News

2024

Award: Victoria Santillan placed Third in the Poster presentation at the GRC and Annual Banquet 2024 was held on March 27. (Scroll to the bottom of the section "Reminders")

Award: Dr. Rao received a travel award to attend the 5th CoC Biomedical Engineering Educational Summit May 29-31, New Jersey, USA.

2023

Service: Dr. Rao will co-lead the Advocates and Allies Advisory Board (A3B) for 2023-24, along with Danielle Meirow.

Student: Elsa Huckels recognized for academic excellence GLIAC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Academic Excellence. 

Service: Dr. Rao will co-lead Women in Academy (WIA) for 2023-24, along with Dr. Tara Bal.

Honor: Dr. Rao was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure during the MTU Board of Trustees meeting on April 28th, 2023.

Student: Madeline English was accepted into the Interdisciplinary Faculty of Toxicology program at Texas A & M as a doctoral student.

Award: Madeline English awarded the Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award at the 2023 Annual award ceremony at Michigan Tech.

Presentation: Madeline English presented her work "Cellular Model for Assessing Dermal Cell Response to Direct Soil-Arsenic Exposure as an Environmental Contaminant"  at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Eau Claire, WI on April 13-15, 2023. 

2022

Service: Dr. Rao joined the BMES Council of Diversity as a department representative.

Honor: Dr. Rao participated as a panelist for "Developing and Supporting a Culture of Undergraduate Research at Michigan Tech" on MTU Research Day.

Patent: Dr. Rao awarded the patent "Fabrication of Iridium Oxide pH Sensors and Sensor Arrays" US 11,378,539 B2 

Poster: Madeline English will present her work on "Effects of Contact Exposure to Soil-Arsenic," at the 2022 BMES Annual Meeting at San Antonio.

Award: Best Poster: The Symposium on Wound Care: "Establishing nitrite to nitrate ratios in the clinical wound samples of subjects with and without diabetes." Cook E. K., Kennedy A. M., Kwesiga M. P., Gwaltney C. S., Liston W. W., Rao S., Frost M.C. April 8,2022; Phoenix, AZ 

Award: Madeline English awarded the 2022 Fall URIP award

Honor Dr. Rao awarded "Distinguished Teaching Award Finalist" and included in the 2022 Academy of Teaching Excellence. Pictures from the Teaching Excellence Banquet 

Award: Pavitra Attanayake awarded "2022 Faculty BME Leadership Award" Pictures of the awards banquet

Award: Laura DeMarchi awarded the "2022  Graduating Scholar"   Pictures of the awards banquet

Award: Madeline English received honorable mention for "2022 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award"  Pictures of the awards banquet

Award: Madeline English awarded the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) for Summer 2022. 

Honor: Dr. Rao nominated for the Distinguished Teaching Award 

2021

Award: Dr. Rao awarded the 2021  CTL Instructional Award  for Innovative or Out of Class Teaching

Student: Mitchell Connon awarded "Departmental Scholar for Biomedical Engineering" (Link to video of the announcement of the Department Scholars)

Student: Pavitra Attanayake awarded "Departmental Scholar for Pavlis Honors College" (Link to video of the announcement of the Department Scholars)

Student: Congratulations! to Alex Fetner, MS in Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2021.

Student: Srinivas Kannan presented his research at the HRI Graduate student presentation as a recipient of the HRI graduate fellowship.

Award: Dr. Rao recognized at the 2021 Dean's Teaching Showcase on 4-22-2021. 

Dr. Rao inducted to Sigma Xi as member.

Funding: Dr. Rao awarded an NSF REU site grant leading to the summer REU program TECH SCEnE www.techscene.mtu.edu.

Dr. Rao recognized for undergraduate mentorship through the Dean's Teaching Showcase in March 2021.

Student: Dr. Hanumantharao joined Neurocarrus as research scientist.

2020

Recognition: Dr. Hanumantharao and Caroylnn Que's entry "Customizable Tissue Engineering Patches for Accelerated Wound Healing " was among the top 100 finalists and one of six finalists in the Medical Device category of the Create the Future Design Contest by Tech Briefs. 

Fellowship: Srinivas Kannan awarded the HRI Fellowship for Spring 2021

Award: Dr. Hanumantharao awarded the 2020  Michigan Tech Outstanding Scholarship award in Biomedical Engineering

Welcome: Our newly minted post-doc Dr. Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao

Student: Samerender presents his PhD defense on Aug 5th.

