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The time for bioengineering
is now
Students form
popular bioengineering society
by Sara
Peters
| 
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Members of the Princeton Bioengineering Society,
clockwise from left, are Justin Cohen, David Chen, Gayle
Love, Brian Greenwald, Yoni Goldwasser, and Jackie Ng.
Alyssa Monsen and Phillippe Inagaki are not pictured.
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There’s
no use denying it. The bioengineering bug has spread through
campus with all the speed and verve of a wildfire.
One of the most telling signs of this epidemic is the success
of the new Princeton Bioengineering Society (PBS), a student-run
organization that has quickly racked up a list of 183 members
from 21 departments.
Attendance for all the group’s events has been between
80 and 100 people, and the society leaders estimate that there
is a core group of about 60 members who are actively involved
and strongly interested in the organization.
PBS is led by a council of eight, which functions mainly as
a steering committee, defining the organization’s purpose,
guiding it to its goals, and facilitating the projects of its
members.
Idea takes shape
The society was conceived back in April, in the mind of Brian
Greenwald ’05, a chemistry major and PBS president.
Brian reflected upon his Princeton journey, recalling how he
traversed the campus looking for a place where his interest
in bioengineering could bloom. He began as a chemical engineering
major, then moved to molecular biology, finally settling on
chemistry.
“I realized that there were so many students who were
interested in bioengineering who just didn’t know where
to go,” Brian said. “Part of PBS’s goal is
to be sort of a focal point for bioengineering on campus.”
The main purpose of the Society is to be a hub of information
on the topic of bioengineering and to mediate discussion between
undergraduates, graduate students, and professors.
“We went for a project-based structure with a council
to lead it,” said Yoni Goldwasser ’04,
a chemistry major and PBS vice president. “The idea is
to keep it open, and give everyone the chance to come up with
ideas. The council’s purpose is to facilitate these ideas
happening, and help with organization, advice, and money. But
the project leader is really in charge of the project, with
all the responsibility and the glory. It seems to be working.
We’re happy with it.”
The current council includes Brian and Yoni, as well as vice
president number two, Justin Cohen ’05
a molecular biology major, David Chen ’05,
an electrical engineering major, and Jackie Ng ’06,
Alyssa Monsen ’05, Phillippe
Inagaki ’04, and Gayle Love
’06, operations research and financial engineering majors.
First projects
One of the first projects on the council’s agenda was
to push for the University to establish a new major in bioengineering.
Yet after some discussion with Peter Bogucki,
associate dean for undergraduate affairs in the School of Engineering
and Applied Science, the society has adjusted its view on this
issue.
“When I first spoke to Dean Bogucki, I was saying ‘We
need a department! We demand it! The people are revolting!’”
Brian said. Dean Bogucki persuaded Brian that a lot could be
done to address student interest in bioengineering without creating
a new department.
The Princeton Bioengineering Society provides a framework for
connecting the activity at Princeton in engineering and science
fields at the interface between the life sciences and technology.
“Bioengineering is best done when you have a proficiency
in one field and apply it to another,” Brian said. “The
biggest discoveries in science are happening at this interface.”
Currently, Princeton’s best outlet for students interested
in bioengineering has been the engineering biology certificate
in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Professor Robert
Prud’homme heads up the program, which has been in existence
since 1993 and gave certificates to seven students last year.
Yet the society has discovered that many students are not aware
that the engineering biology certificate program even exists.
“I didn’t know about it until this year,”
Yoni said. “And I’m a senior.”
One of the Society’s purposes is to increase the visibility
of the certificate program. They made steps toward this goal
with a December event at which Professor Prud’homme described
the program to interested students.
Guest speakers
Other events have included a talk by a bioengineering venture
capitalist, and a forum at which four Princeton professors briefly
described their bioengineering research.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Wolé Soboyejo,
Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Ron Weiss, Chemistry
Professor Jeffrey Schwartz, and Psychology Professor James Haxby
gave the basics of their research in 15-minute presentations.
“We think more about what people might want to attend
than we think about what we would like to do,” Yoni said.
“We wanted this event to be more conceptual so people
could come, listen, understand, and get ideas of what is possible
with bioengineering. We weren’t looking for speakers who
were going to show a lot of numbers and charts.”
“We also chose speakers from four different fields,”
Justin said, “and I don’t think any of them were
quintessentially bioengineering. Psychology and electrical engineering
aren’t what you first associate with bioengineering. We’re
trying to have an interdisciplinary approach.”
“I guess our main market is undergraduates,” Brian
said. “So we try to keep that in mind.”
Other projects the society is working on are peer advising,
high school outreach, a paid internship through PBS, and a bioengineering
journal written for a general audience. Yoni envisions the journal
being written in the style of a general-interest magazine such
as Scientific American, thus making it readable to a wide audience.
For more information about the Princeton Bioengineering Society
see www.princeton.edu/~pbs.
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Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Ann Haver-Allen and Sara Peters
|
The
staff of EQuad News has received two awards
of merit for feature writing in the annual Silver Quill
Awards competition sponsored by the Philadelphia chapter
of the International Association of Business Communicators.
The first award recognizes the series “Pioneer
research blazes the trail,” which appeared in
the summer 2002 issue
(www.princeton.edu/~seasweb/eqnews/summer02/feature6.html).
The series was written by Sara Peters (SEAS
communications office) and Steven Schultz (University’s
communications office), and edited by Ann Haver-Allen
(SEAS communications office) and Alicia G. Brzycki
(University’s communications office).
The second feature award recognizes the series “Meeting
in uncharted waters,” which appeared in the fall
2002 issue (www.princeton.edu/~seasweb/eqnews/fall02/feature3.html).
This series was written by Ms. Peters, Peter
Page (freelancer), David Barry
(freelancer), and Mr. Schultz, and edited by Ms. Haver-Allen
and Ms. Brzycki.
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