Conference: Undergraduate Opportunities at the UC System Wide Bioengineering Symposium, June 21 - June 23, 2012, Berkeley, CA

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

1243416/ Head-Gordon The UC System-wide Bioengineering Symposium is a flagship conference of the University of California and is the only bioengineering symposium that spans all ten UC campuses. The symposium typically reaches ~300 attendants, the large majority of whom are undergraduate students. It provides an ideal opportunity for UC students to hone their presentation skills and be exposed to the broader landscape of this rapidly growing field. The symposium highlights all of the UC's strengths in Bioengineering including tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, stem cell engineering, biomaterials, biomechanics, micro/nanobiotechnology, imaging, drug delivery, systems biology, and bioinformatics. The three-day conference will take place Thursday afternoon, June 21 through Saturday, June 23, on the UC Berkeley campus. All sessions will be held in the two primary Bioengineering buildings on campus, Stanley Hall and the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. This will situate the conference activities adjacent to Bioengineering Department laboratories, classrooms and faculty offices to encourage spontaneous demonstration and collaborations forged out of conference networking. Participants will be housed nearby at dormitories and a local Berkeley hotel to further facilitate mingling and casual acquaintances. Networking opportunities are provided throughout the symposium, and all meals will be offered at the symposium location to further facilitate this goal. The program is posted at: http://bioeng.berkeley.edu/2012systemwide/. Intellectual Merit. The symposium will feature several parallel sessions and extensive poster sessions, with oral presentations chosen from abstracts submitted by students from all ten UC campuses. Judges will select the best student presentations for the best paper and best poster awards in each session of the symposium. In addition to twelve distinguished speakers from the UC campuses (including some new young faculty who get to highlight their new career work), the symposium will feature keynote lectures by three world-renowned bioengineers (Prof. Nancy Allbritton, Prof. Anthony Atala, Prof. Jay Keasling), which will provide an excellent learning opportunity for the students. Broader Impact. The organizers are seeking travel support for many young as well as established women faculty to present their high quality research, as well as the registration and travel support for 15 URM graduate students to come to Berkeley. The PIs have organized a Career Development luncheon to foster an active dialogue between students and academic and industry researchers to discuss career goals in the field of Bioengineering, as well as an undergraduate tour through UC Berkeley Bioengineering labs after lunch. The College of Engineering has raised the issue of student and faculty diversity to a high priority, and the UC System-Wide Bioengineering Conference provides a high profile opportunity to support URM students and exposing them to Bioengineering activities at Berkeley.