biomedical engineering society · santa clara university biomedical engineering society 2019-2020...
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Santa Clara University
Biomedical Engineering Society
2019-2020
Student Leadership Team
(626) 278-8400
Dr. Maryam Mobed-Miremadi
(408) 554-2731
May 28, 2020
To: Mr. Ryan Green, Student Chapter Coordinator
Re: BMES Student Chapter Development Report AY 2019-2020
For the 2019-20 school year, the student leadership’s goal has been to revitalize the chapter inspired by the
Hippocratic Oath, a doctrine embraced by modern aspiring biomedical engineers. This growth involves
establishing and cultivating three primary avenues of communication: first, between our student members,
across all academic standings and bioengineering tracks; second, between our students and our faculty mentors
on campus; third, between our students and the rich biomedical/biotechnology industry we are fortunate to be
surrounded by here in the Silicon Valley. The first bricks of these avenues were laid by the new BMES
leadership team, a group that quickly molded itself into a strongly cohesive and fiercely collaborative unit.
Bioengineering is a relatively new major on Santa Clara University’s campus. With this fact in mind, the
leadership team has strived to transform the chapter into a welcoming home for bioengineering students.
Although this group has been the focus, they have also opened their arms to other biomedical majors, so long
as each new member maintains the same passion in contributions to quality of life advances and health-related
pursuits. To nurture this sense of home for the students, they have actively brainstormed and orchestrated
inviting events. The highlight of these events has been the two quarter long series entitled the “BIOE Teacher
Intro Series.” Throughout this year, this series has aimed at providing informal opportunities for our
bioengineering faculty to engage with students by sharing their own academic and professional journeys and
student members in discussion. Alongside this series has been a range of events such as hosting a Bioethics-
centered movie night screening of “Out for blood in Silicon Valley”, a biology professor’s discussion on “The
Science of Stress,” coordinating multiple Graduate School presentation sessions, co-sponsoring a San
Francisco BMES Industry Chapter, tabling with snacks during busy academic weeks in hopes of supporting
and spreading our cause to interested students, and collaborating with other Engineering Student Organizations
to organize meaningful celebrations in honor of Engineers Week. Many of these events were created de novo,
resulting in vastly improved relationships with other Student Organizations inside and outside the SCU
campus. The development of these relationships has in turn resulted into a more tightly-knit engineering
community here at SCU.
Going forward, we wish to implement community outreach activities, based on Bioethics-based societal
service opportunities enabled by the existing academic strength and strong advisory roles already available on
campus. We had contacted Dr. Margaret Mclean, Director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, who has
expressed her willingness to serve in an co-advisory capacity as of Winter 2020. Unfortunately, the initiatives
for outreach in Spring 2020 were hindered by the shelter in place order.
For the student chapter success the student leadership and I would like to acknowledge the following entities
and individuals: 1) the Bioengineering Department Chair (Dr. Zhiwen Zhang) and the Bannan School of
Engineering for generously providing funding; 2) Our Industry Advisory Board, chaired by Dr. Helena
Mancebo, for the forthcoming guidance relating to members’ professional journeys; 3) The faculty members,
administrators, Graduate School recruiters, and industry professionals we hosted this year for sharing their
time and expertise; and; 4) The individuals the BMES national organization who continuously strive to bring
news and opportunities to our members.
Respectfully,
Maryam Mobed-Miremadi, PhD
Table of Contents
I. Cover Page………………………………………………………………….
II. Cover Letter…………………………………………………………………
III. Table of Contents……………………………………………………………
IV. Administrative Report……………………………………………………….
V. Treasury Report……………………………………………………………...
VI. Chapter Activities…………………………………………………………....
VII. Social or Other Activities…………………………………………………....
VIII. Mentoring Activities………………………………………………………....
IX. Industry and Professional Development Activities………………………….
X. National BMES Meeting…………………………………………………….
XI. Outreach Activities…………………………………………………………..
XII. Future Directions……………………………………………………………
IV. Administrative Report
IV.a. Abstract:
Our leadership team this year is composed of 7 students and our faculty advisor, Dr. Maryam
Mobed-Miremadi. With this year being one of rebuilding for our BMES Student Chapter, we
identified our first goal as operating consistently. The logic behind this goal was that we cannot
expect our members to be committed to us if we do not first show them that we are committed to
the group and its mission. Therefore, our officers met weekly on Sunday nights. This timing
allowed for us to all meet at the same time and prepare for the upcoming week. Importantly, our
leadership team first met before the summer leading into the 2019-20 academic year. This initial
meeting was the cornerstone in our effort to transform our vision for the Chapter—namely, to
become a home for students interested in bioengineering—into a reality.
