Friday, May 11, 2007

Covered Wagons

Covered by the Journal & Courier that is. 

Thursday, May 10, 2007

A Tradition Is Born

Today, the inaugural senior class delivered the first two Weldon Wagons to Home Hospital.  While some additional work, including special seating and seat belts, is still to come, the wagons should be a big hit with pediatric patients. 

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

What Is Going On?

Stay tuned, the answer is coming soon…

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

What Could This Be?

Hmmmm.  Something appears to be going on here.  What could it be? 

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Stem Cell Research

I realize that stem cell research is a highly political and a debatable issue.  Therefore, I’m not going to go into too much detail or opinions (i.e. I don’t want to step on people’s toes).  However, as I’ve done so many times, I saw this article online this morning concerning the Senate’s 63-34 passing of a policy to ease government restrictions on stem cell research.

Senate votes to ease stem cell research rules

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Luring Viruses to Their Death

I saw this article in the New York Times the other day and thought the idea was pretty novel and interesting.  The concept is to lure viruses away from a site and attract them to a “virus trap”.  The virus trap would be located in the red blood cells, as they lack DNA and are a “dead end” for viruses.

Take a look at the following article!

Scientists Explore Ways to Lure Viruses to Their Death

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Discovery Park at Purdue

Last night, I had the opportunity to sit in on a small group discussion led by Al Rebar, Executive Director of the Purdue University Discovery Park Initiative.  Discovery Park is a “Mecca” for new ideas and solutions to give birth. 

I had never really truly understood what discovery park’s aim was; rather I knew it was a place on campus with new buildings popping up.  Therefore, in spreading the message, I figured that I would post an entry today about Discovery Park.  Check out the link below to learn more about the amazing things happening here at Purdue!

Discovery Park at Purdue University

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A Mosaic for Educational Equity

The other evening, I attended a dinner hosted by the Provost of Purdue University, Dr. Sally Mason.  The dinner event was held in order to spread the word (and celebrate) the foundation of the Mosaic Plan for Educational Equity created by Provost Mason.  I was very unclear on the theme of the dinner prior to going, however, after attending the event, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the details of this program.

In essence, the Mosaic Plan was created to design new ways to expand and institutionalize educational equity initiatives through the Office of the Provost (as stated as their mission).  During the event, Julian Phillips (of FOX News Network) spoke of examples of race and gender past discriminations, the headway made to the current status, and the progress we have yet to go.

It was quite an opportunity to attend, and it opened my eyes to the positive pathway the leaders of today are taking our university into the future.  Below is a link to the pdf overview and action plan of the Mosaic Plan from the Office of the Provost.

Toward a Mosaic for Educational Equity

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

BMES Senior Valentines Day Activity

The Purdue Biomedical Engineering Society is hosting its annual Valentines Celebration for the Senior Citizens this Friday, February 16 at the Digby House in West Lafayette. 

There is slight change, however.  The original plan was to host a “Senior Prom” dance at the Digby house.  Due to a sprinkler problem, this is no longer possible.  Therefore, students will be making personal valentines for the senior citizens and personally drop them off from 6:30-7:30.

If interested, please stop by the atrium of the Biomedical Engineering Building anytime before Friday, February 16th evening or meet there!

Digby House:  167 West 240 South, Lafayette, IN 47909

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Colts-Bears SuperBowl!

Purdue University is located approximately an hour from Indianapolis and two hours from Chicago.  Furthermore, a large portion of the campus population comes from these two cities.

It was joked at the beginning of the NFL season how divided this campus would be if the Chicago Bears were to play the Indianapolis Colts in the SuperBowl.  Sure enough, thanks to a couple of amazing games this past Sunday, this game will actually take place!  I am from Indianapolis and am a “die-hard” Colts fan, so I just want to state how excited I am to see the Colts in the SuperBowl.  It should be an awesome game.

I’ll try to have a relevant biomedical blog post soon, but for now (to all of my fellow Colts fans), “GO BLUE”!

Indianapolis Colts Official Site
Chicago Bears Official Site

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Senior Design: CPR Assist

As a senior in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, many of us are beginning to embark into our culminating senior design project.  This semester, we are doing work with CPR assist devices.  While this is going to be a difficult task to accomplish, it is feasible; furthermore, it will be very interesting to see the pathways many teams take.

While the end product will be unique, we all started our attempts by researching the current products.  I do not want to advertise for current marketable devices, however, it was extremely interesting to see the broad range of CPR assist devices currently on the market.  Below, I’ve linked two extremely different products whose final goal is the same--aid a rescuer in providing better means for CPR.  The Q-CPR device is manufactured by Philip’s Electronics in conjunction with Laerdal and is rather complicated; the CPREzy (manufactured by CPREzy) is relatively simple.

Laerdal: Q-CPR

CPREzy: CPREzy

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

"Purdue On The Road": California

Purdue University holds “Purdue On The Road” Regional Events throughout the country a handful of times over the school year.  This past weekend, I was privileged enough to be able to join the group in San Francisco and San Diego.  While the weather was not as warm as I was expecting, it was still gorgeous and amazing.  So instead of talking about pertinent Biomedical news, I figured I would digress to talk about the trip!