Student: Emily Nelson awarded Undergraduate Research Internship Program (URIP) for 2020-21.

Husky Bites: Dr. Rao participated in Husky bites series presenting "Biomedical Engineering - The Future"

Competition: Carolynn and Samerender are participating in the "Create the Future" contest.

Student: Srinivas Kannan awarded the Michigan Tech Finishing Fellowship for Fall 2020.

Congratulations to all Graduates. 

2020 BµD Undergraduate:

Matthew Colaianne

Kristine Fink

Joshua Geschke

Brennan Vogl

2020 BµD Graduate:

Stephanie Bule

Carolynn Que

Online: "Method for Electrospinning Customizable Nanofibers," featured on Tech Briefs

Student: Emily Nelson awarded Outstanding Biomedical Engineering Classmate-Second Year

Student: Carolynn Que - Honorable mention for Graduate Excellence in Research  Award - MS

Student: Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao - Honorable mention for Graduate Excellence in Research Award - PhD 

Honor:  Dr. Rao inducted as Tau Beta Pi Eminent Engineer (MTU)

Student: Garek Dyrsel initiated into Tau Beta Pi (MTU)

Research magazine: BµD was referred to in an article in the MTU Research Magazine 2020 (Page 6 here)

Students: Mitchell Connon awarded SURF 2020

Students: Suhel Shaikh joins Archer DX as test engineer

Online: Samerender's work was featured as "Image of the Day" by The Scientist

Students: Samarender and Srinivas awarded the Certificate of Completion of Doctoral Candidacy at the first Doctoral Candidacy Celebration event held on Feb 26, 2020.

Online: Report on the work carried out at BµD Lab on Tech Today

Online/Student: Garek Dyszel named for the 2020 Dean's list; Reported in the local paper Daily Press 

Online/Students: Samerender and Stephanie appear in an online news article about the 2020 Bob Mark Elevator Pitch competition held at MTU.

Tech Today Online: Samerender and Stephanie were mentioned for their win on Tech Today

Students: Samerender and Stephanie took Honorable Mention at the Bob Mark Elevator Pitch competition held at MTU on January 29, 2020.

Student Research Presentation: Emily Nelson will present "Osteoconductive Electrospun PCL-TCP nanofibers," at NCUR 2020, Mar 26-28, Montana State University, Montana, USA. Oral presentation

Student Research Presentation: Brennan Vogl will present "Preferential Binding of Cancer Cells to Sugar-enriched Nanofiber Scaffolds," at NCUR 2020, Mar 26-28, Montana State University, Montana, USA. Poster presentation

Student Research Presentation: Garek Dyszel will present  "Model Derivation for Synthesis of Controlled 3D Structures Via Electrospinning" at NCUR 2020, Mar 26-28, Montana State University, Montana, USA. Oral presentation

Paper: ""Engineered three-dimensional scaffolds modulating fate of breast cancer cells using stiffness and morphology related cell adhesion," Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao, Carolynn Que, Brennan Vogl, Smitha Rao, Accepted. IEEE OJEMB, 2020. Preprint available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8954754 

2019

Student: Carolynn awarded the Fall 2019 Michigan Tech HRI travel award to support her poster presentation at SABCS 2019. 

Paper: "Electrospun Acellular Scaffolds for Mimicking the Natural Anisotropy of Extracellular Matrix," published in RSC Advances. Impact factor 3.049

Student: Samerender awarded the Michigan Tech Finishing Fellowship for Spring 2020.

Student Research Presentation: Carolynn will present her poster on “Topographical Cues overlaid with fructose-like molecules to assess breast cancer recruitment in nanofiber scaffolds,” at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), Dec 10-14, 2019, San Antonio, TX, USA. 

Student: Samerender awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award. He will receive a certificate at the Graduate Research Colloquium Banquet in Spring. The award will be noted by his name in the Commencement program when he graduates.  

Student: Srinivas awarded the 2019 PHF Graduate Assistantship for Fall 2019.

Funding: (Co-PI) R15 AREA award from  NIH 

Student Research Presentation: Samerender presented “Design and Fabrication of Customized Wound Healing Patches for Tissues,” at the Sixth Annual Meeting of Michigan Physiological Society, June 27-28, Mount Pleasant, MI, 2019. 

Student Research Poster: Carolynn presented “Fructose Analog Containing 3-D Scaffolds to Isolate and Study Breast Cancer Cell Metabolism by Mimicking Tumor Microenvironment” at the Sixth Annual Meeting of Michigan Physiological Society, June 27-28, Mount Pleasant, MI, 2019.

