Bioengineering society holds first meeting

A new society at Princeton dedicated to bioengineering held its first event of the year yesterday, a Bioengineering Colloquium.

At the gathering, four faculty members from different departments gave a brief taste of their current research and possibilities in the field.

"From what we've seen, bioengineering is a field that is very diverse, with a lot of implications for the next 20 years," said Brian Greenwald '04, society president and founder.

The society aims to provide opportunities for students to expand their knowledge of bioengineering. The University does not offer a major in bioengineering, a field that focuses on the application of technology to biology.

Greenwald urged students to consider doing research in departments that are not traditionally geared toward bioengineering.

Electrical engineering professor Ron Weiss talked about "programming cells the same way you can program a computer."

Weiss treats cells like electric circuits, programming them to collaborate together. Applications of the electrical approach to bioengineering include tissue engineering, programming cells to act as biological sentinels, detecting of toxins and biomaterial fabrication at a cellular level.

Psychology professor Jim Haxby looks at how areas of the brain respond to images of faces, houses, chairs and other objects.

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The development of accurate face recognition technology would be very useful for the CIA and the military, Haxby said. The technology could, for instance, match faces to a database of criminals' faces.

Different angles of lighting and facial expression make this a difficult task, but Haxby said he hopes to "break the code of how the human brain can recognize an unlimited number of human faces."

Chemistry professor Jeff Schwartz spoke about his research in hip replacements, but applications of his work are also found in how anthrax and salmonella can be detected.

Professor Wole Soboyejo of the Princeton Materials Institute and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering introduced his work on cancer cell detection.

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He also described the explosive growth in markets for drug delivery systems and pressure sensors. He said the systems are designed mainly by engineers, not experts in biology, and biological problems such as the production of scar tissue may occur.

During the last four years, University undergraduates and some graduate students have done most of the research for Soboyejo.

Many students expressed enthusiasm about the colloquium and about the new society.

"It touches a niche that no one else has gotten to," said Jenitta Kwong '04, an EEB major. She said she liked its interdisciplinary nature and that it gives her "access to up-and-coming technology."

Greenwald, a chemistry major, founded the society last May when he realized he wanted to study bioengineering but no options were readily available on campus.

"Lots of people who come to campus want to study bioengineering," he said.

Students' interest extended beyond experience in the classroom, he said.

Greenwald said he believed the society would form links between students, professors and researchers in bioengineering.

"Biotechnology is more than engineering, technology and business, but an integration of them all," he said.

The society's plans include a peer advising program and an online journal. Greenwald said student interest has been strong, and there are more than 165 students on the email list.