MIT professor studying the mechanics of metastasis

Professor Roger Kamm at MIT was my advisor when I was a mechanical engineering student at MIT.

Roger Kamm, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, and his doctoral student Ioannis Zervantonakis are studying the mechanics of metastasis. They are using a 3-D microfluidic device developed in his lab, including a recent study on the effect of flow on tumor-cell migration.

Read more here.

The March 1st CIMIT Forum: Solving Medical Challenges with Mechanical Engineering

Are you familiar with CIMIT? It's the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology. Don't miss the March 1st CIMIT Forum: Solving Medical Challenges with Mechanical Engineering

MIT 2.75 Precision Machine Design
Clinician and Student Team Presentations

The MIT 2.75 Precision Machine Design course collaborates with CIMIT to bring together physicians from Boston-area hospitals and MIT engineering students in developing new medical devices. Physicians present their particular challenges then student teams work with them during the course of a semester to develop prototype solutions. The course has run since 2004, each year with a new cast of physicians and device challenges.

The CIMIT Forum: The interdisciplinary arena to promote the exchange of ideas and information to improve patient care

I miss IAP at MIT

The month of January is an interesting month at MIT. It's an optimal month for students and it's called IAP.

The Independent Activities Period (IAP) is a special four week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

When I was a student at MIT, I spent every January at MIT. Some students would stay at home and return for spring classes in February. I was always at MIT and I always participated in IAP activities. Some of the most memorable include:

• Charm School (yes, all the nerds at MIT really need help with charm and etiquette)
• Ballroom dance workshops
• Programming (yes, some crazy students try to cram programming into a single month!)
  
• 2.670 Mechanical Engineering Tools (yes, I was a Mech E)
• How to find a UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program)

I sure miss those days at MIT. In fact, there's an event called "Toast to IAP" and it occurs in several major cities throughout the United States. 

US News college rankings and MIT

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was ranked as #4 overall among U.S. universities and #1 in engineering. Specific engineering disciplines at MIT that U.S. News also ranked as the nation's best include: aeronautics and astronautics, chemical, electrical and computer science, materials and mechanical (that was me). I studied mechanical engineering at MIT and look at me now. I'm blogging about medicine and technology. The MIT Sloan School of Management was rated the nation's fifth MBA program behind Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania. A salute to all my friends and colleagues from MIT!

Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR)

Have you seen Vecna's Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR)?

Started in 1998 by MIT alumni, and joined by others from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley, CMU and other top institutions, Vecna Technologies is a unique, self-funded, high-technology company. Daniel A. Theobald is the President and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Vecna. Daniel and I were in the same fraternity while we were at MIT. It's so great to see such innovation from MIT graduates.

CNN featured a story last year titled, "New Army Technology Could Save Soldiers' Lives."

Growth in Health Information Technology and Nanotechnology

In my opinion, two of the largest areas of growth will be in health information technology (health IT or HIT) and nanotechnology (especially as this relates to drug development and biotechnology). So, if you’re a “techy” person, health IT may be the perfect fit. Join AHIMA and HIMSS, get familiar with CCHIT, and get a job at Walmart so that you can sell pre-loaded EHRs on Dell PCs. For those who are in the science field (biology, biochem, chemistry, organic chem, molecular bio, etc.), learn as much as you can about nanotechnology. I studied mechanical engineering at MIT before the days when nanotechnology was of much interest to anyone. If I were to go through college today, I think I’d major in something that would be strongly relevant to nanotechnology (mech E is relevant, but so are many other fields like materials science, bioengineering, biochemistry, chemical engineering, etc.).