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.
a. ___Why did you choose the Georgia Tech engineering
program?_____________________________________________________________________________
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b. __What was the steps to work with vertebrate
animals?______________________________________________________________________________
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2. Had you thought of a career in academia prior to today? What might that career look like for you and your
interests?
_____No, but I would be able to continue math and biology because those fields are important to
academia. I also enjoy learning about healthcare and interning will help choose between Industry or
research._____________________________________________________________________________
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3. Summarize Gbemi’s research. What is one application of this research for the future?
__She researches different fields of research where she uses engineer aspects to make robotic parts and
how to work with genes and cells. She does extracurricular activities where she teaches students about
STEM. Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injuries the focus of her research and how 0-4 years old get this injury
from shaking while later ages get traumatic injuries from sprots or accidents from vehicles. Mild TBI is
loss of consciousness <30 minutes. Moderate TBI is loss of consciousness 1-24 hours. Severe TBI loss of
consciousness over 24 hours. One of her main projects is gait impairments and she found out slower
velocity and dual gait impairments from walking and doing an activity. Limited understanding in how the
brain changes after the TBI occurs and multiple injuries effect the function. She examines brain injuries
in piglets because they have very similar brains to humans. She compares how a healthy piglet walks
compared to an injured piglet. Piglets with multiple injuries have the same development as a piglet with
one injury. Her second project is Neuroinflammation biomarkers and how children who had a brain
injury were not able to process their emotions the same as before. Neuroinflammation allows the brain
to go back to homeostasis or its original states. Chronic inflammation causes long lasting symptoms
 within children. She uses Rna has biomarkers and tests a drug to lower inflammation. She identified
micro Rnas involved in neuroinflammation. Her future goal is to go into the pharmaceutical industry and
teach and mentor students about her
research._____________________________________________________________________________
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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 that you can focus on a specific field of biomedical engineering just like Gbemi focused on
the brain and specifically pediatric traumatic brain injuries. I will use this knowledge if I ever go into this
field and need to decide on a pathway within biomedical engineering. This field may be a good choice
for me because I enjoy science and math. I also think this this field would be good for me because_there
are many options such as industry and research. I would not want to test on piglets if I went into this
field._________________________________________________________________________________
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Turn in before you leave today, this form will serve as your attendance verification as well. Be sure to take a picture
of the form and of yourself for your e-Portfolio.