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| Keynote |
Brain Aerobics: Pumping-up your Creativity | Video (flash) 
Follow up--What to do with a stick of gum?
Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program
Did you know that your brain changes based upon your experiences? In fact, just like the muscles of your body, the more you exercise your brain the stronger it gets and the more capable you are to take on challenging problems. Based upon her background as a neuroscientist and her current work teaching creativity and entrepreneurship to engineers, Tina will talk about the plasticity of the brain and show you how she exercises her student's brains by giving them wild assignments that stretch the imagination. In this presentation Seelig gave an exercise to the audience: Think of all the things you can do with a stick of chewing gum.
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| Session A |
Preventing Blindness: Retinal Implants | Video (flash)
Stacey Bent, Professor of Chemical Engineering
If making chips to repair the retina of an eye sounds like something in a Sci Fi movie, then you haven’t heard of Professor Bent’s research. Bent and her research team have worked on engineering new eye tissues and designing microelectronic prosthetic implants to reconnect cells in the retina. Learn how the eye “sees” and how research can find solutions for those affected by sight loss.
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Precision Psychiatry: Engineering Therapies for Better Mental Health
Karl Deisseroth, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
Your brain is a big mushy circuit and when something isn’t working right, it can literally make you sad. Professor Deisseroth’s team develops bioengineering-based tools to observe the electrical circuit dynamics of the brain and ultimately control these circuits in real time (thousandths of a second). Troubleshooting brain circuits can give researchers the insight they need to provide for the development of targeted genetic or pharmaceutical treatments to fix unhealthy neural circuits.
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BioRobots | Video (flash)
Ken Salisbury, Professor of Computer Science and of Surgery
Robots are already assisting doctors in the operating room, but there’s more they could do to help surgery go well. Come hear about the cutting edge BioRobotics research happening in Professor Salisbury’s lab. He’ll cover topics including surgical robotics, surgical simulation for training, diagnostic imaging, how to give robots a sense of touch, and personal robotics. |
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| Session B |
The Science of Movement: Understanding How Muscles Work
Scott Delp, Professor of Bioengineering and of Mechanical Engineering
Professor Delp’s lab combines experimental and computational approaches to study movement. Members investigate the form and function of movers ranging from molecular motors to people with movement disorders. The goal is to gain a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms involved in the production of movement. The motivation is the opportunity to improve treatments for individuals with cerebral palsy, stroke, osteoarthritis, and Parkinson’s disease.
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From DNA to Designer Proteins: Using Molecular Bioengineering to Heal Wounds | Video (flash)
Jennifer Cochran, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering & Sarah Moore, Graduate Student in Bioengineering
DNA stores all of the information needed to create a living organism, and instructs the body to make specific proteins. These proteins then direct your body to carry out all of its daily tasks, from digesting your food to fighting off a cold. From our understanding of DNA and proteins, bioengineers can alter DNA to make new proteins that carry out these tasks better. Professor Cochran and her team are engineering designer proteins for applications in cancer therapy, molecular imaging, and regenerative medicine. Come learn about DNA and applications of these designer proteins to treat wounds in diabetics that otherwise cannot heal on their own.
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Health in Extreme Environments: Monitoring with Medical Devices | Video (flash)
Greg Kovacs, Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Medicine
Professor Kovacs travels all over the world studying the effects of extreme environments on living organisms. He is involved in hands-on field testing of NASA wearable physiologic monitors in high altitude conditions, he’s developed a cell-based system to detect toxins used in chemical or biological warfare, and used balloons to launch worms into the stratosphere to study the effects of space radiation and microgravity on genes. He’s even been in simulated zero-gravity. He’s an enthusiastic generalist with expertise in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and medicine. Come hear about the exciting adventures engineers can have traveling between engineering and the life sciences. |
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| Session C |
Keys to the Skeleton: Your Bones on Earth and
in Outer Space
Dennis Carter, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Bioengineering
How do our physical activities regulate the development and aging of the skeleton? How different would our skeletons be if we were raised in a different gravitational field (like Mars)? Professor Carter and his team study the growth, development, regeneration, and aging of skeletal tissues. The connection between what we do, where we are and the structure of our skeletons matters a lot when it comes to diseases such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.
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Vital Veins: Operating in Cyberspace | Video (flash)
Charles Taylor, Associate Professor of Bioengineering
Tens of thousands of babies are born each year with congenital defects that restrict blood flow from the heart, threatening their lives from the moment of birth. Millions of older Americans suffer from blood flow problems as a result of atherosclerosis, a plaque buildup that can lead to stroke or heart attack. Doctors have a range of corrective surgeries to choose from to treat these patients. But how can surgeons tell which is the best one for a particular patient's vascular system? Taylor and his research team have created software called ASPIRE—Advanced Surgical Planning Interactive Research Environment—that allows physicians to perform surgeries in cyberspace before going into the operating room. Taylor’s team have also created a first-of-its-kind MRI-compatible bicycle that allows them to capture images of blood flow in an active body, unlike typical MRIs which are done with a patient lying flat and at rest. These are just a few of his group's projects that are improving the way we treat patients.
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Designing Materials to Regenerate the Body | Video (flash)
Sarah Heilshorn, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Surgeons currently use common industrial materials inside the body to replace damaged body parts. For example, hip implants are made from the same material as golf clubs, and vascular bypasses are often made from the same material as raincoats. However, if we want to replace more complicated body parts like heart tissue or the spinal cord, we need better materials. Learn about the new materials being designed at Stanford that can imitate the natural tissue found inside your body. These materials could help promote regeneration after spinal cord injury, stroke, or degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.
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