By: Yelaine Aguilar
If you ask an elementary schooler who attended the UF Biomedical Engineering STEM Outreach Day to explain what a brain looks like, he or she might compare the skull to an Oreo, the blood to Jello and the dura mater to red candy strips.
The candy brain was one of many activities at Saturday’s event in the J. Wayne Reitz Union Rion Ballroom aimed to educate K-12 students in the world of biomedical engineering and related disciplines.
More than 350 attendees flocked to the University of Florida from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., ready for a science-filled day.
The event is the first of its kind for the UF J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, offering activities from labs and science clubs across campus, public lectures from UF professors and guided tours of the Herbert Wertheim Laboratory for Engineering Excellence and the Neuromechanics of Mobility Lab.
“We had kids doing neuroscience and bioelectronics,” said Edward Phelps, UF Associate professor, referencing how the Dr. May Mansy’s Instrumentation Lab brought in an electrocardiogram that let kids monitor their heartbeat. “I think that’s really cutting-edge science, and we made it into activities we could do in a public setting.”
Phelps, founder of the Pancreatic Cellular and Biomaterials Engineering Lab at UF, represented his research in type 1 diabetes with a booth where kids could experiment with hydrogels.
He came up with the idea for a STEM Outreach Day after taking his kids to outreach
events from the geology and math departments on campus. He felt the need to do the same for biomedical engineering. Twenty-eight activities represented the field and covered every research area from the department, as well as from other engineering disciplines doing biomedical-related work, Phelps said.
Jennifer Nichols, UF associate professor and director of the Musculoskeletal
Biomechanics Lab, set up a table where kids made licorice models of the different muscles in the body. She hoped kids would see the broad and wide-reaching applications of biomedical engineering.
“If we inspire kids to pay a little bit more attention in science class or go find an area of biomedical engineering that they want to pursue,” Nichols said, “that would be great.”
Nichols has contributed to breakthrough research at the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Lab. In her public lecture across from the Rion Ballroom, she talked about using artificial intelligence to make personalized models of how people move. According to Nichols, using AI to automate the creation of biomechanics models would speed up the process from three months to mere minutes. The next step is to use these models on patients with chronic diseases.
“As soon as you can model hand osteoarthritis or a neurodegenerative disease, you can actually put that in a clinic and have it help inform personalized care,” Nichols said.
UF Athletics applies these same technologies to protect student athletes from injuries on and off the playing field.
Austin Kratish, a homeschooled seventh grader accompanied by his mother Lorena Kratish, enjoyed the Ferris Lab’s booth that connected physical strength to biomechanics. He said can see himself making a difference in the world of biomechanical athletics.
“I like to play football and work out a lot, so it’s interesting,” Kratish said. “I could find new ways to help with injuries in sports.”
Stefanie Marquez, a research and development scientist at Axogen, Inc, came from Tampa with her husband and two young children. She wanted to give her kids the opportunity to explore possibilities in STEM.
“It’s important to spark creativity and curiosity in younger people,” Marquez said. She added that she hopes the event happens every year.
Phelps shared Marquez’s sentiments. While this year’s event was supported by a gift from a private foundation, he is looking for funding to make the outreach day an annual experience.
“My favorite thing was to see the smiles on everyone’s faces and how engaged and how much fun everyone was having with science,” Phelps said. “This was something that will create lasting memories in these kids that hopefully inspire them going forward.”