Our decision making process followed this template: (1) As a team, we identify a big picture
goal. (2) We exchange ideas for concrete steps we may take or events we may plan that work
towards achieving our goal. (3) We integrate our ideas into one cohesive plan. (4) We execute as
a team. Throughout this process, we were fortunate to have Dr. Mobed-Miremadi behind us,
pushing us towards greatness.
Of note, we are adding an “Outreach” position to our Leadership Board for the 2020-21 school
year. The goals for this Leadership Board member will center around establishing avenues of
communication with both the industry leaders around us and the faculty here at SCU working
hard to contribute to our field. With this addition, we hope to provide more professional
development opportunities to our student members.
IV.b. Table outlining leadership roles & responsibilities:
SCU BMES Student Chapter Leadership Board
Position Name & Contact Responsibilities
President David Bengford
● Be attentive to all club responsibilities.
● Arrange agenda & conduct board meetings.
● Primarily responsible for establishing &
maintaining good relations with School of
Engineering (SoE) administrators
● Coordinate regular meetings & updates w/
faculty advisor
● One of the primary representatives in the
eyes of Center for Student Involvement
(CSI) and SoE
Vice President David Diebold
● Take initiative in all club affairs, from
brainstorming to logistics.
● One of the primary representatives in the
eyes of CSI & SoE
Treasurer Cathy Chen
● Coordinates meals for events and manages
reimbursements
● Responsible for information discussed
during quarterly RSO meetings
● Keeping up-to-date with financial policies
as they pertain to student organizations
● Attend funding meetings with SoE
● One of the primary representatives in the
eyes of CSI & SoE
Secretary Karina Sanchez
● Notetaking during board meetings
● In charge of organizing & maintaining all
club records for board & general meetings
& events
Public Relations (Co-
Chaired)
Sophie Quisling
& Kei Castleberry
● Manage and update social media
(Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn)
● Facilitate Weekly Newsletter release
● Create Flyers for upcoming events
First Year
Representative
Christopher Arellano ● Represents First-Years and assists with
First-Year engagement/involvement
● Opportunity for a leadership member to be
involved all 4 years
IV.c. Outline of student membership:
Membership Breakdown
Total of National Members: ~15
Members Enlisted in Newsletter: 214
Average Amount of Event Attendees: 10
IV.d. Table outlining general body meetings:
Quarter/Week Date Event Name Description Outcome
Fall Quarter
Fall Week 1 (W1) 9/24/2019, Tues Fall Involvement Fair
Tabling event: 1st
opportunity to engage
w/ new students
About 250 students
signed up for our
mailing list
W2 9/30/2019, Mon 1st General Meeting
Bring the people
together! Goal:
communicate our
goals & listen to what
people want ~30 people attended
10/1/2019, Tues
Tabling at the
Engineering Welcome
Lunch
Another opportunity
to introduce our
mission to new
students ~30 email sign-ups
10/2/2019, Wed
Tabling at the 1st Year
Engineers Welcome
Dinner
An opportunity to
reach out to our
freshman
bioengineers directly
~25 email sign-ups
and direct outreach to
new students
W3 10/7/2019, Mon Ethical Movie Night
Watch the movie: The
Inventor: Out for
Blood in Silicon
Valley ~5 attendees
W4 10/14/19, Mon General Meeting
(1) Ethically focused
discussion of The
Inventor: Out for
Blood in Silicon
Valley;
(2)Resume/Net-
working Workshop in
preparation for the
STEM Career Fair <10 attendees
W5 10/21/2019, Mon General Meeting (1) Overview of the <10 attendees
BMES conference in
Philadelphia from
David²!
