Members of the 2024 Cornell BMES Board together in front of Weill Hall.
Cornell's Graduate Student Chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
The Graduate Student Chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) at Cornell promotes biomedical engineering through research, educational outreach, and advocacy of engineering approaches to biology and human health. We provide avenues for our members to develop professionally, socially, and personally, as well as contribute to the community inside and outside of Cornell. Learn more about our activities in this BMES Graduate Student Group spotlight.
Follow our Twitter page (@CUbmes) for more details about events and opportunities to get involved!
Cornell BMES Graduate Student Chapter is seeking alumni engagements with our student body. We'd love to hear if you're interested in participating! Get in touch using our alumni interest google form.
Professional Development
BMES hosts an annual research symposium for students to present and discuss their work.
Throughout the year, Cornell BME hosts numerous professional development events for graduate students. The annual Cornell BMES Research Symposium allows students to present both their research and their best self. Many biomedical technology companies have sponsored the symposium for the last four years and brought representatives to interact with students. Some of our past sponsors include West Pharmaceutical Services, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Angel Medical Systems, Becton, Dickinson and Co., and Bose-Electroforce.
The BMES Professional Development Committee also organizes events each semester for biomedical engineering graduate students. Past activities include site tours and visits to the Jacobs Institute and Baxter Corporation in New York State, seminars and coffee sessions with local industry representatives, and luncheons with academic guest speakers.
Outreach
The BMES outreach community is active on campus and in the greater Ithaca community with several events and conferences. While we currently focus on bringing STEM programming to children in the local and regional communities, we aim to serve all populations. Below is a sampling of some or our recent outreach events:
Working with Girls Scouts on STEM projects.
Girl Scout Engineering Day (GSED)
For one day each semester, BMES hosts ~150-200 girl scouts at Cornell for a day of events where we introduce various fields of engineering. In the spring, we focus our interactive programming on biomedical engineering. In the fall we focus on engineering disciplines beyond biomedical engineering.
Expanding Your Horizons (EYH)
Through the Cornell-wide Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) event, BMES designs and leads a series of interactive workshops to introduce biomedical engineering concepts to young girls. EYH serves middle- and high-school girls from throughout New York State, with a particular interest in working with girls from rural and underserved backgrounds.
Highway clean-up community service.
Family Science Nights for Ithaca Sciencenter
The Ithaca Sciencenter invites our graduate BMES chapter to host public events that aim to inspire excitement for science in young students, especially in more rural, underserved communities. Our chapter leads interactive science demonstrations that allow many young students to participate in astronomy and earth science, chemistry, optics, genetic engineering, and robotics demonstrations.
Senior center medical literacy talks
For the past two years, BMES has hosted a medical literacy event for seniors at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC). This programming provides information about common diseases among the aging population. The goal of these talks is to give seniors information that can help them advocate for their health at the doctor’s office. Topics covered in the past include musculoskeletal health, cardiovascular health, and diabetes.
Highway clean-up
Our BMES chapter has organized a highway clean-up as a community service project to help clean our local area. Our stretch of highway is located in Pleasant Grove. This year, we got two groups together to clean up the area once a semester.
Community hike to Taughannock Falls.
Community and belonging
Every year the BMES board organizes social events to promote a sense of community and belonging within the department. This has included happy hours, trivia nights, and (pre-pandemic) department holiday parties with faculty and staff, which greatly increases student and faculty interaction! We also set up movie nights to increase cultural awareness, game nights, and our annual wine tour around the local Finger Lakes wineries.
Use our giving link or contact Stephanie Michalec (sma92@cornell.edu) for other options. Check if your company would like to match your donation as well. Any contribution is welcomed, and we have award tiers, where we would show our appreciation at our sponsored events.
