2015-2016 Education and Outreach Highlights

Education Programs:

  • NCAT history-making enrollment/graduation of BS and MS students as 1st seamless offering of undergraduate and graduate bioengineering programs at an HBCU.
  • The current (Spring 2016) enrollments are MS: 16 (50 % female, 38 % African-American and 57 % students choosing not to provide race/ethnicity information to the University), and BS: 74 (74 % female, 74 % African-American). Since their inception in Fall 2010, the BMEN degree programs have graduated: MS 13 (46 % female) and BS 9 (67 % female). Many students have successfully found employment in industry (Baxter International, St. Joseph’s), graduate and/or professional schools and post-doctoral fellowships (Pitt, Penn State, UC, Univ. of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Univ. of Utah, Univ. of Virginia, Rutgers). Longitudinal data showing growth in enrollment and student demographics are presented in the graphs that follow.



    
      
ERC-initiated Bioengineering Programs at NCAT:

  • Co-sponsored 2016 Materials in STEM Workshop – Tulsa, OK – in partnership with the Materials Education Center at Edmonds Community College (RMB outreach partner institution)
  • Trans-ERC Course Offerings
    • Spring 2017 – Biodegradable Metallic Alloys (Dr. P. Kumta, Pitt) – 2 MS and 5 PhD students from NCAT joined Dr. Kumta’s Pitt students via videoconferencing, with local support at NCAT from Dr. Pai.
    • Spring 2017 – Artificial Organs-1 (Dr. H. Borovetz, Pitt) 10 BS and 13 MS BMEN students from NCAT joined Dr. Borovetz’s Pitt students via videoconferencing, with local support at NCAT from Dr. Knisley.
  • At UC, during each school year: multiple courses are offered by ERC faculty and staff members (including Chemical Sensors, Nanoscience and Technology, Nanoscale Devices, Nanobiotechnology, and Advanced Computational Biology)
  • At UC, ERC-RMB Co-PI Dr. Mark Schulz worked with Dr. John Yin and REU teams (partially sponsored by the ERC) to make prototypes of two medical devices - a smart articulating scalpel and a smart chest tube
  • Strong and diverse seminar series – academic year and summer – intramural speakers included faculty, students and research scholars from RMB as well as non-ERC departments/schools, extramural speakers included clinicians, entrepreneurs, government agency research managers, and visiting scholars
  • Special trans-ERC seminars to all students and faculty on innovation ecosystems, entrepreneurship, business models, etc. – this includes NCAT College of Engineering Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series.
  • Student satisfaction and learning growth for the trans-ERC courses, seminar series and outreach activities are being assessed by Dr. Robin Liles, Professor, School of Education (The semester is in session at the time of this report; Spring 2017 results will be presented in the Year 10 report).
  • The Education Advisory Board (EAB) for the ERC and Bioengineering Programs at NCAT continues to be active in reviewing and guiding the ERC’s education and outreach activities. Initiated and conducted the fourth and fifth Educational Advisory Board Meetings (EAB) at NCAT on February 29, 2016, leading to discussion on integrating research, education, outreach and diversity.

Outreach Programs:

All of RMB’s outreach programs had a very strong emphasis on diversity and broadening participation. Numbers are summarized below, but full demographic details are provided in the related sections of this document.

REUs:

  • Between 2009 and 2016, RMB’s REU programs have served a total of 56 unique (i.e. non-returning for a second time) participants, plus return summer REUs by 3 of these (total of 59). They have attracted a diverse population in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, from 14 states and 29 total institutions. An emphasis was placed on recruitment from RMB’s principal outreach partners including California State University – Los Angeles (an HSI) and Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in Greensboro.

YSs:

  • Between 2009 and 2016, RMB’s YS programs have served a total of 28 unique participants, plus return summer YSs by 3 of these (total of 31, 5 in Year 09). They have attracted a diverse population in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, from 17 total secondary institutions in North Carolina. An emphasis was placed on recruitment from RMB’s principal K-12 outreach partner: Guilford County Schools.

