2018 World Congress of Biomechanics: Undergraduate Student Support from the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport (SB3C) Foundation

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support student activities at the 2018 Summer Biomechanics, Biotransport and Bioengineering Conference (SB3C2018) being held in conjunction with the 2018 World Congress of Biomechanics (WCB2018) in Dublin, Ireland, on July 6-11, 2018. The SB3C meetings, and their predecessor SBC meetings, are generally considered the premiere annual meetings for biomechanics. The quadrennial World Congress of Biomechanics is the world's largest conference on biomechanics. The primary purpose of the meeting is to promote state-of-the-art research, collaboration, and international scientific discourse in the broad field of bioengineering with focus on biomechanics, biotechnology, biotransport, biomaterials, tissue engineering, rehabilitation and design. The organizing committee for WCB18 and SB3C2018 is drawn from individuals in academia and the industry with significant experience in running the previous summer meetings. The meeting and its precursor meetings have traditionally provided a high-quality, multidisciplinary biomedical engineering event since the early 90's and contributed to training many generations of academics and researchers. Notably, the summer meetings series has, since its inception, prioritized the integration of students into the meeting to support their professional development and future connection to the biomechanics, biotransport and bioengineering research community. For many years, students have made up more than 50% of attendees and presenters at SB3C meetings. In addition to the direct impact this conference will have on the mainstream bioengineering community, it serves an important cross-fertilization role, since attendees are drawn from a very broad range of disciplines beyond biomechanics . The aims of the project are to sponsor 20 travel fellowships for females and under-represented minorities; to support a Diversity Mentorship event to connect students from underrepresented groups with academic mentors; and to sponsor the prestigious Student Paper Competition by covering the meeting registration costs of the top 20 submissions to each of the BS and MS competitions. Student travel fellowships will be targeted at students who have just completed their junior year, which will allow them to network and explore graduate school options. These students typically have not advanced enough in their undergraduate research to obtain institutional support for conference travel. Finalists and winners in the student paper competition can add this information to their resumes, and the competition provides an opportunity for students to develop as researchers and is a significant career boost, enhancing retention of the most talented students and providing role models for all student attendees. Through the technical proceedings and conference web site, information presented at the meeting will be available to multiple societies and to the public at large. Further, the conference has historically had, and is expected to continue to have more than 50 percent of the attendees being students and postdoctoral fellows and more than 25 percent female attendees. For the second time, the organization committee has been extended to include a Diversity Chair. Through the travel fellowships and associated workshops, the PI plans to establish this meeting as the "go to" conference for female and under-represented minority attendees.