W6 10/28/2019, Mon General meeting
Student Research
Panel (4 student
volunteers)
<10 attendees;
students were
interested in how we
became involved in
labs on campus
W7 N/A
W8 11/12/2019, Tues
Intro to BIOE
Teacher Series Vol I:
Dr. Emre Araci
1st installment of our
series striving to
establish community
between our students
& our faculty 14 attendees
11/15/2019, Fri
Engineer Harvest
Festival
Collaborate with the
Peer Advising team
and other engineering
organizations to put on
a social event on a
Friday afternoon >50 attendees
W9 N/A
W10 N/A
Winter
W1 1/8/2020
W2 1/16/2020, Thurs
Intro to BIOE
Teacher Series Vol.
II: Dr. Maryam
Mobed-Miremadi
2nd installment;
Food: Chick-Fill-A. 15 attendees
W3 N/A
W4 1/29/2020, Wed
Keck Graduate
Institute info session
Opportunity for our
members to engage
with a graduate
program
~10 attendees. Keck
brought in great
speakers.
W5 2/4/2020, Tues Study Snacks
Tabling and giving
out free snacks in our
engineering building
during midterms
Many people were
interested in our
group. Excitement
came in seeing people
who did not know
about us before
becoming interested.
W6 N/A
W7 2/12/2020, Wed
Engineers Week
Lunch & Games
Collaborative event
with other
engineering student
organizations and
faculty members from
all 5 of our
engineering
departments
Students and
professors were able
to interact outside the
classroom. Successful
W8 2/24/2020, Mon
Intro to BIOE
Teacher Series Vol.
III: Dr. Kim
Food provided:
Mendocino Farms
~10 people attend.
Some new attendees.
Great talk! Event
advertising could
improve
W9 3/3/2020, Tues
Science of Stress
Talk (by Dr.
Katherine Saxon)
Lunchtime talk on
stress. Taking action
on the “Wellness
Initiative” being
sponsored by SoE
Great turnout, quality
content, good
collaboration, being
active w/ SoE’s
Wellness Initiative.
More wellness events
being planned
W10 N/A
Spring
All spring quarter activities and events were postponed due to the closing of our campus. We took this time to
reflect on this year, continue sending out newsletters to our members, and begin planning for the fall.
IV.e. Leadership meeting agenda example:
Task Board Member(s)
Responsible
Notes Completed?
1. Updates from W6 DB & others - W6.5 planning = success!
- BBQ IS ON, BABY (collab w/ Peer Advisors) Yes
2. New advertising avenue? DB - RSO has sent out a “Campus Fliers Request Form” → we could include our event flyers in weekly residence community newsletters
Big Potential
for
advertising
3. Newsletter Sophie & Kei - JSR Lunch & Learn (2/27)
- Pixorize healthcare education job opp (via email
from Matt)
- Healthcare Ethics Internship thru Markkula Center → apps due 2/21
- PQ Bypass internship opp → app due 2/24
Yes
- striker internship opp (via email from Matt)
- Diversity works expo (include?)
- Our eWeek collab lunch event
- eWeek formal!
4. Website! Chris - Thank you for your initiative
- Check this out:
https://santaclarabmes.wordpress.com/
Template
secured, but
talk w/ Matt
5. Consider FB / LinkedIn /
All Talk to Matt
regarding
access
6. Chapter Development
Report
Karina, others
possibly
- Connects us to the national society
- Begins yearly progress report routine
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HQnbJdrE
Gdg6P48iwBmjMZkETZz7RYGGAPmsHKjn-
7o/edit?usp=sharing
Due: June 1
7. 2020 BMES Conference
Funding
- Getting ahead of the curve!
- How many ppl? 3 was good, but do we want
more?
Talk w/ or
email Shane
8. BIOE TIS: Vol. III DB & DD - Finalize event: booking space & ensuring
projector is available Email Karen
(book Kenna
306) & Dr.