RETs:

  • Exceptional interactions with Guilford County Schools System (serving Greensboro, NC and neighboring towns) and as well as with local community colleges (Guilford and Forsyth Technical Community Colleges) for 2 plus 2 program initiatives.
  • Between 2009 and 2016, RMB’s RET programs have served a total of 29 unique (never participated before) participants, plus return summer RETs by 17 of these (46 total). They have attracted a diverse population in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, from 21 total secondary institutions, most in North Carolina and two schools in Illinois. An emphasis was placed on recruitment from RMB’s principal K-12 outreach partner: Guilford County Schools.
  • NCAT collaborated closely with K-14 partner EDCC in organizing a successful 2016 Materials in STEM Workshop in Tulsa, OK, attended by 78 K-14 and university educators from across the nation – M-STEM Report in Appendix XII.

B.R.A.I.N. Games (Bioengineering Recuiting and Interactive Network):

  • Coordinated by Dr. Matt McCullough and Prof. Alford, 14 high school students experienced the STEM educational modules (developed by RET participants and the YS participants) on August 4, 2016.

UC

  • Hosted
  1. Multiple workshops, some related to diversity
  2. ~1,000 informal education visitors (students, parents, international visitors) during reporting period
  3. Multiple outreach interactions with Mouth Healthy Junior High School Science class by ERC graduate students and multiple faculty (Pixley, Heineman).

Informal Educational Outreach (number of participants):

  • # STEM teachers: Visiting / visited by RMB researchers: 152
  • # Community college teachers/Students: 80/20
  • # K-12 students: Visiting / visited by RMB researchers: 839
  • Visitors from industry/legislative/executive/entrepreneur/academia to RMB (~100)

ERC Student Activities

  • Publication of ERC-RMB Newsletter - produced entirely by the Student Leadership Council (2016-17 under preparation; to be distributed during Summer 2017)
  • ERC-RMB Student Retreats were organized during the reporting period 
  • Student recognitions and awards:

Students from the ERC-RMB continued to achieve highly over the past year, demonstrating progress in research and entrepreneurship with numerous papers published in peer-reviewed journals, victories in poster competitions, and success at various business presentation competitions. Below are select accomplishments from students from each university:

NCAT

  • Mr. Udhab Adhikari gave a technical presentation on his publication entitled “Synthesis and Characterization of Alginate-Based Hydrogel Microbeads for Magnesium Release” and “Magnesium and Calcium-Containing Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Regeneration” at the 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineering International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Phoenix, AZ. Udhab was lead author on the publication titled “Magnesium incorporated chitosan-based scaffolds for tissue engineering application” in Bioactive Materials. Udhab published book chapter titled “Production of electrospun chitosan for biomedical applications” in Chitosan Based Biomaterials Volume 1: Fundamentals 2016:211. Mr. Adhikari was rewarded a travel award and 3rd place in the biomaterials education challenge competition at the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2017 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. 
  • Mr. Shalil Khanal gave a poster presentation entitled “Synthesis and Characterization of Alginate-Based Hydrogel Microbeads for Magnesium Release” and “Magnesium and Calcium-Containing Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Regeneration” at the 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineering International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Shalili was first author on the publication titled “pH-Responsive PLGA Nanoparticle for Controlled Payload Delivery of Diclofenac Sodium” in Journal of Functional Biomaterials. Mr. Khanal was rewarded 2016 ASME Track 19 NSF Student Poster Competition Travel for 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineering International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Phoenix, AZ and travel award for the Society of Biomaterials 2017 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Shalil was award 3rd place in the biomaterials education challenge competition at the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2017 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN.
  • Ms. Lumei Liu gave a technical presentation on her publication entitled “Biodegradability and thrombosis assessment of magnesium-based alloys using a microfluidic system” at the Select Biosciences BioEngineering 2017: BioMEMS/Microfluidics, 3D-Bioprinting, Tissue Engineering and Synthetic Biology Conference in Boston, MA.
  • Mr. Paul McGhee was recognized by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (WHIHBCU) as a 2016 HBCU All-Star.
  • Mr. Jim Shi is currently working as a technology manager at Wieland Copper Products, LLC, North Carolina Area.
  • Veteran Undergraduate Research Students – through 2 REV (Research Experiences for Veterans) supplements of $10,000 each in 2015-16, and 4 REV supplements in 2016-17, ERC-RMB has engaged the following veteran undergraduate students from multiple disciplines in multiple aspects of its magnesium alloys research. All have participated in research poster presentations, and some are now co-authors on peer-reviewed proceeding papers under preparation/review.
    • Mr. Leroy Watson (now graduated BSEE) – mentored by Dr. Collins
    • Mr. Dustin Trujillo (current BS BMEN student) – mentored by Dr. Collins
    • Mr. Christopher Plott (current BSME student) – mentored by Drs. Yarmolenko/Pai
    • Mr. Kevin Galdamez (current BSME student) – mentored by Drs. Xu/Pai
    • Mr. Daniel Tilley (current BSME student) – mentored by Drs. Xu/Pai

