Welcome to the latest edition of the

UCBS newsletter. I’d like to highlight some of

our department’s recent and ongoing profes-

sional development activities and encourage

your continued participation. This past semes-

ter, UCBS has sponsored several events such as

the career panel and recent tour of Tetramer

Technologies that are great opportunities for

career preparation and learning about industry.

We have also migrated our alumni and

guest speaker program from a seminar to open

discussion lunch format. Over the past year,

we’ve had visits from Dr. Jaishankar Kutty (St.

Jude Medical), Dr. Robert MacMeccan

(Milliken), Ms. Lisa Waples (Biomedical Engi-

neering Society), Mr. Tom Sander (LifeNet

Health) and most recently, Dr. Josh Lovekamp

(W. L. Gore & Associates). This is your chance

to come and ask these professionals anything

you’d like to know about their experience, ca-

reers, etc. Look for communications on the

display in the Annex 3rd floor atrium as well as

emails from Ms. Jennifer Hogan

(jrhogan@clemson.edu).

If you haven’t visited with Ms. Hogan,

I would strongly encourage you to do so. She

can provide assistance with resume preparation,

job searches, and maintains a website with pro-

fessional development resources and a database

of internship and career opportunities.

For those of you who are graduating,

the faculty wishes you all the best and encour-

age you to stay in touch through the Clemson

Bioengineering Alumni LinkedIn group. For

those we’ll be seeing again-good luck finishing

up the semester, have a great summer, and we

look forward to seeing you next fall.

Spring 2014 Newsletter

The Bioengineering Tiger

Newsletter Committee:

Jessica Lau (Chair and Editor)

Mariah McMinn

Jacqueline Rohde

Newsletter Highlights:

Professional development opportunities

1-2

Engineering World Health 3

Bioengineering faculty trivia

3

Engineering Expo 4

Five guest speakers from a wide range of bioengineering-related profes-

sions sat on the UCBS 6th Annual Career Panel, held at the end of March. The pan-

elists shared their perspectives with stu-dents, from insight into their different pro-

fessions to advice on how to succeed after graduation. The panelists all had a Clem-

son bioengineering education in common, but have since pursued their interests in

different fields: Dr. Joel Corbett is a senior manager at Poly-Med, Inc.; Ms. Maglin

UCBS 6th Annual Career Panel By Jessica Lau

Halsey is a second year student at the Univer-sity of South Carolina School of Medicine

Greenville; Dr. Jeremy Mercuri worked in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries

before taking his current position as an Assis-tant Professor in Clemson’s Department of

Bioengineering; Mr. Joseph Probst is a patent attorney at Dority & Manning, P.A.; Ms.

Stephanie Tanner is a clinical research coor-dinator at the Greenville Health System De-

partment of Orthopaedic Surgery. The career panel in progress (top); panelists

and UCBS officers (bottom).

Useful links

Bioengineering career resources website

https://sites.google.com/a/g.clemson.edu/cu-

bioe-test2/?pli=1

Clemson Bioengineering Alumni LinkedIn group

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Clemson-

Bioengineering-Alumni-25607/about

— Dr. Ken Webb

Associate Professor Associate Chair of Undergraduate Affairs

Message f rom Our Advisor

The Bioengineering Tiger

Page 2 UCBS Spring 2014 Newsletter

informal student-professor interactions.

PULSE is a monthly lunch discus-

sion between a professor in the Depart-

ment of Bioengineering and a small

group of UCBS members. Drs. Jeremy

Mercuri, John DesJardins, Delphine

Dean, and Ken Webb have led this se-

mester’s inaugural set of lunches. Topics

for the discussions are chosen based on

faculty and student interests, and have

ranged from the medical device industry

to work-life balance. In addition to these

overarching themes, students are also

free to ask the professors about other

points of interest—from professors’ in-

spiration for course material to insight

into the graduate school admission pro-

cess.

These events serve as an opportunity

for professors to meet individual students

outside the context of a large classroom.

This semester, UCBS hosted a

new series of events collectively

called the Professor-Undergraduate

Lunch Series for Education. Also

known as PULSE, the events were

started by this year’s UCBS president

Scott Cole when he noted the absence

of opportunities in the department for

Profess iona l Development with UCBS By Jessica Lau

Dr. Delphine Dean shares her perspectives

on work-life balance and going through the

faculty tenure process.

