Driving global innovation in health and technology
By Karina Shevchenko
In September 2025, the Carnegie Mellon Forum on Biomedical Engineering brought together researchers, students, industry leaders, and partners to share discoveries and foster collaborations that will shape the future of healthcare and biomedical engineering. This year’s Forum welcomed 1,061 attendees from 40 countries, highlighting its role as a growing international platform for research exchange and networking. Since its inception, the Forum has more than doubled in size, reflecting the increasing interest in connecting research, professional communities, and academia.
The program featured keynote lectures from leading voices in medicine, engineering, AI, and global health.
Thomas Coates, M.D. – Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Keynote: Neurovascular mechanisms of acute vaso-occlusive pain sickle cell disease (Why does “emotional stress” trigger a vaso-occlusive crisis?)
Artur W. Dubrawski, Ph.D. – Carnegie Mellon University
Keynote: Time Series Intelligence
Rebecca L. Heise, Ph.D. – Virginia Commonwealth University
Keynote: Extracellular Matrix for Lung Modeling and Repair
Sandra Loerakker, Ph.D. – Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Keynote: Computational modeling to advance cardiovascular regenerative medicine
Grace D. O’Connell, Ph.D. – UC Berkeley
Keynote: Insights on Disc Degeneration and Anterior Vertebral Body Tethering Success through FEM
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D. – Rice University
Keynote: Bioengineering Collaborations to Improve Global Newborn Health: Lessons Learned for Impact at Scale
John Rogers, Ph.D. – Northwestern University
Keynote: Some Recent Progress in Transient Bioelectronics
Garrett Stanley, Ph.D. – Georgia Tech & Emory University
Keynote: Neurotechnologies for Controlling the Brain: Where are things going?
The Forum featured 115 poster presentations, providing students and researchers with an international stage to share their work. Nine Outstanding Presentation Awards were granted, with each winning poster receiving $200.
Congratulations to the winners of the poster competition!
Outstanding Presentation Awards:
Poster 182 – We are what we touch: Quantifying statistical structure in tactile scenes
Neeli Tummala – Northwestern University; University of Washington
Poster 201 – FlexOx Breathes Life into Cell Therapy: Electrocatalytic Flexible Oxygenator for Sustained Oxygen Delivery in 3D Cell Culture
Sarah Kim – Carnegie Mellon University
Poster 123 – In-Vivo Joint Dynamics Conserve The Compression And Recovery Response Of Cartilage In Cadaveric Joints
Tejus Surendran – Carnegie Mellon University
Poster 143 – Supervised Algorithm to Accurately Segment Brain Vasculature
John Lorence – Carnegie Mellon University; University of Pittsburgh
Poster 116 – Real-time, High-throughput Super-resolution Microscopy via Panoramic Integration
Hansol Yoon – Georgia Institute of Technology
Poster 208 – Woven bone-mimicking organoids as a therapy for critical-size calvarial defects
Sai Abasolo – Stony Brook University
Poster 196 – Directing Lung Morphogenesis by Modulating Geometrical and Biomechanical Cues through 3D-ICE Biofabrication
Eric Trout – Carnegie Mellon University
Poster 191 – Gold CMU array: 3D nanoprinted gold microelectrodes on flexible substrates
Aditya Khandelwal – Carnegie Mellon University
Poster 110 – Machine Learning Driven Myoelectric Control for Multi-Degree of Freedom in an Upper Limb System
Dheemant Jallepalli – Carnegie Mellon University
People’s Choice Award:
Poster 224 – BioDrip: An Advanced IV Drip Control System
Nanziba Islam, Md. Abirul Alam, Rahin Ibne Hasan – Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Beyond the lectures and posters, networking was an important part of the Forum experience. Attendees had numerous opportunities to connect with other students, faculty, and researchers through roundtable discussions and informal conversations, creating a dynamic environment for idea exchange and collaboration.
The Forum’s success was supported by healthcare and industry partners including Mayo Clinic, United Therapeutics, Script Biosciences, Synapse Symphony, Captis Diagnostics, and Advanced Respiratory Technologies. Their participation highlighted the value of collaboration between academia, healthcare, and industry in advancing biomedical engineering and supporting future professionals.
The Forum continues to serve as a platform for sharing knowledge while also supporting networking within the biomedical engineering community. The combined efforts of keynote speakers, moderators, poster presenters, judges, and actively engaged attendees played an important role in shaping the event.
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