Meinig School hosts the 8th-annual Industry Engagement Day and Project Showcase

May 15, 2024

On Friday, May 10, the Meinig School hosted the eighth-annual industry engagement day and project showcase for its Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) students. The day-long event, held in Weill Hall, brought students together with faculty, alumni and professional attendees to connect with the breadth of talent in the school’s M.Eng. program. Participating industry sponsors included West Pharmaceutical, BD, Baxter, and Med Dimensions, as well as physician attendees from Weill Cornell Medicine and program alumni from Hospital for Special Surgery. There were many other companies represented by alumni and non-sponsor attendees.

Organized by Meinig School M.Eng. director and professor of practice Newton de Faria, the program featured a keynote talk by alum Alex Deyle ’06, M.Eng. ’07, VP and general manager at Flatiron Health, who shared his career insights and experiences. His keynote was complemented by career panel sessions with early career and seasoned professionals who spoke about their companies, their challenges, and their pathway to success in the biomedical field. The afternoon session featured a project design showcase at which students showed and demonstrated their year-long design projects with industry sponsors.

“We were again impressed by the caliber of the students,” said Will Byron, CTO and founder of Med Dimensions, LLC, of the event, a past sponsor who this year supported a project on monitoring behavior in small animals with diabetes. “They not only tackle technical hurdles but also delve into market viability. As a startup focused on innovative solutions for the underserved veterinary market, Med Dimensions greatly benefits from their unique perspective and skillset outside our core expertise. This allows us to test product-market fit with greater speed and effectiveness, accelerating our mission.”

Susan Panullo and Tamatha Fenster stand together at event — Susan Pannullo, M.D. and Tamatha Fenster, M.D.

Students were especially fortunate to visit with physician mentor-sponsors Susan Pannullo, M.D., professor of clinical neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and adjunct professor at the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, and Tamatha Fenster, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine and director of biotechnology and innovation at Weill Cornell Medicine's Fibroid and Adenomyosis Center.

“It was a privilege to work with Dr. de Faria and these ambitious students this past year,” said Fenster, who worked with a team on building a non-pharmacological treatment option for chronic pelvic pain. “Their passion for women's health care was palpable, and wonderful developments came from the unification of bench engineering and real-world medical needs. I know they will be successful with any future engineering projects they choose, and I also developed friends and colleagues for life!” Their ‘TammyCup - Intravaginal Neural Stimulation Device’ team won second place in the showcase design competition.

This year’s student cohort benefitted from two medical students, Kyle Zappi and Myles Wood, who were enrolled in the one-year professional M.D.-M.Eng. program. Designed to accelerate engineering innovations in medicine, the cross-campus program allows students at Weill Cornell Medicine to earn an M.Eng. degree while in medical school.

“These students actively participated in multiple neurosurgery-related projects,” said de Faria. “including ‘development of a novel craniosynostosis distractor system’, the ‘design of a real-time monitoring system for hydrocephalus patients with ventriculoperitoneal shunts’ and ‘management of hydrocephalus through third ventriculostomy for pediatric patients.’”

“I am particularly proud of our M.D./M.Eng. students and the unique perspectives they bring to both biomedical engineering and medicine,” said Pannullo, who advised on several of the projects.

Keynote Speaker Alex Deyle ’06, M.Eng. ’07,

Following the showcase, student teams participated in a pitch competition presented to all attendees. Student design projects were entered into three competitions. Descriptions and the winners of which are as follows:

2024 Project Showcase competition winners

(for full design team descriptions, visit our M.Eng. commencement page):

Design Competition:

Judges evaluated the success of each team’s trajectory through the year on criteria including: business case, engineering, creativity, quality and merit, overall competence in design, and impact.