University of Pittsburgh

  • Jingyao Wu continued his research on biodegradable tracheal stents. The current focus of his research is to prototype the stents and evaluate the device in relevant animal model. In the past year, he has secured one research grant from McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. He also participated Pitt Innovation Challenge and won $25K research funding for research translation.
  • Adam Chin, advised by Dr. Alejandro Almarza, has presented his work as a poster titled “In-Vivo Regenerative Potential of Soft Polymeric Scaffolds in Osteochondral TMJ Defects” at the American Association for Dental Research Conference 2016 in Los Angeles, California.  He also gave a podium presentation, “In-Vivo Regenerative Potential of Various Polymeric Scaffolds in Osteochondral TMJ Defects” at the 2016 TMJ Bioengineering Conference in Barcelona, Spain.  The same research was also given as an oral presentation at the 2017 International Symposium on Ligaments and Tendons in San Diego, California.
  • Avinash J Patil, is a PhD student in the Bioengineering Department of the University of Pittsburgh. His PhD work is related to use of Alkylsilane coating to control the corrosion rate of Magnesium.  Recently, He published two articles in leading peer-reviewed journals. His first paper has been published in American Chemical Society’s (ACS) journal, “Patil AJ, Jackson OF, Fulton LB, Hong D, Kelleher SA, Desai PA, Chou D, Tan S, Kumta PN, Beniash E  "Anticorrosive Self-Assembled Alkylsilane Coatings for Resorbable Magnesium Metal Devices.” ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, 2017, 3 (4), pp 518–529, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00585. His second paper has been published in European Cells and Materials  (eCM) journal “Avinash J. Patil, Laura B. Fulton, Elia Beniash, "Self-assembled Hybrid Alkylsilane Coating Reduces Mg Corrosion in vivo: a pilot study." European Cells and Materials Vol. 32 Suppl. 6, 2016 (page 49)”. He also presented his work at the 10th World Biomaterials Congress, Montreal, Canada. The title of his poster was “ Patil A, Brown AJ, Zaky S, Sfeir CS and Beniash E (2016). In-vitro study of organosilane coated degradable magnesium dental mesh. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. Conference Abstract: 10th World Biomaterials Congress. doi: 10.3389/conf.FBIOE.2016.01.02899”.  He and Dr. Beniash has also received the patent based on their coating technology. The tile of his patent is “Beniash, E; Patil, A; “Self-Assembled Organosilane coating for resorbable metal medical devices,” WO 2016/126773 A1, August 11, 2016. They have added two more claims to above patent based on recent work of drug release from Alkylsilane coating and controlling the corrosion of coated Magnesium discs by laser patterning.  His lab recently hosted Dr. Tao, a visiting scholar from Wuhan University, China. Avinash and Dr. Tao studied the drug releasing kinetics from Alkylsilane coating. Avinash is planning to graduate in June 2017.

