2023 Annual Conference


The IEM Annual Conference included keynote talks by recognized industry leaders, time for networking and team-building, and a poster session highlighting research by IEM faculty and affiliated groups.

Keynotes include:

 

2023 IEM Annual Conference

Agenda

8:00 - 9:00 am

Onsite Registration, Check-in, Networking, and Breakfast

9:00 - 9:10 am

Welcome Remarks from the Deans
Joseph Konstan, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Research, College of Science & Engineering
Tim Schacker, MD, Executive Vice Dean, Medical School

9:10 - 9:30 am

IEM Overview
John Bischof, IEM Director

9:30 - 9:45 am

Overview of MIX
Shashank Priya, Vice President of Research
Pat Mascia, MIX Managing Director

9:50 - 10:20 am

Team Building between UMN and Mayo for Larger Impact
Y.S. Prakash, Dean, Anesthesiologist, Mayo Clinic

10:25 - 10:55 am

Diversity, Inclusion, and Broader Impacts: Reimagining STEM Outreach
Keisha Varma, Associate Vice Provost, Office of Equity & Diversity, University of Minnesota

11:10 - 11:40 am

Introducing Fogarty Innovation to the Twin Cities Community
Andrew Cleeland, Chief Executive Officer, Fogarty Innovation

11:45 am - 12:00 pm

IEM Award Recognition Ceremony

12:15 - 1:30 pm

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

  • Breakout 1: Building Convergent Research Teams
    Leaders: Peter Crawford and Y.S. Prakash

    Discussion will focus on how to build more convergent team science centers in Minnesota that have funding exceeding $1 M/year in direct costs. Breakout leaders will cover opportunities to fund new center concepts through the Minnesota Mayo Partnership and with the assistance of IEM’s Center Accelerator.
     
  • Breakout 2: Startup Ecosystem 
    Leaders: Andrew Cleeland (Fogarty Innovation), Kurt Smith (Fogarty Innovation & Medtronic), Hubert Lim (UMN), Frank Jaskulke (Medical Alley), Russ Straate (UMN), Pat Mascia (MIX)

    Participants will discuss the strong MedTech startup numbers that are coming out of UMN and ways to maximize this output and attract other strong startup candidates throughout the state. Andrew Cleeland will also present the Fogarty Innovation model that provides support, education, and incubation for startup success.
     
  • Breakout 3: STEM Twin Cities 
    Leaders: Keisha Varma (UMN), Jalonda Combs (Northside STEM: Summit Academy OIC), James Burroughs II (Children’s Minnesota), Seth Thompson (ATP-Bio & UMN- CORE), Chris Pennell (UMN),   Rhonda Franklin (UMN) 

    Building on the IEM Innovation Week keynote talk of Dr. Calvin Mackie and the following panel discussion, participants will discuss how to best connect resources between UMN, local industry, and community organizations to build a sustainable STEM workforce in Minnesota. This breakout will engage UMN OED leaders and IEM Inspire leaders and focus primarily on K-8 and high school opportunities.
     
  • Breakout 4: Large Industry Contracts and Partnerships
    Leaders: Paul Iaizzo, Pam Johnson, and Jason Stockman

    This breakout will focus on building relationships with industry that can culminate in large multi-year contracts. A case study will be the Visible Heart® Labs at UMN that has been funded primarily by Medtronic for the last 25 years. Other models and opportunities will also be discussed with the help of UMN’s corporate engagement team.
     
  • Student/Trainee Breakout 5: Writing the Story of Your Research 
    Leaders: Alena Talkachova and Ellen Morgan

    This presentation will demonstrate how to use storytelling principles to strengthen your writing craft, present your research more clearly, and get published more quickly. Leaders will provide an overview of how to weave your research story into different parts of your manuscript in a way that's engaging and understandable for readers.

1:30 - 3:30 pm

Poster Session
Poster Winners:

Expand all

Neuroengineering & Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering

· First Place: Jacob Bridge, Pediatrics 
"Non-Virally Engineered Polyclonal γδ T Cells Exhibit Potent Anti- Tumor Activity In Vivo"

· Second Place: Rebecca Butler, Biomedical Engineering 
"Subject-specific Investigation of Pathways Underlying Therapeutic Outcomes of Deep Brain Stimulation for Essential Tremor"

· Third Place: Ali Mohammad, Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering
"Elucidating Amoeboid Cell Motility through a Biophysical Model"

Cardiovascular Engineering

· First Place: Angelica DaSilva, Biomedical Engineering
"Endothelialized Microfluidics to Study ɑ4β1 Integrin Interactions in JAK2V617F MPN Thrombosis"

· Second Place: Xiangzhen Kong, Electrical and Computer Engineering 
"Real-time Framework for Cardiac Mapping and Ablation"

· Third Place: Hannah Szafraniec Biomedical Engineering (tie) 
"Defining the Contribution of Red Blood Cell Mechanical Properties to Altered Rheology in Sickle Cell Disease"

· Third Place: Michael Bielecki, Biomedical Engineering (tie) 
"TAVR, Snorkel, and Chimney Stenting Procedures in Reanimated Hearts with Multimodal Imaging and Post-implantation Analysis"

Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering

· First Place: Minhan Jiang, Biomedical Engineering 
"Focal Therapy Combined with Checkpoint Blockade In Colon Adenocarcinoma"

· Second Place: Lakshya Gangwar, Mechanical Engineering 
"Water Confinement Effect on Critical Cooling and Warming Rates in a Tissue-CPA System"

· Third Place: Paige Nielsen, Biomedical Engineering (tie) 
"A Logic-based Cell-signaling Model to Predict Active Mechanics of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells during Pregnancy"

· Third Place: Gaura Saini, Physical Therapy (tie) 
"Altered Manual Wheelchair Push Rim Positioning: The Effect on Subacromial Distance During Propulsion"

Medical Devices

· First Place: Nikhil Sethia, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science 
"Image Recognition based High throughput Porting of Particles in Microscale Flows"

· Second Place: Samuel Newell, Biomedical Engineering 
"Towards a Novel Solution for Patulous Eustachian Tubes: Multi-layered Membrane Prototype Device Design"

· Third Place: Ryan Nadybal, Biomedical Engineering 
"Continuous Lung Weight Measurements: Additional Insight into Lung Function During EVLP"

Postdocs

· First Place: Zonghu Han, Mechanical Engineering 
"Successful Transplant of Cryopreserved Kidneys"

· Second Place: Joseph Skeate, Pediatrics 
"Evolution of a Hyperactive TcBuster Transposase Enables Highly Efficient Non-viral Generation of CAR-NK and CAR-T Cells for Combination Cell Therapies"

· Third Place: Roberto Alonso Matilla, Biomedical Engineering 
"Optimization of Therapeutic T Cells Through Biophysical Modeling"n text goes here