The Lassonde School of Engineering at York University hosted a Bio-engineering Symposium in partnership with the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Health and the Office of the Associate Vice-President Research & Innovation. The inaugural event, which took place on Wednesday, Nov. 18, was held in the newly opened Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence and it attracted more than 100 attendees.
The one-day symposium was designed to bring research from the three Faculties together, with a goal of stimulating collaboration, discussion and internal partnerships. Faculty members presented 20 short talks that introduced the audience to their research. Presenters also answered questions from the audience.
“The Bio-engineering Symposium, the first of its kind at York, allows our sister Faculties to come together in a collaborative way and explore synergies in this exciting, emerging field,” said Spiros Pagiatakis, associate dean of research and graduate studies at Lassonde. “Lassonde School of Engineering is committed to supporting bio-engineering as a strategic research priority and as a future platform for the development of bio-engineering program at York.”
There was a wide variety of subjects discussed, including micro-fluid devices for Alzheimer’s disease, nano-networking systems, wireless technology and wearable medical devices, visualization of biomedical data, waste-water treatment, bio-inspired robotics, diagnostic of pre-clinical conditions, miniaturization of sensors, cancer detection, 3D organ printing and bio-mimetic tissues.
As a result of the symposium, faculty members identified new opportunities and were able to meet colleagues with complementary skill sets. Faculty and research teams are using the connections established to begin follow-up discussions on how to work together in the future.
Following these discussions and collaborations, York University will create an online virtual bio-engineering network to build connections and further the research in this field. The Faculties will work together to organize other events, such as the Graduate Bio-engineering Symposium.