Conference Debriefing

I need to recharge my batteries. My brain has been all-but-filled these past five days with information about the "State of the Society"--the Biomedical Engineering Society, that is, as well as Alpha Eta Mu Beta, the BME Honors Society--data from laboratory research--particularly in biomechanics--trends in education and research--design & innovation and multi-scale models, respectively--and pointers to improve membership and participation of student chapters. For the sake of brevity, I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that I feel like a sopping-wet sponge, ready to wring out my contents to anyone who cares enough to ask.

...continued

Among the memorable moments of my experience:

• Gary's presentation Wednesday of preliminary data from our intellectual property survey, work we had done this summer. Goodness, after the 3:00 lull, just when the energy level of the room dipped into a valley, he roused everyone with what wasn't meant to be an inflammatory initial report on our preliminary findings. His description of the two extremes sparked some heated discussion among faculty as to the intent of and best practices in undergraduate design courses, seguing nicely into the brainstorming session for next year's meeting.
• Speaking with Bill New over drinks after the Wednesday workshop. He was a truly amazing person with some great experiences to share and more degrees than I ever care to obtain.
• Going to a sports bar with Joe, Phil, and Jessica to watch the Cards beat the Astros. Gotta love having drinks with my former profs!
• Scrambling to take "good notes" during a few sessions, then promptly realizing that, for the most part, anything important would be on the abstract CD-ROM that we got at registration time.
• The banquet and meeting for AHMB. Hearing Whitaker Foundation Chairman Peter Katona share a few stories from his career and give us advice about ours.
• Sitting in on the keynote talk one morning about a multi-scale model using a modified cellular automata approach to describe several disparate phenomena, including vasculogenesis and blastocoel development, and realizing that I could create such a model, ready to plug in a set of rules, in just a few days' work.
• Talking to an industry speaker at the end of a session in which he presented about his company's work in venous valve replacement. I took his email address in exchange for my resume and card, so now I have another prospect for employment.
• Staying up late conversing with Jeremiah about many things, some BME and some not. Ah, male bonding.
• Going to the Constitution Center for a reception and viewing of some American History exhibits over dinner and drinks.

The conference was a lot of fun, and though it was tiring and needed some structured free time--I had to skip one afternoon session in order to go for a run, otherwise my legs would have fallen off and my lower back locked up--I am left with an overall "warm-fuzzy" feeling toward my field. I look forward to the future, and plan on attending upcoming annual conferences. I'm excited to bring back information and advice to my school, excited about the prospects for career development and project furtherment from contacts I've made, excited to serve as a student member of the ethics committee, and excited at the thought of increased industry involvement in the society.