Cardiovascular Research: Engineering a Translational Experience (CREATE)
May 30, 2017 - August 4, 2017

The Penn State Department of Biomedical Engineering's Research Experience for Undergraduates Students (REU) program, "Cardiovascular Research: Engineering a Translational Experience (CREATE)," runs May 30 - August 4, 2017 and is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. 

The program provides a variety of research opportunities for undergraduate students in cardiovascular analysis.

Students will have an opportunity to join a number of cutting-edge research teams that focus on furthering the understanding of cardiovascular diseases and developing medical interventions to treat related conditions. Research projects will emphasize the development of implantable devices, artificial gene therapy and drug delivery systems.

Students participating in the program will engage in a wide range of biomedical engineering research and participate in weekly group activities. These actives provide an overview of current technologies and expose students to the research challenges in each area.

Students will be challenged to utilize a creative skill set to innovate new solutions for the betterment of human health and society.

Applications for the Penn State Department of Biomedical Engineering CREATE REU program are currently being accepted. We welcome applications from current Penn State undergraduate students as well as undergraduate students from outside institutions, particularly those enrolled in science and engineering programs and those maintaining a strong interest in cardiovascular research. Travel assistance and a research stipend are provided to eligible students.

Meet Kristofer,

He is a Psychology major and an URA Scholar. His future goal is to receive his PhD in either Clinical-Community Psychology or Community Psychology. From there, he wants to bring his skill set to his family home of Hawaii. He plans on working with the indigenous population to develop programs to rebuild and increase empowerment within the community in the hopes of halting the damage being caused by being a trans-colonial state.

Kristofer's research will explore the fastest-growing racial group in the United States: Asian immigrants. Asian immigrants experience a large amount of racial discrimination that includes the behavioral practices or social structures used to denigrate individuals of a group based on ethnic identity or skin color. Racial discrimination in Asian Americans has been shown to decrease the psychological well-being of those that perceive it. His research aims to examine: (1) the association between first-generation Asian immigrant mothers’ perceptions of racial discrimination they experience in the U.S. and their psychological well-being, and (2) the moderating role of maternal perceptions of economic opportunity and social standing in the U.S. in the association between maternal perceptions of racial discrimination and maternal psychological well-being.

Read more about his path to research here…

Meet Renee,

She is a English major and an URA Scholar. She is also a staff writer for The Retriever Weekly and is involved with UMBC’s creative arts journal, Bartleby. Rene also has some advice for future researchers... "Don’t doubt the merits of your research project. Even if your project is very different than many others, don’t let that discourage you. You’re bringing your own perspectives and ideas to the table, and they deserve to be heard just as much as everyone else’s ideas do."

Rene's research project explores the effects from people who were children at the time of 9/11 in order to look at how those attacks were a common point of awakening among the members of her (Rene's) generation. The research also plans to look at how the attacks continue to affect those individuals today. I plan to take elements of the recollections collected, as well as my own, and combine them into a nonfiction book. The aim of this book is to appeal to a wide range of ages, from middle school-aged children through the Millennial Generation. An effect of the timeline will emphasize the enormous impact that one single day can have on an entire generation.

Read more about her research here…

Meet Sean,

He is a Visual Arts major and an URA Scholar. He is a proponent of research funding... "You have nothing to lose except the potential of how far $1500.00 can push you in your career. You can do almost anything you want with the funds as long as you just prove that it’s worth doing." His future goals is to freelance as a photographer and to continue to visually tell the stories of people who can’t tell their own.

Sean's creative project will document the "invisible citizens" of Baltimore City. Homeless individuals are visible casualties of racial and socio-economic class divisions, yet as individuals they are often invisible to much of society. In an effort to make some of these individuals visible, Sean will interview and make individual photographic portraits of select homeless persons with whom he has become acquainted in the past year. This work will personify the individual. Homeless people who participate will be able to take credit for helping others who share their struggle.

Read more about his research here…