Bioengineering club wins national award for community outreach

Nearly 60 seventh and eighth grade students from local Philadelphia schools visited Penns Bioengineering Department this January. Students pulled apart spaghetti and measured its strength using a mechanical testing device, watched their muscles fire as they kicked their legs, participated in a lab on fluid mechanics and interacted with flying robots.

For its work increasing awareness about bioengineering among high school students and for its bioengineering mentorship program, Penns chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society won the national organizations Outreach Achievement Award.

Co-presidents Kush Mehta, an Engineering junior, and Ben Freedman, a 2014 Engineering graduate and current Engineering PhD student, will travel to San Antonio, Texas, in two weeks to receive the award and present the clubs achievements.

In addition to the department visit in January, Penns chapter also participates in a PennPals program, which matches freshman bioengineering students with local seventh and eighth grade students to mentor them on their science fair projects, and a mentoring program.

In terms of a hands-on experience, its something that [middle school students] have not had before, Freedman said of the January event.

Kids are really creative. They have a lot of untapped potential, Freedman added. [I enjoy] being able to probe some of their curiosity and have them ask questions and brainstorm.

Freedman said he has not heard of another engineering student group that runs a similar outreach program. Were all full-time in the lab and have everything else going on, so this is something that we do that is too much fun to pass up, he added. To have something completely student run is pretty unique and novel.

In his letter on behalf of Penns Biomedical Engineering Society chapter to the national society, Chair of the Bioengineering Department David Meaney commended the groups initiative.

I have not seen this much enthusiasm from our students in many years, and this particular set of students has really raised the bar for creating a community of scholars, giving back to the wider community, and having fun while they do it, the letter read.

Plans for the next outreach day are in the works, as well as a new initiative: a design competition. The vision is that college bioengineering students, including those from other nearby universities, will help teams of middle school students through a several-month long bioengineering design project.

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Bioengineering club wins national award for community outreach