Penelope Llibre
Penelope attends Brandeis University, where she is majoring in physics. Her engineering education did not begin in a classroom but at the Brandeis University MakerLab where she has been employed since her sophomore year. With the technical, interpersonal, and collaborative skills she developed through her work at the makerspace and as a TA, Penny was […]
Benjamin Wolking
Benjamin is attaining a Physics degree at Bates College, as well as a major in Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Columbia during his senior year. Continuing an affinity toward problem-solving work and impact, he has had limited research experiences prior to his time at the Photonics Center’s REU program. Enhancing Cardiac Microbundle Stability for Improved In-Vitro […]
Ayomide Olagundoye
Ayomide is a Biomedical Engineering (BME) student at the University of Rhode Island, and is part of the international engineering program. She initially wanted to go into prosthetics, but has since continued to explore different STEM avenues. Prior to this REU program, she had no research experience outside the classroom. Characterizing Relaxin-2 as a Therapeutic […]
Audio: A Light Breakfast, Episode #1 | Sharayu Shrinivas
In this limited summer series, the Photonics Center interviews past REUs who have since enrolled at BU for graduate school over breakfast somewhere on BU’s campus. This first episode features Sharayu Shrinivas, a 2023 REU now pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering in the Boas and Stangl Labs.
Enhancing Cardiac Microbundle Stability for Improved In-Vitro Force Measurement
Mentors Project Description Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, yet breakthroughs in cardiac research remain challenging. Animal models fail to fully replicate human heart physiology, while studying live human hearts is ethically restrictive. Cardiac Microbundles (CMBs), composed of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and cardiac fibroblasts (CFs), offer a promising in-vitro […]
Motion Tracking for Soft Robotic Arms
Mentors Project Description The Soft Robotics Control Lab at Boston University is developing large, pneumatic soft robot arms for interaction with humans. In order to test our autonomous control systems for these robots, we need to sense the position of the parts of the robot in 3D space. This REU project seeks to integrate our […]
Multi-Participant Template
Mentors Project Description The severity of a heart attack is determined by the area of heart muscle affected by the occluded vessel, but also by a ‘border zone’ (BZ) that separates the infarct region from the unaffected heart muscle. The BZ has been implicated in adverse remodeling that occurs after a heart attack, but because […]
Test 2
Project Description The severity of a heart attack is determined by the area of heart muscle affected by the occluded vessel, but also by a ‘border zone’ (BZ) that separates the infarct region from the unaffected heart muscle. The BZ has been implicated in adverse remodeling that occurs after a heart attack, but because the […]
A Summer Experience Like No Other: Life as an REU at Boston University
By Jack Osmond, Photos by Kelly Peña If you went to summer camp, you’ll remember the feeling well: leaving home, sometimes for weeks at a time, learning new things and meeting new people. You might think of archery, rowing, campfires and fireworks as the dog days of summer stretch on. What might not come to […]
BMES Conference 2024
This week the Boston University Photonics Center held a booth at the Biomedical Engineering Society conference!🔬 Graduate students from the BU College of Engineering played a key role in sharing insights about life at BU, including 2022 REU participant Nolan Vild! We were also thrilled to reconnect with another former REU, Anastasiia Rudaeva, at the […]