assisted with the BME summer seminar series, and hosted an industrial roundtable networking dinner. Social activities included a graduate/undergraduate student picnic, a welcome back picnic, staff/faculty/student potluck lunches, a semiformal winter ball, an undergraduate cookout, and an ice cream social. In order to develop a deeper collaboration with other chapters, the Purdue students developed a Big 10 speaker exchange program.

The chapter was incredibly busy with outreach activities, including a hands-on learning activity (Mentos and Coke) at local junior high schools, judging at a regional high school science fair, sponsoring activities at Purdue's Spring Fest and the Indiana State Fair, and numerous mentoring activities within our school.

Congratulations to our very busy, extremely active BMES chapter!