Student Research Presentation:  Samerender presented  “Nanotopographical cues for fabrication of efficient wound healing patches using electrospinning,” at the 50th ACS Central Regional Meeting (CERM), June 4 - 8, 2019, Midland, MI.

Student Research Presentation: Carolynn presented “Fructose analog containing 3-D scaffolds to isolate and study breast cancer cell metabolism by mimicking tumor microenvironment,” at the 50th ACS Central Regional Meeting (CERM), June 4 - 8, 2019, Midland, MI.   

Student Research Poster: Samerender presented "Piezoelectric scaffolds containing Tricalcium phosphate for bone tissue engineering,"  at the  50th ACS Central Regional Meeting (CERM), June 4 - 8, 2019, Midland, MI.

Patent: Dr. Rao awarded the US patent "Micro-systems including micro-windmills and methods of forming micro-systems including micro-windmills" US Patent 10,280,898 

Funding: (PI) Awarded Portage Health Foundation-Research Excellence Fund 2019  (PHF-REF Seed grant)

Volunteering: The Biomedical µ Devices members volunteered at Barkell Elementary School, Hancock for the second grade sheep's eye dissection.

Student: Sarah Wayward presented with the 2019 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award at the BME Student Appreciation Night

2019 Senior Design Honorable Mention Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device. Chad Cannon, Lauren Markham, Lauren Sandy,  Sonja Welch (Advisors: Rao/Goldman. Sponsors: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and Spectrum Health)

Second Place 2019 Innovation Awards sponsored by the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship: Universal Driver Gear Train. Yolanda Anderson, Ryan Connolly, Heather Marker, Ethan Odriscoll (Advisors: Han/Rao. Sponsors: Stryker)

Third Place 2019 Innovation Awards sponsored by the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship: Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device. Chad Cannon, Lauren Markham, Lauren Sandy,  Sonja Welch (Advisors: Rao/Goldman. Sponsors: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and Spectrum Health)

Day of STEM: Samerender Carolynn participated in the MTU Day of STEM

Student: Brennan Vogl awarded URIP for 2019-2020.

Guest blog: Carolynn Que contributed to the blog "Life in the lab"

Michigan Tech News: Engineers craft the basic building block for electrospun nanofibers

Paper: "Self-assembly of 3D nanostructures in electrospun polycaprolactone-polyaniline fibers and their utility as scaffolds for tissue engineering," Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao, Carolynn Que, Smitha Rao , Materialia (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtla.2019.100296

Student: Brennan Vogl awarded SURF for Summer 2019

Honor: Dr. Rao is now Senior member of IEEE. 

Poster: "Investigative Study on Nitric Oxide Production In Human Dermal Fibroblast Cells Under Normal And High Glucose Conditions" accepted for presentation at the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care Spring | Wound Healing Society (SAWC Spring | WHS), May 7-11, San Antonio, TX.  

2018

Unscripted: https://www.mtu.edu/unscripted/stories/2018/december/engineering-the-perfect-winter-sock.html 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/michigantech/status/1075770524972634112?s=03 

Publicity: Altmetric score 53 achieved for "Investigative Study on Nitric Oxide Production in Human Dermal Fibroblast Cells under Normal and High Glucose Conditions" Med. Sci. 2018, 6(4), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/medsci6040099 

Announcement: Now accepting full length journal articles for a special issue of Fibers "Electrospun Fibers for Scaffold and Electrical Sensing"

Student: Samerender N. Hanumantharao awarded the 2019 PHF Graduate Assistantship for Spring 2019

Journal Cover: "Investigative Study on Nitric Oxide Production in Human Dermal Fibroblast Cells under Normal and High Glucose Conditions" Med. Sci. 2018, 6(4), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/medsci6040099 

Paper: "Investigative Study on Nitric Oxide Production in Human Dermal Fibroblast Cells under Normal and High Glucose Conditions" published Med. Sci. 2018, 6(4), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/medsci6040099 (registering DOI) 

Student: Brennan Vogl was awarded a travel grant from SURF

Student: Brennan Vogl and Sarah Wayward awarded URIP for Fall 2018-Spring 2019

Student: Brennan Vogl awarded SURF for Summer 2018

Student: Jennifer Hannon joins Greenheck as Applications Engineer.

