Vol. 3 No. 1 September 2004

The BioTECH Quarterly

Inter-chapter Relations: letter from UCSD BMES President

By Shirley Lee, UCSD BMES President
   

MIT BMES President Alexis DeSieno met with UCSD BMES
Executive Board over dinner at Friday’s in San Diego this summer.

Dear MIT students,

    Welcome back to school!

    Having lived in California my whole life, this summer in Cambridge has been a great and exciting adventure for me. Interning at a local company, I was able to experience Boston life first hand – enjoying the scenic Charles, rides on the T, walking through Downtown, and exploring the many college campuses in the area.

    Being here all summer, I wasn't about to let the opportunity of meeting some MIT BMES officers slip by. Alexis and I began to correspond through e-mails (since we had apparently switched coasts) and I was able to attend an officer meeting. We have exchanged many thoughts, including ideas on how to promote membership and how to link our chapters in a productive and meaningful way.

MIT BMES President Alexis DeSieno met with UCSD BMES Executive Board over dinner at Friday’s in San Diego this summer.

    Without saying more, let me introduce you to the BMES chapter at University of California — San Diego (UCSD) with the following piece:

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Biomedical Engineering Society at UCSD

Shirley Lee ’06, BMES President 2004-05
Eun Hee Han ’04, BMES President 2003-04

    The UCSD Biomedical Engineering Society undergraduate chapter was established in 1985. Since then, UCSD BMES has been active in promoting biomedical engineering among the undergraduate students. Our chapter of BMES has been rapidly expanding throughout the last few years and offers students a broad range of activities to enrich their social, academic, and professional development.

    We have established an outreach program that allows students to inspire elementary school children to develop interests in science and engineering and a mentor program that matches freshmen and sophomores with upperclassmen who can provide guidance and advice.

We also sponsor quarterly Industry Nights that expose students to company profiles and possible career paths, graduate student and alumni panels that provide insights into grad school and industry, and graduate school application workshops for those who have decided to apply.

    These events and programs would not have been successful without the support of the Bioengineering Department. Some of these events started out as grand ideas that we dreamed about. But our faculty advisor Dr. Sah, undergraduate advisor Margene Wight, and Department Chair Dr. Chien enabled us to turn these visions into reality. They helped us with contacts, locations, A-V equipment, publicity, food for hungry students and constant encouragement.

    We have been able to accomplish much in the last few years, but like any other organization, we are always looking for ways to improve. Some of our chapter’s goals for the coming years include strengthening student membership, fostering professor/student relations, increasing inter-organization collaborations, and solidifying national involvement.

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    I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about the BMES chapter at UCSD and invite you to visit our website for more information <http://bmes.ucsd.edu>. Your officers have worked hard to make a discussion board on your website, and we should work hard to use it to its fullest for inter-chapter discussions. I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to network with fellow bioengineers across the country, and who knows what type of collaborations we can make and what we can achieve if we work together?

    It’s been a pleasure to be here in Boston, and I’d like to thank the MIT BMES officers for their great communication and camaraderie. I sincerely look forward to continuing this rewarding relationship between our chapters.

Best regards,
Shirley H. Lee
President, UCSD BMES