This document provides information about upcoming events for the Bioengineering Organizational Alliance (BOA) student organization at UIC. It discusses building test kits for electro-surgery units with Engineering World Health, various volunteering opportunities through the Disability Resource Center and other organizations, an undergraduate big brother/big sister mentoring program, an art program, and tutoring resources available through BOA.

1. Bioengineering Organizational Alliance
GBM 1 [Spring 2012]

2. Overview
• Structure
• Awards
• Website
• What’s to come this semester
• Guest speakers
• Activities
• Casino night
• End of semester dinner
• elections
• Program/Organization Updates

3. Engineering World Health
Vishal Varma

4. Engineering World Health (EWH)
ESU Tester Kit Building Update
- Kits have arrived!
- EWH has been granted access to the newly
renovated BioE lab – SEL 4018
What are we building?
Electro-surgery unit testers. (These typically cost
$2,000, but EWH has created a tester that costs
18$)
Electro-surgery units are used to create incisions via
the use of high frequency electric current.
Did you know? “Typically 50 percent of medical
equipment in developing country health facilities is
out of service and as much as 70 percent of
donated medical equipment does not work.”

5. Engineering World Health (EWH)
Kit building sessions Info
Where: SEL 4018
When: Every non-BOA GBM Thursday, 4pm – 6pm
– Time conflict with other lab sessions in SEL 4018
– If we are holding a session, it’ll be on the website calendar
What: 50 ESU testers kits
– We will hold sessions until either all of them are built
Who: YOU – BOA MEMBERS

6. Engineering World Health (EWH)
First Kit Building Session: (Tentative)
Thursday Jan 26th, 2012
Little minute details remains, hopefully sorted out by next Thursday.
We will send out an email if this doesn’t work.
Requires:
- Simple soldering; again, we’ll train you if you have no prior experience.
- A lil’ courage: Only one person burnt himself (twice) so far
We plan on shipping these kits back to EWH so they can be sent to
developing countries this semester.

7. Other EWH opportunities:
1) EWH Summer Institute (Deadline Jan 28th)
Sent out info in email to all BioEs.
Two Month Program - Put Your Engineering Skills To Work In the Developing
World
First Month: The first month is spent learning the knowledge and skills
necessary to successfully work in a hospital in the developing world.
Second Month: During the second month teams of students work
independently putting their new skills to use helping disadvantaged hospitals.
Want more details?
Email vvarma4@uic.edu for more info

8. Other EWH opportunities:
2) EWH Design Competition (Deadline Jan 27th)
An annual design competition that is unique in being directed at the needs of
developing country health care.
A competition geared towards your device’s impact on Global Healthcare.
EX: An automatic, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring system powered by a cell
phone
A low-cost device to measure oxygen concentration output from oxygen
concentrators in hospitals of resource-poor settings.
What can you submit?
- Senior Design Projects
- Independent research projects
EWH/BOA will fund travelling expenses and such.
Email vvarma4@uic.edu if interested.

9. Keep in Touch
• Email either of us or boa.uic@gmail.com
• Facebook : Add Boa At Uic and Like Bioengineering
Organizational Alliance
• Twitter: Follow @BOAatUIC
• Google plus : Add BOA UIC to your circles
• Phone: 847-886-9575 call OR text Chaitra
IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE TEXT
LISTERV & WANT TO BE, LET
CHAITRA KNOW :)

10. Suggestion Box & Stamps
• If you have any concerns or comments
at all and don’t want to tell us personally,
put it in the suggestion box located in the
BioE office
• If you deserve stamps, please please let us know!
Don’t miss out on the fun prizes! And stay involved !
• REMINDER: 1 stamp for every 4 GBMs
you attend! 1 stamp for adding us on
FB/Twitter OR Google + ( only 1 for 3)

11. Undergraduate Big Brother Big Sister Program
• One on one mentor/mentee program for undergraduates
• Freshmen/Sophomores – Sign up to be Mentees
• Juniors/Seniors – Sign up to be Mentors
• We will contact you asking you to fill out a info form
• i.e: gender, concentration, interests, location, etc..
• We will match pairs based on the answers
• We will encourage/facilitate frequent contact between pairs
• There will be a monthly meeting for pairs to mingle
• Sign up to receive more info and be informed of when meetings
are !

12. BioE Art Program
• Open Art program!
• Submit any type of art to
boa.uic@gmail.com all semester long
• i.e: sketches, paintings, 3D
things, poetry, videos, digital shorts, etc
• We will display this artwork on the website, in the BioE
department, on the screen, and wherever else we can!
• Deadline is the Friday before the last week of classes
• At the end of the semester, the best artwork will be
awarded cash prizes! 

