Students found biomedical engineering group

Early in her aca­d­emic career as a mechan­ical engi­neering stu­dent, Sienna Magee was sit­ting around a camp­fire talking with another member of the Outing Club about her interest in bio­med­ical engi­neering. “I came to North­eastern in spite of the fact that there’s no major,” she said. This con­ver­sa­tion sparked a cas­cade of con­nec­tions that ulti­mately led Magee to sev­eral stu­dents across col­leges who shared her interest.

After a few months of legwork, the group of five ambi­tious under­grads founded the university’s first bio­med­ical engi­neering stu­dent group in the spring of their freshman year. Alex Colville is the pres­i­dent of Northeastern’s chapter of the Bio­med­ical Engi­neering Society, which offi­cially joined the national orga­ni­za­tion last fall. Magee and Daniel Shores are the co-​​vice pres­i­dents. “The group pro­vides a home on campus for stu­dents inter­ested in for bio­med­ical engi­neering,” said Colville, a mechan­ical engi­neering major. Chem­ical engi­neering major Jen­nifer Langh was also a co-​​founder.

Mark Niedre, assis­tant pro­fessor of elec­trical and com­puter engi­neering, and Edgar Goluch, assis­tant pro­fessor of chem­ical engi­neering, serve as the group’s faculty advisors.

The North­eastern BMES meets every Monday evening and offers a variety of ser­vices and oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents inter­ested in bio­med­ical engi­neering. Each meeting wel­comes a new speaker, either from the uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity or industry, ranging from North­eastern fac­ulty with research oppor­tu­ni­ties to CEOs from major bio­med­ical device companies.

Ear­lier this month, the group launched an ongoing event series that aims to con­nect stu­dents with prac­ticing bio­med­ical engi­neers. “It’s for stu­dents to get a feel for what engi­neers do,” said co-​​founder Adam Jaynes, who has been inter­ested in the field before he even knew its proper name.

The first career event wel­comed rep­re­sen­ta­tives from six com­pa­nies and attracted more than 50 stu­dents and sev­eral fac­ulty mem­bers. “We’re excited to con­tinue devel­oping it in the future,” said Magee, who noted that the young stu­dent group is always looking for ways to improve and wel­come new stu­dents with fresh ideas.

Read more here.

Related Faculty: Mark Niedre

Related Departments:Chemical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering