Contact:
Chriss Swaney
412-268-5776

For immediate release:
May 6, 2005

Carnegie Mellon Students To Present Next Generation of Biomedical Engineering Tools

PITTSBURGH—More than 30 Carnegie Mellon University biomedical engineering students will showcase a handful of exciting new product prototypes that could eventually be used by paramedics or emergency room physicians from 9:30 a.m. to noon, Monday, May 9, in the Singleton Room at Roberts Hall.

James F. Antaki, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and computer science at Carnegie Mellon, said the capstone biomedical engineering course is designed to integrate science, engineering and other classroom knowledge to solve a practical bioengineering problem.

"We get the students out of the academic environment and into situations where they can apply their engineering skills," said Timothy Corcoran, a Carnegie Mellon biomedical engineering alum and an associate professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Student projects range from a new high-tech stretcher for the transport of patients with spinal and pelvic injuries to an electrical stimulator to ease facial paralysis. Nine student teams will give project presentations, including demos of each new biomedical tool created.

The electrical stimulator for facial paralysis, for example, consists of a cigarette-sized electric unit and several face patches to monitor signals from a person's face. "One day this prototype could be useful for palsy patient research," Antaki said. Palsy is a condition marked by the uncontrollable tremor of the body or body parts.

In the past three years, undergraduate enrollment in Carnegie Mellon's Biomedical Engineering Department climbed from 32 students to more than 160 in 2004. Sixty students from the department are scheduled to graduate May 15.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to noon, May 9

WHERE: Singleton Room, Roberts Hall, Carnegie Mellon University