Brown Engineers Finish First and Second at AIChE Competition

Students in the Brown chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to compete in a student poster competition. For the second consecutive year, a Brown engineer has returned to College Hill with a first place trophy.

Brown's biomedical engineering student, Melissa Tsang '11 brought home the first place trophy. Tsang competed in the materials engineering and sciences category among 46 participants divided into three groups. She conducted her project, entitled "Novel Polyurethane-Carbon Nanofiber Composite for Bladder Cancer Applications," in collaboration with Associate Professor Thomas Webster and Dr. YoungWook Chun, a Ph.D. candidate in Professor Webster's lab.

In the environmental category, Nattie Cooper '12 took home a second place award.

Melissa Tsang '11 at the center, BME 

Brown's other AIChE student poster competitors included: James Saraidaridis '11 (supervisor Professor Tayhas Palmore), Theresa Raimondo '11 (supervisors Associate Professor Anubhav Tripathi and graduate student Stephanie McCalla), Lakshmi Madhavan '11 (supervisor Professor J. M. Calo), David Sonshine '11 (supervisor Professor Robert Hurt), and Daniel Prendergast '11 (supervisors Professor Eric Suuberg and graduate student James Rice).

"Every year the competition gets more and more competitive than I have seen in previous years," said Indrek Kulaots, lecturer in Engineering.

Tsang selected for Biomedical Engineering Society Undergraduate Student Award

Biomedical Engineering (BME) Undergraduate student Melissa Tsang has been selected for the Biomedical Engineering Society Undergraduate Student Award to be presented October 6th, 2010 in Austin, TX at the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting. Undergraduate student winners will be selected on the basis of originality, significance, thoroughness of design analysis, and performance evaluation. This award is based on research conducted in Prof. Tom Webster's lab entitled "Novel Polyurethane/Carbon Nanofiber Composites for Bladder Cancer Applications." She has developed materials that can inhibit bladder cancer cell functions by using nanomaterials alone (specifically, carbon nanofibers, no pharmaceutical drugs are used.)

When Melissa first arrived at Brown, she chose to study BME because previous volunteering experiences had exposed her to the imbalance between current biotechnology and unmet medical needs. She wanted to develop the necessary analytical skills and foundation in biology to design innovative, improved technologies to expand upon our current diagnostics and treatments. As a senior approaching the end of her studies at Brown, she now feels better equipped to tackle this endeavor. In particular, working in Dr. Webster's lab has taught her how to construct and to conduct a research project independently. The opportunity to present her research at conferences, where she can meet many other BMEs in the field, is a rewarding experience for her. She feels that Brown engineering has provided her with not only the necessary skill sets, but also the hands-on experience and exposure to the forefront of current biomedical research to advance her career and, more importantly, to create solutions to better serve our global community.