University of Cincinnati

  • Yonghai Zhang continued his research on smart implant project. The current focus of his research is to use the smart implant concept in the AV fistula application to create a stent that has a controllable degradation. In this year he innovatively used carbon nanotube fiber (CNT) with his smart stent device. CNT fiber is tissue friendly and strong while conductive. He improved the smart stent device and worked with Dr. Prabir Roy-Chaudhury’s team on the in vivo testing. Currently Yonghai is also working on his Master’s thesis. 
  • Chenhao Xu further researched stent simulation on its corroded model and helped smart implant stent development with Dr. Schulz. He with Dr. Yin fabricated biodegradable stents for Dr. Kumta’s group in University of Pittsburgh by using UC’s stent design and Dr. Kumta’s material. At the same time, he also participated in the water filtration project funded by NSF, an application of carbon nanotube. In addition, The MRS meeting in Boston 2016 and Phoenix 2017 accepted his co-author paper. The paper for MRS in Boston has been published. 
  • Pravahan Salunke continued studying mechanical behavior of magnesium single crystals. He conducted low strain compression tests on single crystal blocks and worked in collaboration with Dr. Sergei Yarmolenko to perform XRD pole figure and EBSD analysis on these blocks at NCAT and NCSU respectively. A manuscript describing the results of these efforts will be submitted to the ‘Journal of Materials Research’. Another paper describing the development of the single crystal growth process has been accepted earlier in the journal ‘Review of Scientific Instruments’. Mr. Salunke will complete his PhD dissertation titled ‘High Purity Magnesium Coatings and Single Crystals for Biomedical Applications’ in Spring 2017.
  • Guangqi Zhang continued the efforts of enlarging the Mg single crystal rods. The newest rod reaches 30 mm in diameter and around 100 mm in length. The hexagonal single crystal rod was also successfully enlarged to a size of 20 mm in diameter and 100 in length. Also, the corrosion behavior of Mg single crystal pellets from different crystallographic orientations were explored. The growth of Mg single crystal rods for bone nail application is also on going. There were also trials in making a stent out of a single crystal rod. As for now, the project is still in process. 
  • Tiasha Tarannum In addition to optimizing the design of Mg AZ31 stents; Ms. Tarannum Tiasha also worked on design and fabrication of the Mg single crystal stent as well as the Zn stent. A paper titled “Expandable Mg-based helical stent assessment using static, dynamic, and porcine ex vivo models” has been accepted in the journal “Scientific Reports” in which Tarannum Tiasha was a co-author. 
  • Bala Subramanya Pavan Kumar Kandala As a new student at UC he have joined ERC on September-2016, he started to work on design optimization of the cardiovascular stent. Developed a benchtop flow visualization system has been set up in order to evaluate the performance of photochemical etched helical Mg stents in terms of generating spiral flow with water as the working fluid.
  • Xiaoxian An continued characterizing the electronspun nanofabric containing polycaprolactone(PCL) fiber and Mg particles, which is provided by Dr. Bhattarai and Udhab in NCAT. As a part of the characterization, hydrogen released during the immersion test were measured by the amperometric hydrogen sensor in Dr. Heineman’s lab. I was instructed by Dr. Kuhlman and Dr. Zhao during this time. A manuscript describing our findings is finished and ready to publish.  Dr. Bhattarai also provided us conduits rolled from these nanofabric. The conduits were implanted in sciatic nerve injury rats to study Mg’s potential in nerve guidance and regeneration.  I’m currently working on several rats’ behavior tests to evaluate nerve recovery. Meanwhile, I’m helping Guangqi to characterize his Mg pellet samples. And I’m keeping myself updated through the Trans ERC teleconference every week. 

Student Participation in National and International Conferences

ERC-RMB continues to be well represented in domestic and international conferences by its student body. A list of conferences where students presented their work in a platform or poster presentation is shown below.

  • 2017 International Symposium on Ligaments and Tendons XVI San Diego, CA
  • 2017 Society of Biomaterials Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN
  • 2017 Select Biosciences BioEngineering: BioMEMS/Microfluidics, 3D-Bioprinting, Tissue Engineering and Synthetic Biology Conference, Boston, MA
  • 2016 National HBCU Week Conference, Arlington, VA
  • 2016 Temporomandibular Joint Bioengineering Conference Barcelona, Spain
  • 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineering International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Phoenix, Arizona
  • 2016 Pittcon, Atlanta, GA
  • 2016 American Association for Dental Research, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2016 National Society of Black Engineers Annual Convention, Boston, MA
  • 2016 University of Pittsburgh Bioengineering Day, Pittsburgh, PA
  • 2016 Biomaterials Day, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC
  • 2016 Nano-Manufacturing Conference, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Greensboro, NC
  • 2016 10th World Biomaterials Congress, Montreal, Canada
  • 2016 8th Symposium on Biodegradable Metals, Montreal, Canada
  • 2016 PITTCON CONFERENCE & EXPO, Atlanta, GA
  • 2016 42nd Annual Convention of National Society of Black Engineering, Boston MA