Kim
9. Stickers Karina & Cathy Updates? → Cathy, Karina, & Chris doing Makerlab training Thurs, gonna see how easy it’d be to make stickers there
Yes
10. W9 → Science of Stress DB Email follow-up to Dr. Saxton Yes
11. Tmrw’s eWeek event - Volunteers available around 12-1:30? WOOP
WOOP
12. SCCAP volunteering Sophie - Reached out to connection w/ Julian Street Inn
(San Jose), awaiting reply Yes
Other items?
V.Treasury Report
For our funding log, we have relied on our Center for Student Involvement to keep track of our
expenses. We now realize that we should take this responsibility into our own hands, as the
Center is not operational during shelter-in-place. With the Center’s temporary closure and with
our misjudgement in not keeping our own independently maintained records, we do not currently
have our expenses log for the 2019-20 academic year.
However, we can qualitatively elaborate on our funding and expenses. At the beginning of the
year, we drafted a rough schedule of events for the entire year. We then presented this proposal
to School of Engineering representatives and awaited their response. We were overjoyed to have
been gifted over $2,200 of funding from our school. We were also fortunate to receive the
financial support of our department, which kindly offered to buy the food for our events. With
most of our expenses being food for our events, we have been able to hold onto our School of
Engineering funding with hopes of designing a big social event or possibly a bioengineering
career fair.
VI. Chapter Activities
Our chapter activities may be categorized as such: (1) Social, (2) Mentoring, (3)
Industry/Professional Development, and (4) Student Well-being. The path towards fulfilling our
goal to nurture a community of similarly-interested peers began with social events. These events
were particularly important at the beginning of the year, as we wanted incoming students to feel
welcomed. Later in the year, we added another board position: “First Year Representative.” This
role is specifically aimed at incorporating our new students into our Chapter’s activities. Another
goal of ours—to establish meaningful avenues of communication between students and our
faculty members—was built on through the organization of the BIOE Teacher Intro Series. This
series gave our students and faculty an opportunity to engage outside the rigid confines of a
lecture setting. We participated in a SF Industry Chapter event in the Fall, offered a Resume
Workshop, and hosted a Student Research Panel, in order to reach our goal of connecting our
students with industry professionals. Our fourth mission, to promote student wellness in a
holistic sense, came to us in collaboration with our School of Engineering. This initiative
involved creating a task force with our fellow engineering student organizations and designing
events geared towards supporting, encouraging, and celebrating our engineering students. This
initiative culminated with an epic Engineers Week brimming with fun activities. We also hosted
a BMES-specific event in the spirit of this initiative that involved a presentation on “The Science
of Stress” by Dr. Katherine Saxton, a professor in SCU’s Biology Department. Together, these
four categories of student activities functioned to bring together our BMES community.
With the momentum we have generated this year, our ambitions for next year have grown.
Whether virtually or in person, we hope to host an even bigger collection of industry
professionals, graduate program recruiters, and working faculty researchers. We also hope to
create a stronger community between upper- and under-classmen by designing peer advising-
style events and possibly creating a “Big-Buddy” system to facilitate peer mentoring.
Additionally, we look forward to building upon the relationships we’ve developed with our
fellow engineering student organizations in pursuit of a connected School of Engineering student
body.
VII. Social or Other Activities
Our social events were arguably our most meaningful category of events. In the average day of
an undergraduate engineer, life is filled with technical content. Therefore, we believed having a
social outlet would be of great benefit to our student members. We were fortunate to hear in
feedback from students that the social events we hosted were enjoyed.
One of the best parts about our social events planning strategy is that we have reached out to
other engineering student organizations. Not only does the event become more lively with more
and more numbers, but also we are able to cultivate a stronger sense of community across all
engineering disciplines. We think this interconnected quality will become useful in the
professional world because many teams are composed of individuals hailing from different
disciplines.
