On Wednesday, May 22, 2002 The School of School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems proudly held a Research Awards Celebration. During this event, we acknowledged achievement in the following areas:

**Senior Design Awards**
The Senior Design Committee, in consultation with several additional faculty judges, has selected the top three Senior Design teams based on their final presentations.

1st Place Team
Development of Factor Containing Biodegradable Closures for Use in Laparoscopic Bile Duct Anastomosis
• Rachael Horn
• Diana Lau
• James Murphy
• Hemali Patel

Advisor: Drs. Margaret Wheatley. Ari Brooks, and DR. Jaydec Desai

2nd Place Team
A Novel Nanofiber-Based Drug Delivery System for Wound Healing
• Stacey Calautti
• Alice Gitau
• Sharron King

Advisors: Drs. Dhiendra Katti, Cato Laurencin, and Frank Ko

3rd Place Team
Universal Polyethylene Liner for Artificial Hip Revision Surgery
• Alyson Dussinger
• Matthew Klimash
• Marcie Massaro

Advisors: Drs. Steve Kurtz and Michael Herr


**Research Day Awards**
Several faculty and students of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems received awards at the Research Day 2002 in the following categories:


Venture Fair Winners
Baiada Center Business Plan 1st Place Winner
THERiMAGE - The definition of targeted therapeutic imaging. This group won Phase I and II prices that total $1250. As finalists, THERiMAGE received a $15,000 award.

• Dalia El-Sherif,
• Paul Bidez,
• Eric Troop,
• Raymond Ro
(Advisor: Dr. Margaret A. Wheatley)

Baiada Center Business Plan 2nd Place Winner
The group named “Enhanced Tissue-Joining Device Delivering Bioactive Closures” was also Phase I and II winners with prices for $1250. In addition, as the second place finalist, this team received a $10,000 award.

• Hemali Patel,
• Todd Rohn,
• Diane Lau,
• Charles Harakal,
• Gregory Tholey,
• Jim Murphy,
• Rachel Horn
(Advisors: Drs. Margaret A. Wheatley, Jaydev P. Desai, and Ari Brooks)

Poster Awards in the area of Emerging Technologies: Graduate Students

Poster 218
IN VITRO AND IN VIVO TESTING OF PLGA CONTRAST AGENTS

• Dalia M. El-Sherif,
• Margaret A Wheatley

Poster 225
DESIGNING ENDOSKELETAL PROSTHESES BASED UPON THE MUSCULOSKELETAL STRUCTURE OF THE RECIPIENT

• Andrew L. Darling,
• Wei Sun

Special Academic Unit Poster Awards

Undergraduate Award for Biomedical Engineering
Poster 115M
INHIBITION, ISOLATION AND SEQUENCING OF AN ENDOGENEOUS PLATELET SERINE PROTEASE

• Seth Goldberg,
• Gerald Soslau

Graduate Award for Biomedical Engineering
Poster 229
ELECTROACTIVE POLYMERS FOR USE IN TISSUE ENGINEERING

• Elizabeth Guterman,
• Shan Cheng,
• Kolby Palouian,
• Paul Bidez,
• Peter Lelkes

**Synergy Grants**
These are ongoing collaborations initiated by the faculty and the students of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University with the faculty, students and researchers of various departments of MCP Hahnemann University. The following is a list of projects and faculty members who have received Synergy Grants in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems:

Designing & Testing the "Nano-Niche": An Optimalized Biomatrix to Promote Axonal Regeneration & Blood Vessel Formation in Spinal Cord Injury
Peter Lelkes (Drexel)
Itzhak Fisher (MCPHU)
Ajay Bakshi (MCPHU)
Amotz Geshury (Drexel)
Frank Ko (Drexel)

- A Novel Catheter for the Detection of Atherosclerotic Plaques Vulnerable to Rupture
Ryszard Lec (Drexel)
Jagat Narula (MCPHU)

- Development of a PiezoAcoustic BioNanoSensor
Ryszard Lec (Drexel)
Rick Rest (MCPHU)

- Fusion Shock Monitor for advanced patient monitoring
Han Ryoo (Drexel)
Herbert Patrick (MCPHU)

- Construction of Microfiber Probes for a Cortical Stimulation Neuroprosthetic and Experimental Instrument
Som Tyagi
Kambiz Pourrezaei (Drexel)
Simon Giszter (MCPHU)

**Northeast Bioengineering Awards**
There were several winners from the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems

The following is a list of winners from our school:

Undergraduate category
• Ngocyen Le - 2nd place poster for “Ultrasound Induced Degradation of Hollow Plga Microcapsules”
• Christina Randall - 3rd place poster for “Electrochemical Recordings of Monoamines Using a Novel Ceramic-Based Multi-Site Electrode”
• Ehren Carine - 1st place podium for “Localization of Electroencephalographic Signal Origins with Boundary Element Modeling in Intractable Human Epilepsy”
• Hemali Patel - 2nd place podium for “Utilizing Bioinformatics Approaches for Identifying Binding Sites in the Drosophila Genome for a Developmentally Important Transcription Factor Protein”

Graduate category
• Guglielmo Foffani - 1st place poster for “Adaptive Autoregressive Identification with “whale” Forgetting Function for Event Related” Desynchronization/synchronization Analysis”
• Dalia El-Sherif - 2nd place poster for " In Vitro and in Vivo Testing of Plga Contrast Agents”
• Saravanan Kanakasabai - 3rd place poster for “Alginate Strings and Their Applications in Spinal Injury”
• Emil Radulescu - 2nd place podium for “Performance Evaluation of Wideband Ultrasound Hydrophone Probes Beyond 20 Mhz”
• John Quinn - 3rd place podium for “Classification of Pharmaceutical Toxicity by Feature Analysis”