The Department held the Annual Biomedical Engineering Senior Research Symposium on campus on Friday, April 17, 2026. BME is unique to the College in requiring an independent individual research project of all majors with specific scientific communication expectations: in our BME student capstone research experience, every BME major completes some form of research or design-build activity with technical deliverables. Their research results provide the foundational content for their required capstone technical Scientific Writing and Communication 2-semester course sequence (BME 4991 and 4992). Every year, our BME majors fulfill this requirement by working in a University of Utah or other university academic research lab, or participate in an industrial internship R&D experience.
The diverse range of possible hosts/sources for these required BME research projects helps to prepare each student for our capstone courses, our senior research symposium, and a particular career path. For example, a student planning to attend medical school can chose to perform a clinically oriented research project under the mentorship of a faculty member with a clinical appointment. This not only bolsters the student’s competitiveness for medical school, but the mentor significantly contributes to guiding the student to an appropriate MD or MD/PhD program. Likewise, students interested in entering the industry workforce can select a project at a local company, providing a valuable perspective on skills and aptitudes that employers seek in entry level workers and even assistance in securing their first industrial job after graduation.
While involved in this capstone experience, students perform and gather original research data necessary to fulfill multiple different assignments in the BME 4991/4992 capstone sequence. They must produce several figures’ worth of original research data. These data comprise the source material for their written “senior thesis” that follows scientific manuscript guidelines structured and formatted for submission to the journal, IEEE Transactions in Biomedical Engineering. Students also perform a series of oral technical and layperson scientific presentations culminating in their short research presentation at the Department’s yearly BME senior research symposium. Participation in this full-year course sequence exposes BME students respectful peer-led critique and guidance to each other to foster effective communication across a wide range of research and development projects that they mutually see and share over 2 semesters. This capstone experience is a critical training activity to foster communication (both oral and written) as well as through peer critique. This year’s symposium included 65 student research talks (5 minutes each) and full research poster presentations, an impressive intellectual culmination of this BME-unique course sequence and requirement for the major. Judges from BME faculty as well as the campus technical writing program assessed each talk and poster to award cash prizes to top performers.
2026 Biomedical Engineering Senior Symposium Awardees
Podium Awards – Room 1
First Place – Chris Andersen
Second Place – Dan Carrillo
Third Place – Amiel Belangdal
Podium Awards – Room 2
First Place – Abby Bassaragh
Second Place – Ian Roberts
Third Place – Tess Heiner
Podium Awards – Room 3
First Place – Betul Oguz
Second Place – Grace Mead
Third Place – Connor Browning
Poster Award Winners
First Place – Sam Lewis
Second Place – Kyla Hirigoyen
Third Place – Kamry Bailey