Date Event Name Description Outcome
9/24/2019, Tues Fall Involvement Fair
Tabling event: 1st
opportunity to engage w/
new students
About 250 students signed
up for our mailing list
10/1/2019, Tues
Tabling at the Engineering
Welcome Lunch
Another opportunity to
introduce our mission to
new students ~30 email sign-ups
10/2/2019, Wed
Tabling at the 1st Year
Engineers Welcome Dinner
An opportunity to reach out
to freshman bioengineers
directly
~25 email sign-ups and
direct outreach to new
students
10/7/2019, Mon Ethical Movie Night
Watch the movie: The
Inventor: Out for Blood in
Silicon Valley ~5 attendees
11/15/2019, Fri Engineer Harvest Festival
Collaborate w/ the Peer
Advising team and other
engineering organizations to
put on a social event on a
Friday afternoon >50 attendees
2/4/2020, Tues Study Snacks
Tabling and giving out free
snacks in our engineering
building during midterms
Many people were
interested in our group.
Excitement came in seeing
people who did not know
about us before becoming
interested.
2/12/2020, Wed
Engineers Week Lunch &
Games
Collaborative event w/
other engineering student
organizations and faculty
Students and professors
were able to interact outside
the classroom.
VIII. Mentoring Activities
In an effort to create meaningful connections between our student members and their professors,
we designed the BIOE Teacher Intro Series. During these events, we would host a professor and
provide food. Each professor was encouraged to take their conversation beyond strictly
professional boundaries. With this push, professors were happy to have an opportunity to tell
students their own story. From the student’s perspective, there is great value in listening to the
paths walked by those who’ve come before you. These conversations were intended to be
informal opportunities for mentorship, and students were encouraged to ask questions
throughout. From why a research question became interesting to how the professor decided
which path to take at any one of life’s many forks, the questions from our members displayed
sincere interest.
Going forward, we hope to continue this series, as it was a great succes cut short by the closure
of SCU for the spring quarter. Furthermore, we have hopes of establishing a “Big Buddy” style
system in which underclassmen are paired with upperclassmen in an effort to give younger
students an opportunity to gain advice from their peers and to bring our community of student
members closer together.
Date Event Name Description Outcome
11/12/2019, Tues
Intro to BIOE Teacher
Series Vol. I: Dr. Emre
Araci
1st installment of our series
striving to establish
community between our
students & our faculty;
Food: In-N-Out 14 attendees
1/16/2020, Thurs
Intro to BIOE Teacher
Series Vol. II: Dr. Maryam
Mobed-Miremadi
2nd installment;
Food: Chick-Fill-A. 15 attendees
2/24/2020, Mon
Intro to BIOE Teacher
Series Vol. III:
Dr. Unyoung (Ashley) Kim
3rd installment;
Food: Mendocino Farms
~10 people attend. Some
new attendees. Great talk!
Event advertising could
improve
IX. Industry or Professional Development Activities
Much of our event planning energy this year has focused on fostering the community found on
SCU’s campus. This focus means we wanted to highlight the research being done by
professionals working on campus. However, we were able to be a participate in a San Francisco
Bay Area Industry Chapter event early in the year. The panel discussed medical devices from a
business perspective. Integrating both business-oriented and ethics-based events is a goal of ours
that we hope will bring our technical work to life and allow our student members to become
impactful contributors in the bioengineering industry.
Other professionally oriented opportunities we’ve hosted include a resume workshop in
preparation for our school’s STEM career fair and our BIOE Teacher Intro Series. The resume
workshop was inviting because the help came from upperclassmen peers. The BIOE Teacher
Intro Series, although not only focused on professional development, definitely helped students
think about their own career path by giving students an opportunity to ask personal questions
directly to the presenting professor.
Finally, we also hosted recruiters from the Keck Graduate Institute. This event falls into the
category of professional development activities because (1) graduate school strives to deepen
one’s understanding of a field, thereby preparing a student for a wider range of professional
opportunities, and (2) this institute has an excellent internship program that was presented as a
great stepping stone for aspiring bioengineers.