Meghan Friske joins Zepnick Solutions, Inc as Electrical Engineer.

Publicity: Altmetric score of 72 achieved for the article "Metabolism-Driven High-Throughput Cancer Identification with GLUT5-Specific Molecular Probes" published in Biosensors 2018, 8(2), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios8020039 on June 20, 2018.

Publicity: Dr. Rao and Dr. Tanasova featured in the Wellness section of the Daily Mining Gazette in the article "Moving Faster Researchers find better ways to handle cancer detection," on May 3, 2018

Publicity:"GLUT5 fluorescent probe fingerprints cancer cells" appeared on Analytica World on April 23, 2018.

Publicity:"GLUT5 fluorescent examine fingerprints cancer cells" appeared on Health reload on April 23, 2018.

Publicity:"Using Fluorescent Probe, Determining Presence of Cancer within Minutes" appeared on The Bioscientist on April 21, 2018.

Publicity:"Scientists develop tiny fluorescent probe that seeks out GLUT5 and detects cancer cells" appeared on The News-Medical.net on April 20, 2018.

Publicity:"GLUT5 fluorescent probe fingerprints cancer cells" appeared on The Science Daily on April 19, 2018.

Publicity:"Glut5 Fluorescent Probe Fingerprints Cancer Cells" appeared on Science Newsline Medicine on April 19, 2018.

Publicity:"GLUT5 fluorescent probe fingerprints cancer cells" appeared on Brightsurf on April 19, 2018.

Publicity:Research on Cancer appeared on MTU news on April 19, 2018

Paper: “Multicolor GLUT5-permeable fluorescent probes for fructose transport analysis,” published Chemical Communications, 2018; 54 (31): 3855 DOI: 10.1039/c7cc09809j

Paper: "Metabolism-Driven High-Throughput Cancer Identification with GLUT5-Specific Molecular Probes," published Biosensors 2018, 8(2), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios8020039

Paper: "Fructose Uptake-based Rapid Detection of Breast Cancer," published 2017 IEEE LSC Conference, 25 January 2018 , DOI:10.1109/LSC.2017.8268168 

2017

Student: Srinivas awarded the Dr. Michael R. Neuman award from the Department of Biomedical Engineering. 

Presentation: Dr. Rao presented the paper "Fructose Uptake-based Rapid Detection of Breast Cancer," at the 2017 IEEE Life Sciences Conference (LSC), Sydney Australia, Dec 13-15, 2017. 

Patent: Dr. Rao awarded the patent "Flexible Strain Sensors" US Patent 9,752,861

Student: Brennan Vogl awarded the Portage Health Foundation URIP award for Fall 2017-Spring 2018.

Student: Srinivas awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award. He received a certificate at the Graduate Research Colloquium Banquet in Spring. The award will be noted by his name in the Commencement program when he graduates. 

Student: Suhel Shaikh won Most Actionable Business and Best Technical Innovation at the Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition.

2017 Senior Design Third Place: Customizing Transcatheter Nitinol Stents for Treatment of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in Infants. Emma Davis, Kat Farkas,  Amanda Gogola, Ami Kling (Advisors: Goldman/Rao. Sponsors: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and Spectrum Health)

First Place 2017 Innovation Awards sponsored by the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship: Customizing Transcatheter Nitinol Stents for Treatment of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in Infants. Emma Davis, Kat Farkas,  Amanda Gogola, Ami Kling(Advisors: Goldman/Rao. Sponsors: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and Spectrum Health)

Third Place 2017 Innovation Awards sponsored by the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship: Posture Correction Device with Haptic Feedback for Parkinson's Disease. Dakota Anderson, Noah Doyle, Maxwell Hultquist, Hannah Marti  (Advisor: Rao. Sponsor: Department of Biomedical Engineering )

Ann Arbor SPARK Design Expo image contest: Customizing Transcatheter Nitinol Stents for Treatment of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in Infants. Emma Davis, Kat Farkas,  Amanda Gogola, Ami Kling (Advisors: Goldman/Rao. Sponsors: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and Spectrum Health)

Student: Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao successfully defended his Master's thesis.

2016

Student: Meghan Friske awarded the Portage Health Foundation URIP award for Fall 2016-Spring 2017.

Student: Meghan Friske accepted an internship in Summer 2017 in lieu of the SURF award. 

2015

The Biomedical µDevices (BµD) lab established in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, MTU by Dr. Rao in Fall 2015.

2014

The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca: Micro Windmills

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