Résumé Workshop and Cri t ique with Poly -Med, Inc.

Professor-Undergraduate Lunch Ser ies for Education

based in Anderson, SC that specializes in

polymer and biomaterials technology. In

addition to having experience in prepar-

ing successful résumés, Drs. Corbett and

Winn have also reviewed résumés as part

of their company’s hiring process; their

comments from an industry perspective

gave students a unique opportunity to

refine their résumés.

UCBS member Jaylin Carter found

the workshop to be useful, saying that

“the résumé workshop was a very in-

formative and practical way to help stu-

dents fine-tune and modify their résu-

més.” Moreover, he now feels “more

confident when submitting [his] applica-

tions to potential employers.” Fellow

UCBS member Erik Schatzer echoed

To help bioengineering students bet-

ter prepare for employment and further

education opportunities, UCBS held a

two-part résumé workshop at the begin-

ning of February. Mr. David Sargent,

Director of Information Technology and

Career Counselor at Clemson’s Michelin

Career Center, provided an introduction

to the workshop. Mr. Sargent’s presenta-

tion gave students a general review of

how to write a résumé, as well as specific

examples of successful résumés.

Following the presentation, profes-

sionals from the bioengineering industry

provided detailed and personal feedback

to students’ résumés. Senior manager Dr.

Joel Corbett and consultant Dr. Brad

Winn work at Poly-Med, Inc., a company

Jaylin’s sentiments, noting that he

“completely rewrote [his] résumé” and

“felt much more comfortable distrib-

uting [it] at the career fair.”

Drs. Joel Corbett and Brad Winn from

Poly-Med, Inc. provide résumé critiques for

undergraduate and graduate bioengineering

students.

In turn, students learn about different

career paths and can get advice for pur-

suing their interests. As one student put

it, “PULSE is a great experience to

connect with your professors and get to

know them better. Listening to their

experiences helps to set a perspective

for what an engineering career will be

and how you can get the most out of

it.”

Dr. John DesJardins discusses his motiva-

tion and journey in becoming a professor,

as well as the differences between industry

and academic careers in bioengineering.

Dean, which works on bioengineering

projects for the developing world.

Although the Clemson chapter

of EWH is rather new, its members have

already built six ECG simulator kits this

semester. The ECG simulator kits are

sent from EWH headquarters at Duke as

separate circuit boards and hardware,

which includes resistors, diodes, and

battery connections. The students solder

the hardware components to the circuit

board and test that the ECG simulator

connections work correctly. The assem-

bled and tested kits will then be sent to

countries such as Rwanda, Cambodia,

and Honduras for use in training medical

technicians.

For many students, assembling

the ECG simulator kits is the first time

they have worked with soldering. Austin

Herbst, a sophomore biochemistry major

in EWH, says that he has “had the op-

portunity to learn how to solder, which

[he] wouldn’t have been able to in [his]

major.” Beyond soldering, the simulator

The Engineering World Health

(EWH) organization at Clemson has

spent the past semester building electro-

cardiogram (ECG) simulators to send to

health centers in developing countries.

ECG simulators are tools that create

waves similar to the human heart signal

on cardiac monitors. These waves are

used to test the ECG monitor’s perfor-

mance as well as troubleshoot circuit or

cable issues. With Clemson providing

the labor of assembling the ECG simula-

tors, the devices can be sent to health

centers free of charge, providing an easi-

ly accessible way to test ECG machines.

Engineering World Health was

founded at Duke University in 2001 and

focuses on applying bioengineering in

developing countries. Beginning in the

fall of 2011, Clemson’s EWH chapter

has been sponsored by the Department

of Bioengineering, although it is open to

all majors. EWH is also closely associat-

ed with a Creative Inquiry advised by

bioengineering professor Dr. Delphine

kits allow students to learn valuable

skills that will help them in their future

bioengineering projects. Tyler Ovington,

a senior studying bioengineering, says

that the kit-building program is a “great

teaching tool for how ECGs work and

basic techniques for repairing medical

equipment.”

Improving Hea lth on an Internat iona l Sca le By Jacqueline Rohde

EWH member Austin Herbst solders hard-

ware components on to the ECG simulator

circuit board.

Page 3 UCBS Spring 2014 Newsletter

Bioengineer ing Facu lty Triv ia By Mariah McMinn

Can you match each of the se fun facts t o i t s f acul ty member?