Date Event Name Description Outcome
10/1/20
SF Bay Area Industry
Chapter: “Design to Market
for Medical Devices”
A panel aimed to explain
the process for developing
medical devices
~50 attendees. Excellent
opportunity to connect with
the SF Industry Chapter
10/14/19, Mon General Meeting
(1) Ethically focused
discussion of The Inventor:
Out for Blood in Silicon
Valley; (2)Resume/Net-
working Workshop in
preparation for the STEM
Career Fair <10 attendees
11/12/2019, Tues
Intro to BIOE Teacher
Series Vol. I: Dr. Emre
Araci
1st installment of our series
striving to establish
community between our
students & our faculty;
Food: In-N-Out 14 attendees
1/16/2020, Thurs
Intro to BIOE Teacher
Series Vol. II: Dr. Maryam
2nd installment;
Food: Chick-Fill-A. 15 attendees
Mobed-Miremadi
1/29/2020, Wed
Keck Graduate Institute
info session
Opportunity for our
members to engage with a
graduate program
~10 attendees. Keck
brought in great speakers.
2/24/2020, Mon
Intro to BIOE Teacher
Series Vol. III:
Dr. Unyoung (Ashley) Kim
3rd installment;
Food: Mendocino Farms
~10 attendees. Some new
attendees. Great talk! Event
advertising could improve
X. National BMES Meeting
During the 2019 BMES Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, our chapter had four
representatives present. Of the four, three were presenting their latest research efforts. We all had
a remarkable weekend. In truth, our first step into the conference was nearly overwhelming. We
walked in to a spread of some of the world’s best bioengineering programs, engaging companies,
speakers talking about every topic from pioneering research to medical school advice, and eager
students buzzing around everywhere inbetween. After taking a moment to map out the events we
were interested in and asking a moderator to help orient us, we were off, trying to make the most
of every minute we had in Philly.
The feeling of inspiration that comes from soaking up a lecture from any one of the world’s
leading bioengineering researchers that presented in this conference’s plenary sessions is
invaluable. Observing the passion, precision, and ethical reasoning present in this ongoing work
in our field ignited a fire that we were eager to bring back to our student members at SCU.
Therefore, our next chapter meeting after the conference involved David Diebold and David
Bengford, our Vice President and President, recapping lessons learned and trying to put into
words the excitement felt that weekend.
With this resoundingly positive experience at the 2019 Meeting, we immediately set the goal to
have more people attend in 2020. We did not want our members to go simply to boost our
presence, but rather because we thought others may find the same value we did by being
immersed in such an event. For the 2019 Meeting, we were fortunate to receive travel funding
from our School of Engineering, our Bioengineering Department, and the research lab in which
two of our presenters were working. We hope to reach back out to these resources, but our plans
for the 2020 Meeting are in a holding pattern at the moment until the dust settles from the current
state of COVID-19. All told, we are eagerly looking forward to our next opportunity to engage
with the bioengineering community at the next Annual Meeting.
Left to right: David Bengford, Shani Williams, David Diebold, and Kyle Asano.
XI. Outreach Activities
Absent from activities but not our charter have been outreach activities. Specifically, in Winter
2020 we had contacted the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics for a streamlined guidance of
underserved biomedical causes.
Prioritization of community service will be passed on to the new leaddership.
XII. Future Direction
Our biggest accomplishment this school year has been establishing consistency. This consistency
includes orchestrating and distributing a weekly newsletter aimed at collecting any and all
relevant events and opportunities around our campus and sharing these opportunities with
interested students. We also established consistency by having a weekly leadership team meeting
every Sunday night. These meetings, bolstered by the support of our faculty advisor, have been
the heart of our chapter this year. Our leadership team has done a commendable job continuing
to strive towards our goal of bringing together a community of people eager to learn about
bioengineering. The steps we have ve taken towards this goal involved making our mission heard
and our presence felt by our student body. This presence has arisen from both our weekly
newsletter and the host of events we’ve had the joy of putting together.
Now, with our chapter operating consistently, our next focus is to expand our community and
create avenues for community outreach activities. We hope to continue bringing together the
bioengineering community here at SCU by hosting more industry leaders working in our area,
giving more graduate programs a platform to reach our members, continuing our collaborative
events with other engineering student organizations, and furthering our goal to establish healthy
avenues of communication between our students, their peers, and their faculty mentors.