{"id":103382,"date":"2020-12-11T15:08:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T19:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=103382"},"modified":"2025-07-08T13:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:29:43","slug":"biosensordevelopment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2020\/12\/11\/biosensordevelopment\/","title":{"rendered":"Biosensor Development with Support from the Society of Women Engineers"},"content":{"rendered":"

PhD Candidate Karthika Sankar has been awarded the Motorola Solutions Foundation Engineering Scholarship<\/h4>\n

\"MSE<\/p>\n

\u201cI am absolutely ecstatic to win the scholarship,\u201d said MSE PhD candidate Karthika Sankar. As one of ten recipients of this year\u2019s Motorola Solutions Foundation Engineering Scholarship, Sankar will use the stipend of $9,100 to advance her research on biosensor development. The scholarship is granted by the Society of Women Engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKarthika is the epitome of drive and motivation, which is evident in the project for which she received the scholarship,\u201d said Professor Mark Grinstaff<\/a> (BME, Chem, MSE, MED). \u201cHer pioneering idea is based on microbial transcription factors and offers the possibility to create low-cost portable sensors for almost any [chemical substance].\u201d Progesterone, a hormone that is linked to pregnancy, is just one example of a substance that could be identified through Karthika\u2019s work. \u201cWe should always encourage this kind of creativity,\u201d concluded Grinstaff.<\/p>\n

Sankar works on developing diagnostics for viral diseases and biosensors for hormone detection and appreciates that her lab environment perfectly blends interdisciplinary collaboration, guidance and freedom. \u201cDr. Grinstaff provides the right level of advice while at the same time letting us be the driver of our PhD. We have a big group and we, students, help each other in our research,\u201d Sankar explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cMSE has brought together professors working in all the areas you can imagine, which gives the students many options of research projects to choose from,\u201d said Sankar. \u201cI like the diversity of research at MSE.\u201d In addition to the expansive research opportunities, Sankar says the tight-knit community is among her favorite aspects of BU.<\/p>\n

\"mse
Sankar (bottom right) is co-president of the MSE Graduate Student Association<\/a> and participates as a mentor in the MSE Peer Mentorship program<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After graduation, Sankar plans to work as a full-time scientist at a medical device company. Until then, she expects to continue taking full advantage of MSE networking opportunities that bring together professors, industry professionals and peers.<\/p>\n

The Motorola Solutions Foundation Engineering Scholarship is one of nearly 260 awards granted by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), which disbursed over $1 million in scholarships this past year. Founded in 1950, SWE is a not-for-profit educational and service organization that aims to empower women as leaders in engineering and advance gender equity in field. SWE has been providing scholarships for 70 years to students who identify as women and are pursuing programs in preparation for careers in engineering and computer science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cKarthika is the epitome of drive and motivation which is evident in the project for which she received the scholarship,\u201d said Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chem, MSE, MED). \u201cHer pioneering idea is based on microbial transcription factors and offers the possibility to create low-cost portable sensors for almost any [chemical substance].\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8588,"featured_media":103385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[909,245],"tags":[645,655,656,657,658],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103382"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164787,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103382\/revisions\/164787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}