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cuaengineer Biomedical Engineering Spearheads New Collaborations with FDA A longstanding informal collaborative relationship between CUA’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was formalized and extended in 2009 through an official memorandum of understanding (MOU), approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CUA. The MOU includes extended collaborations with and access to FDA faculty and staff for research and academic offerings, shared research equipment and facilities at FDA, opportunities for graduate student internships and fellowships, and mentorship of undergraduate research activities. The effort was spearheaded by Isaac Chang, Ph.D., deputy director of the Division of Physics within the Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories at FDA, and Binh Tran, chair of biomedical engineering. CUA is one of only 13 universities in the United States with MOU agreements with FDA. The MOU between CUA and FDA will strengthen an already exceptional relationship, particularly with the recent relocation of FDA’s core laboratories to White Oak in Silver Spring, Md., about seven miles from the CUA campus. Even before the founding of the biomedical engineering department in 1998, CUA faculty collaborated with research being conducted at the FDA, beginning with the formative Home Care Technologies Workshop in 1999 and continuing with many exchanges throughout the past 10 years. Prior to the signing of the memorandum, for example, FDA and CUA co-hosted the first Metropolitan Biophotonics Symposium on April 6, which brought to campus nearly 80 researchers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and neighboring institutions, such as NIH’s National Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and others. The symposium was organized by Jessica Ramella-Roman, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Josh Pfefer, Ph.D., from the FDA. (See related story, page 15). In addition, in spring 2009, former FDA researcher Carl DeMarco, Ph.D., worked with faculty of biomedical engineering to design, develop and present a new graduate-level course called Medical Device Design and Regulation. In addition to the benefit of DeMarco’s many years of experience at FDA in device regulation, this unique course offered students specialized insight into regulatory aspects of medical device design and monitoring. With the MOU, co-sponsored opportunities and courses are anticipated. Electrical Engineering to Offer New Concentration on Alternative and Renewable Energy Energy is the lifeblood of our modern, technological world. And it’s beginning to look as if we’re going need a transfusion soon. According to the Energy Information Administration, global energy consumption is expected to grow by about 70 percent in the next 20 years. Much of that additional energy is expected to come from energy sources that are described as “green,” “renewable,” or “alternative.” The June 2008 issue of The Economist reported that global investment in sustainable energy grew from about $90 billion in 2006 to about $150 billion in 2007. Investment in sustainable energy is predicted to grow at an increasing rate over the next decade. With all the investments in alternative energy and the predictions of a “green energy revolution,” it is clear that the next decade will demand a new generation of scientists, engineers and technicians. With that green future in mind, the School of Engineering recently endorsed a new track on Alternative and Renewable Energy. This curriculum, offered by the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will not constitute a new degree, but rather lead students to a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree, with a concentration on alternative energy systems. The approved curriculum consists of an “engineering core” (taken by all engineering students during the first four semesters), an “electrical engineering core” (including all the most important topics in modern electrical engineering), and five upper-level courses that are specific to alternative and renewable energy. These courses include: • An Introduction to Alternative Energy • The Theory of Photovoltaics • The Applications of Photovoltaics • Batteries, Fuel-Cells, and Energy Storage • Gas-Electric Hybrid and Electric Vehicles If all goes as planned, these new courses will be shared among several departments, including physics, chemistry, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. In addition to having students enrolled in the alternative energy track, organizers of this new program hope to attract students from a variety of disciplines to enroll in these courses as program electives. The first course, An Introduction to Alternative Energy, will be offered in fall 2009. The school hopes to begin officially enrolling students in the program then, with the full curriculum being offered every year beginning in the fall of 2010. If you have any questions about the alternative energy track, please feel free to contact Associate Professor Scott Mathews at mathewss@cua.edu. Professor Scott Mathews 14 | cuaengineer
cuaengineer School of Engineering Hosts Metropolitan Biophotonics Symposium In recent years, research in biophotonics — the science of generating and harnessing light (photons) to image and detect diseases such as cancer — performed in the Washington, D.C., region has increased dramatically. At this one-day symposium, chaired by Catholic University’s Jessica Ramella-Roman, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Josh Pfefer, optical diagnostics laboratory leader at the Food and Drug Administration, more than 20 experts from CUA and other D.C. area colleges and universities and several federal agencies came together to discuss important issues in the field. In two morning and two afternoon sessions, four scientists in the field gave 15-minute presentations on aspects of light-tissue interaction, microscopy and optical coherence tomography, nanophotonics and molecular imaging, and macro imaging. Among the presenters were Paul Lemaillet, postdoctoral fellow, and Baohong Yuan, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, both from Catholic University. Experts gather at CUA for biophotonic symposium. Engineering Establishes Collaborative Agreements with Local Community Colleges More and more engineering students are choosing to attend community college to complete preengineering studies, with the intent of transferring to university engineering programs to complete their upper-division training. Recognizing this trend in education, the School of Engineering began discussions to establish transfer agreements with local area community colleges this year. “Within biomedical engineering, we’ve seen an increase in transfer students joining our biomedical engineering program in recent years,” said Professor Binh Q. Tran, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Working closely with transfer coordinators at local community colleges will only improve the process, benefit students joining our programs and better prepare transfer students for success at CUA.” Tran and Colleen Sullivan, enrollment coordinator for biomedical engineering, are working with transfer coordinators at community colleges to evaluate and develop course mappings to CUA’s own curricula in order to facilitate the student transfer process. A transfer agreement was formalized during the summer of 2009 with Anne Arundel Community College (Arnold, Md.) is in place for academic year 2009–10. Negotiations with Howard County Community College (Columbia, Md.) are underway. Each year, transfer students comprise approximately 10 percent of CUA’s new enrollment. Professor Jessica Ramella-Roman gives opening remarks. Plenary speaker Robert Nordstrom, Ph.D., program director of the Cancer Imaging Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, gave an overview of new biophotonics imaging techniques and their utility. Compared to more established techniques such as MRI, X-ray and ultrasound, biophotonics, which uses nonionizing radiation, is high resolution and noninvasive and offers definite advantages. As an emerging area of scientific research that uses light and other forms of radiant energy to explore the inner workings of cells and tissues in living organisms, biophotonics enables researchers to see, measure, analyze and manipulate living tissues in ways that have not been possible before. It is used in medicine to study tissue and blood at the macro (large-scale) and micro (very small-scale) organism level to detect, diagnose and treat diseases in ways that are noninvasive to the body. “Articulation agreements with local community colleges will help the School of Engineer, CUA as a whole and individual students,” said Erin Zimmerer, associate director of undergraduate admissions. “With a blueprint in place for students, they can see ahead of time which courses they need to take at their school and where those will fit in if they transfer to CUA. By doing this, the School of Engineering makes the process more transparent and easy for everyone to understand. The ability to see an academic track as a transfer student cannot be underestimated as part of a student’s decision in what school to attend.” fall2009 | 15
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