Bio-Engineering Symposium fosters collaboration

On Wednesday, November 18 Lassonde School of Engineering hosted the inaugural Bio-Engineering Symposium in partnership with Faculty of Science, Faculty of Health and VPRI. The event was held in the newly opened Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence and attracted more than 100 attendees.

The Symposium was a one-day event designed to bring research from the three faculties together and to stimulate collaboration, discussion and internal partnerships. Faculty members presented 20 short talks introducing the audience to their research and taking questions. There was a wide variety of subjects discussed, including micro-fluidic devices for Alzheimer’s, nano-networking systems, wireless technology and wearable medical devices, visualization of biomedical data, waste-water treatment, bio-inspired robotics, diagnostic of pre-clinical conditions, miniaturization of sensors and cancer detection and 3D organ printing and bio-mimetic tissues.

“The bio-engineering Symposium, first of its kind at York, allows our sister Faculties to come together in a collaborative way and explore synergies in this exciting, emerging field. Lassonde School of Engineering is committed to supporting Bio-Engineering as a strategic research priority and as a future platform for the development of Bio-Engineering program at York,” said Spiros Pagiatakis, Associate Dean – Research & Graduate Studies at Lassonde.

As a result of the Symposium, faculty members identified new opportunities and were able to meet colleagues with complementary skill sets. Faculty members and research teams are using the connections established to begin follow-up discussions on how to work together in the future.

Following these discussions and collaborations, York University will create an online virtual Bio-engineering network to build connections and further the research in this field. The Faculties will work together to organize other events such as the Graduate Bio-Engineering Symposium.