Myself and another Purdue student flew out to San Francisco

where we were able to see the city the first day there (Thursday).  Seeing the city included taking a tour boat trip under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz .  On Friday, we were able to sit in on a Venture Capital Lunch and hear presentations from start-up companies tied to Purdue University.  To conclude our San Francisco trip, the two of us emceed an event for Purdue Alumni in the Bay Area.  If in San Francisco, I would highly recommend going to the Rogue Pub and drinking some unique beer as well as Daily’s Grill and ordering a 24oz. Prime Rib!

On Saturday, we flew to San Diego to host and emcee another “Purdue On The Road” event for the Southern California region.  The event was held at the beautiful La Costa Resort

in Carlsbad, California; sitting at the base of the California Hills .  The event was a lot of fun, as many of the Purdue Alumni brought inspiring amounts of Boilermaker Energy with them!

All-in-all, this was an unforgettable trip--especially when you fly back to Indiana snow!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The Beginnings of a New Semester

We’re back!  I hope everybody had a great holiday season and New Year.  Hopefully, last semester hopefully finished well for all, and I wish everyone the best for the upcoming one.

Unfortunately, I do not have too many personal stories or anecdotes to share today, so I’m going to stick with recent news that I find important:
First, I’m a huge sports fan, so congratulations to the University of Florida for winning the National Championship last night over Ohio State 41-14.
Second, congratulations to Purdue University for breaking their campaign goal of $1.5 billion.  This is a big accomplishment and leads the state of Indiana.  Purdue meets $1.5 billion Campaign for Purdue Goal
Lastly, this was a story that I saw this morning in the Indianapolis Star with a biotechnology and Purdue tie. 
Indy company rides biotech breakthrough

This upcoming Thursday I will be traveling to San Francisco and San Diego for “Purdue’s on the Road”.  It should be a fun few days; I will be posting pictures of the event!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

A Biomedical Inspiration Story

About three weeks ago, I had an opportunity to sit in on a talk given by Dr. Ian Shipsey of the Purdue University Physics Department.  According to Dr. Shipsey, nearly seventeen years ago, while in recovery stages of Leukemia, he lost 100% of his hearing due to an antibiotic infection.  As he stood there and spoke (and very well), it was amazing to hear a man’s true story of sorrow turned to empowering joy due to the Biomedical innovations of the cochlear implant.  Through this, Dr. Shipsey regained nearly 80% of his hearing.  The cochlear implant not only allowed Dr. Shipsey to regain the ability to teach, but to also hear his wife’s voice for the first time in many years as well as his daughter’s voice for the first time ever.

There are many inspiring stories of Biomedical Engineering Applications; this is only one of many.  However, each story shows the importance of Biomedical advancement.

Below, I have linked Dr. Ian Shipsey’s Purdue University Faculty Profile as well as a link to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders‘ (NIDCD) description of cochlear implants.

Dr. Ian Shipsey, Purdue University
NIDCD: Cochlear Implants

Arjun I.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Graduate Student Profile: Silas Leavelsy

“You have to have something to do outside of school.”

This is how Silas Leavesley sums up his work with the University Church at Purdue, where he assists with maintenance, plays the piano, and leads the Sunday morning service along with his wife Heather. The question facing everyone else at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is how Silas has any spare time at all.

First, he is the BME representative to the Graduate Student Government. In addition, he has taken on duties as the chair of the promotions committee. In that capacity, he has helped ensure that events are advertised, awareness raised with both students and departments about the graduate student government, and to ensure that important information reaches its intended audiences. “It’s definitely been an interesting experience working to get every department at the University represented,” he notes.

Second, he has taught undergraduate BME students, after serving on the committee that designed the BME transport lab. “I enjoy teaching,” he states. “It was a very neat experience, and I recommend teaching to anyone in the Ph.D. program.” It was also clear that others enjoyed having him teach, as he was one of three from Weldon honored with the College of Engineering Magoon Award for Excellence in teaching.

Third, he owns a home and works on it. Actually, he, Heather, and the house are owned by Luke, a black & white American shorthair cat. “I chose it because the mortgage is less than the rent, and it is a much better deal than paying rent,” he says.

Finally, there is his “real” work. As a graduate student working with Professor Paul Robinson in the imaging and flow cytometry lab, Silas has been busy.

He has developed and patented an endoscope that not only does traditional macroscopic imaging, but also allows microscopic imaging to be done simultaneously. Using this new device, doctors can visually detect areas for investigation, and then ”zoom in” to a cellular level without the need for separate procedures. Leavesley is now working with undergraduate Molly Fu to develop methods to relate the macro and micro images, so that a complete guidance system for spatial orientation is available to physicians using the system.

His main research, however, is in helping pioneer the use of multispectral imaging for medical diagnostics. When an image is taken, many different wavelengths are combined to produce the image. What multispectral imaging does is to separate the different wavelengths or ranges, allowing chemicals, compounds, and different types of cells to stand out. In small animals, the focus of his research, it allows researchers to track the spread of medical dyes, drugs, and even bacteria.

Not only does this hold promise for improving animal and human healthcare, it opens new opportunities for assisting both pharmaceutical development and improving dosage rates. New drugs can be tracked to see if they go where they should and do as they should. Such tracking can also allow researchers to determine the proper amount of a drug needed for a given treatment.

This industry-funded research is scheduled to be functional by August and development completed by the end of the year. That works well for Silas, since it will then leave him a full year to perform any wrap-up research and complete his Ph.D thesis.

Yet, one fundamental question remains:  where does he find the time? 

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