Fall 2022 BEAM News
Dr. De Vita and the miraculous, imperfect mechanics of pregnancy
Raffaella De Vita's STRETCH Lab studies pregnancy's constant remodeling of reproductive organs and structures — and how those biomechanical changes may contribute to injuries and disorders that affect millions of women.
Department Head's Message
The Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics (BEAM) had a momentous Spring semester! While graduation is always a special time for the graduates, their families, and their departments, this May’s commencement ceremonies included our first cohort of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students. They achieved much in their four years at Virginia Tech, all the while engaged in research labs, internships, co-ops and other extramural activities. They have gone on to exciting new ventures such as with Stryker and Carilion Innovations Group or graduate school at Columbia University and Fulbright Scholar program in Ireland. Our graduate students secured impressive positions including with start-up and large companies, and post-doctoral opportunities. We could not be more proud of the graduates in all of our programs.
BEAM faculty were tremendously successful this year as well. In 2021, we delivered 14,905 student credits hours in 117 different class sections. We secured $28M in new extramural awards, published 167 peer-reviewed journal articles, and garnered more than 15,492 Google Scholar citations. New faculty are joining in 2022 – 3 tenure-track and 2 instructors. Three more are joining this coming academic year. And we continue to grow!
More details and stories are available on our website. We also share updates through multiple social media channels – follow us today for more news from our department!
Best wishes for a successful start to the academic year!
New Lab Space for Experiential Learning: The Pat and Nancy Artis Cellular Engineering Laboratory
Thanks to a generous donation from our alumnus, Pat Artis (B.S. Engineering Science and Mechanics, 1971), the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics has a new lab that teaches our undergraduate students foundational cell culturing and engineering skills through hands-on learning. Learn more about the lab here.
First cohort of Virginia Tech undergraduate biomedical engineers set to graduate this spring. The new program – which bridges engineering fundamentals and biomedical science – is creating its own unique rhythm as its first students prepare for commencement.
Research
New NSF-funded research explores origins of blood feeding in mosquitoes. An interdisciplinary team of Virginia Tech researchers is seeking to understand the physiological and biomechanical characteristics of blood feeding in mosquitoes and their evolutionary transition from sugar to blood feeding — knowledge that may help future work to stop disease transmission. Read more.
