2022-2023 Events
Previous Events
During the 2022-2023 school year the Biomedical Engineering Society was fortunate enough to host a variety of events including the Winter Social and Mid-Atlantic Research Day. Check out all of the pictures and information below for more details about what we were up to!
Social Events
BMES Freshman Scavenger Hunt
During freshmen orientation week, we led a scavenger hunt for freshmen to connect with their mentoring groups in person for the first time and get to know the campus as well as each other. The freshmen class was split into 24 groups and competed to complete the most of the given 21 tasks, which included taking pictures in many of the classrooms BME students take classes in and other popular spots on campus, in an hour. The freshmen really enjoyed the activity and the average completed tasks per group was over 18. We also received feedback from the students that this activity really allowed them to get to know other BME students before starting classes.
BMES Winter Social
Winter Social is our chapter’s most popular event, gathering almost 300 students and faculty in celebration of the end of the fall semester each year. This year’s Winter Social was fully in person for the first time since 2019. We had an even larger turn out than in previous years, which was evidence of the student body’s excitement at being able to connect at social events once again. At the event, students, faculty, and alumni alike enjoyed a catered dinner, socialized with fellow BMEs, entered the raffle, and bought BME specific merchandise from our fall collection.
BMES Design Team Volleyball Social
The Design Team Volleyball Social allowed both the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 cohorts of undergraduate design teams to better get to know their team members and build teamwork in a unique manner: on the volleyball court. We held this tournament-style event in our recreation center and also provided snacks and Gatorade for students. In past years, we ran a similar event for design teams with dodgeball instead of volleyball, but we found that volleyball fostered more team interactions and better helped the design teams build their teamwork skills no matter what their skill levels were. After the event, we received overwhelming feedback that the design team volleyball event was preferred over the dodgeball events in the past, so we plan to continue holding this version of the event in the future.
BMES Spring Social
Spring Social was a direct manifestation of student ideas as we sent our many surveys to the student body to get input on everything from the food choices to the activity setup and location. With this input, Spring Social was an outdoor event with lawn games and free gelato for 200 attendees. Despite inclement weather on the day of the event, we still had a large turnout and many people expressed interest in attending the event again next year. Thus, we have established Spring Social as a new tradition that we will continue to build out and expand in the years to come.
Inter-Chapter Activities
Mid-Atlantic Research Day
Our Annual Mid-Atlantic Research Day, held jointly with the University of Maryland Biomedical Engineering Society, was held on May 6th, 2023. This event was hosted by Johns Hopkins University and sponsored by AstraZeneca. The event consisted of poster presentations, workshops led by AstraZeneca, keynote speakers bookending the event, and a mixer event for networking. Our goal this year was to reimagine Mid-Atlantic Research Day to be the leading undergraduate research symposium on the east coast. We first expanded the scope of Research Day by partnering with AstraZeneca, who sponsored the event by providing funding for monetary poster prizes and leading workshops and panels for participants. We also scaled our outreach efforts by networking with universities across the east coast, drawing 118 attendees and 35 posters from 7 schools, increasing our attendance by over 300% from 2022. Mid-Atlantic Research Day allowed students to submit research abstracts and be selected to display their posters, give oral presentations, and compete for a $5000 prize pool. All abstracts were reviewed by a selectively chosen expert panel of judges, who provided individualized feedback for each student. Based on the judge’s scoring and deliberations, the top 4 students were awarded cash prizes of $2000, $1500, $1000, and $500 to commemorate their research abilities. The event started and ended with keynote presentations by Dr. Xingde Li (opening) and Dr. Scott Wilson (closing) of Johns Hopkins University, who shared insights into their research and provided advice for aspiring undergraduates on pursuing careers in biomedical engineering-related research. Those who were not presenting had the opportunity to participate in 4 workshops and panels led by leading AstraZeneca scientists, with whom students were also able to network. Students were also provided free catered breakfast, lunch, and snacks for a post-event mixer, where students were able to network with each other to learn about undergraduate research occurring across the East Coast.
Mentoring
Monthly Mentor Meetings
Fall Course Registration Office Hours
This virtual event gave incoming freshmen students the opportunity to obtain advice from upperclassmen about what courses to take in their first semester in college. Each freshman was sent to a breakout room with two upperclassmen (representing diverse interests and experiences in BME) and had an ‘office hour’ session to go over their prospective schedules and ask any lingering questions about registration.
Focus Area Night
This event was a panel for sophomore BME students who had to select their intended focus areas within BME. The panel featured upperclassmen representatives across all the focus areas and gave sophomores a chance to ask about specific classes they are interested in.
Industry
Industry Workshops
BMES Summer Opportunities Panel
This event was an opportunity for underclassmen students, primarily freshmen, to learn about what opportunities in BME exist over the summer. Students talked with upperclassmen who had experience in research, studying abroad, internships in industry, and the different summer funding options. The event was structured as a panel at first with each upperclassmen describing the different opportunities followed by breakout discussions with freshman and sophmores about their experiences and how they secured positions. This event was designed for students to get an idea of how the search for an internship takes place and what steps should be conducted to be a competitive applicant.
BMES and Johnson & Johnson Panel
This year we hosted several speakers from J&J to come to campus and talk about their careers in industry and how a BME education helps. They were also available to answer specific questions and even helped several students look over their LinkedIn and resumes.