STEMinar: Biomedical Engineering Research

10/13/22

The goal of this STEMinar is to introduce you to some of the current research being conducted in the field of Biomedical
Engineering. Please listen and interact with our guest speaker as they tell us about their background, their research, and
life in a research lab at Ga Tech.

1. Listen to our speaker. Think of 2 questions you might have for this individual and write them below.
 What is the best part, to you, of being an academia engineer?
 What happens to the piglets being tested on after you run the experiments?

2. Had you thought of a career in academia prior to today? What might that career look like for you and your
interests?
I have not thought of a career in academia, nor have I heard of it specifically after listening to her talk
about it, it sounds interesting and a possible career choice for me and my interests. It also seems like it goes side by side
with the goals of the stem program and how we can apply the things we learn in the program to real life, and career
choices.
3. Summarize Gbemi’s research. What is one application of this research for the future?

Different fields of research. One example is creating regenerative cells, also imagery tools like the mri and such.
Another field is where you make robots to exceed the human error that happens during things like surgery. Also
research to understand the complexity of the human brain, which is still a large mystery. Her research is TBI or
pediatric traumatic brain injury. Its an injury cause by a hard impact or penetration of the head, affecting the
brain. Specifically in ages 0-4 years old, and 15-19. Babies can get this from excessive shaking in attempt to calm
the baby down. In ages 15-19 it is caused by accidents involving cars, and sports related injuries. It can impair
movement like walking and talking for 3.5 years or less. And in the future, we will be able to find what happens
after 1 year, after 2 years, etc. Also, what is caused by multiple TBI’s, and help prevent these developments. They
have been able to test this on piglets, and identify how healthy piglets walk, vs injured piglets. This helps to
understand how these affect the children, and what drugs can be used to solve the issues in the future. Further
research can help diagnosis and develop treatment of TBI. She tests different drug affects on the piglets to help
find the best treatments to treat TBI.

4. Thoughtfully reflect on your experience today. What did you learn? How will you use this knowledge going
forward? Do you feel that this field is a good choice for you, why or why not?

I learned the causes of TBI and what affects they cause for years after the trauma. Also, the steps she took to get
into this field of study. As well as the testing done on piglets and why its tested-on piglets. And the science behind
TBI and how to find treatment options for TBI. I can use this knowledge to study careers that may be of interest to
me. I don’t know about this field being good for me because of my interests which ae mainly in mechanical
engineering, which is my goal career wise.