MEETINGS

Previous BMES Meetings

Hartford: 2011 BMES Annual Meeting

Thomas J. Webster
Chair, BMES 2011 Annual Meeting

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Student volunteers prepare for meeting

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BMES student members provide much needed help in preparing for the 2011 BMES Annual Meeting. These students filled three thousand BMES bags with program guides, a variety of other educational material and much more.

Austin meeting exceeds expectations

By Edward Schilling
BMES Executive Director

BMES 2010 Annual Meeting Registration The BMES Annual Meeting in Austin last week set new records for attendance, platform sessions and posters presentations.

Preliminary figures indicate attendance eclipsed 3,100, representing the best attended BMES Annual Meeting ever. The 2010 Austin meeting exceeded attendance at BMES 2009 by 20%!

New professional networking and social networking opportunities were well attended and in some cases, sold-out. Our daily news feeds kept attendees informed about the previous day's highlights and key activities for the day. Our Twitter feed allowed attendees to share their experiences on a real-time basis and improved communication among attendees.

Many thanks to our host, the University of Texas and in particular to Meeting chair Christine Schmidt and Program chair Krish Roy for their hard work.

To view photos of the 2010 meeting, CLICK HERE.

To view the 2010 Program Book, CLICK HERE.

Austin 2010: Great meeting made better by great speakers

By Richard Waugh
BMES President

As I write this, I am just back from the Austin meeting. What an outstanding meeting! Kudos to meeting chair Christine Schmidt and program chair Krish Roy for an outstanding job!

Also, a big thank you to our superb office staff led by Ed Schilling and our meetings coordinator Debbie Tucker. It was perhaps the smoothest and best run BMES meetings that I can remember, and on behalf of all the speakers, presenters and attendees, I thank all involved for the hard work that went into making it happen.

I was particularly impressed by the plenary talks, which I felt were uniformly outstanding. Rebecca Richards-Khortum set the pace with a moving account of the role that Biomedical Engineers can and should play in improving health care worldwide, and of the special contributions we can make in disadvantaged communities, particularly in the third world.

Nick Peppas followed with a personal account of the impact that Biomedical Engineering can have on the quality of life of patients, and reminded us all of the importance of striving to improve not just the effectiveness of various diagnoses and treatments, but also ease with which patients can access the treatments they need.

On Saturday, Cynthia Reinhart King reported on her amazing progress in basic research to understand the role that environmental mechanics plays in angiogenesis – extraordinary accomplishments for a person so early in her career.

The last plenary was a truly inspirational talk by Gilda Barabino about the difficult path that under-represented minorities must traverse in order to be truly integrated, accepted and valued in our institutions. It reminded me that promoting diversity is not just about hiring people of color, it is also about changing the culture of our institutions so that all people feel welcome and valued, not just for the color of their skin, but the quality of their research and educational activities. Unconscious and unintended messages to the contrary are too often conveyed. All of us who heard Gilda’s talk had our eyes opened a little wider, and I hope that those who missed the talk will take the time to consider how each of us can work personally to make our communities more diverse.

On Saturday, the Board of Directors met to move forward with development of a strategic plan for the Society. We are larger and better run than we have been in our entire history, and it is an opportune time to take strategic steps to ensure that we will continue to improve the value of the Society to our members and to the larger community. In future missives, I will be updating you on the progress of our efforts.

2,600 Attended Pittsburgh Event in 2009

PITTSBURGH. The 2009 Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting welcomed 2,602 attendees, announced Conference Chair Harvey Borovetz and Program Chair David Vorp, both members of the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, which hosted the event. The meeting, held October 7 through 10 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, was the largest ever hosted by the Society.

"It is a credit to the hard work of our chairs and BMES staff that we had such a large meeting this year," said Edward Schilling, executive director of the Biomedical Engineering Society. "Changes in our meeting format and a content-laden program attracted a large and diverse group of attendees."

More than 1,200 poster presentations filled the exhibit hall, resulting in crowded aisles for the universities and companies hosting exhibit booths. The shift to a convention center–based meeting with posters and exhibits in the same hall enhanced the appeal of the meeting to BMES members from industry, research, and academia.

Career Day, which kicked off the meeting, drew hundreds of undergraduates, graduate students, and early-career professionals on Wednesday, October 7. "Career Day presented a unique opportunity for young members in or about to enter our profession to get valuable job-search advice, make contacts, and network with the top researchers and employers in the country," said Schilling. Other highlights included a large number of alumni receptions hosted by participating universities.

Next year's annual meeting will be held in Austin, Texas, October 6–9, 2010, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. "We are expecting that more than 3,000 participants will attend the 2010 meeting," noted Jack D. Hart, assistant chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. "We look forward to building on Pittsburgh's success."