Columbia University Hosts 7th Annual Engineering in Medicine Symposium

On February 23, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) at Columbia University jointly hosted the Seventh Annual Engineering in Medicine Symposium on the university’s Morningside campus. With 1,090 people from 35 countries attending in person and virtually, the audience spanned academia, medicine, industry, and government–all coming together to discuss impactful research at the interface of engineering and medicine.

In the words of the Dean of Columbia Engineering, Shih-Fu Chang, biomedical engineering is “one of the most exciting efforts of the engineering school and the fastest growing department.” The engineering and medical schools share more than 20 joint appointments between them, building a cross-disciplinary environment with health at its center. Dr. Katrina Armstrong, CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and VP&S, spoke on how Columbia prioritizes engineering and health: “There’s an energy that happens on this campus around our commitment to taking on the greatest challenges and opportunities that I've never seen before.” This symposium was proof of that energy, with exciting talks from speakers across several disciplines: biomedical engineering, statistics, medicine, bioinformatics, neuroscience, cellular biophysics, microbiology, immunology, and more. 

The day was simultaneously evidence of current intertwinings–demonstrated as speakers referenced collaborations in their work with others in the room, time and time again–as well as an opportunity to generate new partnerships. Topics were divided across five sessions: single-cell genomics, machine learning, neuroscience of decision-making, development and aging, and tissue engineering and instructive biomaterials. See the symposium program for a full list of speakers and topics.

To top off the symposium, a poster session displayed the work of current students before a reception in the iconic Low Library Rotunda. Ross Giglio from the McFaline-Figueroa lab won Best Poster for his work “Uncovering EGFR Inhibitor Transcriptional Signatures in Models of Glioblastoma,” with second place awarded to Melina Tourni (“3D-rendered Electromechanical Cycle Length Mapping for Non-invasive Typical Atrial Flutter Characterization”), and third to Zhixian Han (“Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe Encode Distinct Aspects of Different Tasks”).

Columbia Engineering and CUIMC extend their gratitude to all the speakers, session chairs, planning committee, poster judges, event staff, and volunteers for making this symposium possible for the seventh year and hope attendees will return for the 2024 Engineering in Medicine Symposium.

Click here to view photos from the event.