Answer key: A) 4; B) 3; C) 2; D) 1

A ) D r . J i r o N a g a t o m i 1. “My best nonacademic memory: going to dim sum with friends on

weekend mornings. We’d get on the T to Chinatown and then eat all

the dumplings and yummy food we can.”

B ) D r . K e n W e b b 2. “One of my favorite college memories is playing as the bass drum-

mer in the Carnegie-Mellon Pipe Band, where I met my future wife.”

3. “My best memory from college is a 2 day backpacking trip through

the Buckskin Gulch slot canyon and Paria Canyon. For the rest of the

day, we hiked 13 miles through continuous slot canyon The next day

we hiked about 8 miles up the larger Paria Canyon to an exit point. It

was truly a once in a lifetime experience.”

4. “My favorite college memory was going to college hockey games

with friends.”

C ) D r . J o h n

D e s J a r d i n s

D ) D r . D e l p h i n e

D e a n

Page 4 UCBS Spring 2014 Newsletter

demonstration was not only interactive but also provided stu-

dents with an opportunity to “think beyond” and learn that

“there’s more things to do” in terms of job opportunities and

“what [they] can do with [their] future.”

Along with the demonstration provided by UCBS,

members of CBS also had a table set up at the Expo with vari-

ous orthopedic devices on display. Matt Rusin, a third year

graduate student, describes the purpose of their participation

as a means of “exposing [the elementary students] to the disci-

pline” as most people “don’t have a good concept” of what

bioengineering is. Second year graduate student Hobey Tan

echoed this sentiment, saying that “a lot of people don’t know

what bioengineering is. But, with bioengineering, you can

define your own path.” The exhibit of orthopedic devices not

only provided hands-on experience for the students, but also

introduced them to science in a new way and allowed for an

opportunity for students to see firsthand how science and engi-

neering come together in the development of medical devices.

On February 20, 2014, Clemson University hosted

the Engineering Expo designed to provide students from local

elementary schools with insight into the various engineering

fields. Dr. Marybeth Kurz, an Associate Professor of Industri-

al Engineering, in coordination with Tau Beta Pi (national

engineering honor society) officers Jessica Lau and Katie

Blair, organized the event hosted in the Hendrix Student Cen-

ter. Dr. Kurz described the benefits of hosting such an event:

through the Expo, students in the College of Engineering and

Science are provided with the opportunity to “interact with

second graders and remember to volunteer.” Furthermore, the

Expo also helps “second graders to think that STEM [science,

technology, engineering, and mathematics] is something they

can do.”

Members of UCBS participated in the Expo with

their demonstration on how to combat atherosclerosis. For the

demonstration, a plastic pipe was used to represent an artery

with Play-Doh being used as the plaque. Chicken wire served

as the stent and water represented the blood flow. At the start

of the demonstration, the UCBS members had the students

pour water down the pipe to illustrate how blood can easily

flow through an artery without plaque and then added Play-

Doh to illustrate how the blood does not flow as easily when

obstructed. However, once the chicken wire was added to

serve as a stent and compress the plaque, theh students poured

water and were able to see that the blood flow improved.

Sarah Roberts, a senior bioelectrical engineering stu-

dent and UCBS service committee chair, shared her thoughts

on the Expo: “I think the Engineering Expo was a great event

to get kids excited about engineering and science. I think mak-

ing science education fun is really important to developing the

next generation of great thinkers. The Expo also provided an

opportunity for college students to remind themselves why

they love their majors so much and how fun and inspiring sci-

ence can be.” Catherine Demos, a sophomore biomaterials

engineering major, assisted with the demonstration and cited

the experience as a way to “get some little kids interested in

[bioengineering].” Catherine also noted that “if kids can get

interested in [science] earlier, it might lead to some cool stuff

[in the future].”

The Expo also struck a chord with the teachers from

the elementary schools. Jill Keeran, a second grade teacher

from Central Elementary School, listed the bioengineering

demonstration as her favorite among the other engineering

fields due to the hands-on approach it provided. Moreover, the

Community Outreach at the Engineer ing Expo By Mariah McMinn

Bioengineering sophomore Austin Schlirf demonstrates the

concept of a cardiovascular stent to students from Clemson

Elementary School.