13. BioE Art Program Contest
• We will also have mini contests throughout
• First mini contest:
• Design a logo for the BVP program
• Second mini contest:
• Design a logo for the OSLP Program
• Look for an email for deadline and more info!

14. Community Outreach Program
Upcoming Events

15. Bowling For Charity
Did you like last semester’s Bowling Event?
Did you happen to miss it, but still are interested to come?
“Bowling for Charity”
Come up with teams to face off
Collect pledges from Professors, students, etc.
Per pin knocked down, total donation, etc.

16. BOA Bake Sale
Need Volunteers
 Help set up location + tables
 Operate the table
 Bring in (baked) food to sell
 Week of Valentine’s Day

17. Volunteering at
DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER
READERS/SCRIBES FOR EXAMS
Looking for upper-class undergraduate and graduate students from a variety
of disciplines who are interested in serving as readers and/or scribes for
our department
Readers and scribes serve those students who need assistance in
accessing their exam materials.
A reader reads the exam questions word for word to the student with a
disability.
A scribe writes word for word the answers the student with a disability
provides.
Students will be eligible to receive a gift card to the University Bookstore for
their services.

18. Volunteering at
DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER
If you are interested in signing up to be a reader/scribe, please send the
following information to Caitlyn Smith at csmith95@uic.edu:
-Name
-Major
-Status (undergraduate-including class standing, graduate)
-Subject areas you feel comfortable working with
-Foreign Language knowledge (if any)
-Availability during the semester
(Reading/scribing occurs at the DRC between 9 and 4 Monday through Friday)

19. Interested?
Contact us:
kkerwell12@gmail.com
madsas.sasi@gmail.com

20. Big/Little “Sibling” Program
Arman Butt
January 19 2012

21. 2nd Year Phd
Biomolecular Engineering
Dr. Takoudis’ Advanced Material Research Lab (AMReL)
I am currently researching different surface and bulk materials for
implants such as dental and hip implants to improve longevity of
the implant by eliminating infection and corrosion due to wear
and bio-chemical attacks.

22. Possible Professional Programs
Dental School
Pharmacy
Medical School
– Doctor of Osteopathy (OD) = Fix your way of living
– Doctor of Medicine (MD) = Drug you up
– Specialized
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)/MS
Phd-MD/DO-MD
Etc.

23. Poll
Dental School?
Medical School?
– MD/DO?
Graduate school?
– PhD/MS?
Other?

24. FAQ’s
Money
– Medical School/Dental School
• on your own
– Graduate School
• PhD’s get funding in terms of tuition waivers and/or additional stipends minus some fees
• Depending on school, MS’ can also have similar funding (not all places though)
Time
– Medical/Dental school
• Depends on specialization, 4-10+ years
– MS/PhD
• 1-2 years / 3-5 years (up to 9 years)
Employment opportunities and income
– Supply and demand and economy
Requirements for acceptance
– GPA
– Experience
• Not only do you look interested in the field, but is a great source for recommendation letters
Deadlines

25. https://www.cs.uic.edu/pub/BIOE/BioeGrad/grad_handbook.pdf
This is the link to the graduate student
handbook with details for graduate school
uic.edu > department of bioengineering >
academics > graduate > Important Links >
“Graduate Student Handbook”

26. Graduate Handbook
Masters and PhD requirements are defined
– Courses, papers, thesis, etc.
• List of courses are being revamped for the time being
– Timeline
Concentrations are defined
List of professors, their labs, their areas of research, and their contact
information
Currently in update process

27. Fin
butt2@uic.edu - Arman Butt

28. BOA Tutoring
(no, not Bank of America!)
Nairyna Constantino
constan1@uic.edu

29. Tutoring Binders
Classes
– All bioengineering classes
• 200s up to 400s
– General education classes
• MATH 090 up to MATH 310
• PHYS 141/142
• CHEM 112, 114, 232
Tutors
– Experienced current BioE students
– Need more
• If you are proficient in teaching, GPA does not matter
Location
– SEO 2nd Floor BioEngineering Department Office
– Can be checked out only by tutors (see next slide)

30. BOA Tutoring Calendar
Monthly calendars updated on BOA website
– http://www2.uic.edu/stud_orgs/prof/bmes/
– Contact information of tutors and their subjects
• Email them for scheduling