Next-Gen Healthcare Innovators Symposium Showcases Students’ Healthcare Research

So much important research happens within the walls of Stevens Institute of Technology. This is particularly true when it comes to healthcare, an area seeing rapid growth due in large part to the recent proliferation of artificial intelligence.

In his role as director of Stevens’ Semcer Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), Hongjun Wang knows all about the exciting work being done. But, in the beginning, there was one concern gnawing at him. The student researchers had little idea of the impressive work being done by their peers. So, he efforted to remedy that situation. In the spirit of collaboration, Wang envisioned a student-led symposium that would allow students to share knowledge and network with one another.

In the spring of 2024, Wang tasked an organizing committee comprised of graduate students to plan all aspects of the symposium, from format, event management and potential guest speakers.

Thanks to the hard work of the five-member organizing committee – Adarsh Gogineni, Zahava Hirsch, Rana Ibrahim, Shima Rastgordani and Felicia Spadavecchia – that vision became reality on Sept. 20, 2024 with the Next-Gen Healthcare Innovators Symposium in the TechFlex Auditorium of the University Center Complex. 

“This was an exciting opportunity to create an event for graduate students across departments to connect, socialize and learn about each other’s research,” said Ibrahim, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “As Ph.D. students, it can be hard to find time and opportunity to meet with fellow students in other departments or labs. We saw this as a great opportunity for students across departments to come together, and we believe that interdisciplinary conversation and events will help foster better graduate student culture as well as more innovative research.”

The organizing committee received guidance and input from a trio of faculty advisors – Helen Lee, research scientist in CHI; Yu Gan, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering; and Long Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Putting plan into action

While the official on-campus event took place on Sept. 20, students started submitting abstracts to the committee on June 20 and registration began on Aug. 2. Despite organizing the first event of its kind, the event had 150 registrants, 33 student poster presentations spanning 10 departments, two keynote speakers and a lively four-member expert panel.

Hongjun Wang and Jean Zu, Lore E. Feiler Dean of the Schaefer School of Engineering and Science, got the proceedings underway with encouraging words of praise for everyone who turned concept into reality. 

“Congratulations to the organizers on today. I know you have done so much work and will continue to do more going forward,” said Zu. “I am really grateful for your hard work, and I am extremely impressed with the amount of people you were able to bring here today for a first-time event.”

The symposium had two keynote speakers – Marko Zivkovic, chief technology and innovation officer for Genesis Research; and Chiu Chau, a serial entrepreneur and roboticist, as well as the founder of Perpetual. Zivkovic gave a presentation that drew upon his role as head of AI products for Genesis to discuss AI applications in pharma and biotech. Chau followed up with an entertaining discussion about the necessity of taking risks to effect change, leveraging his personal story about passing up material success to follow his entrepreneurial spirit with promising, exciting startup companies.

The program then transitioned to a panel discussion that included two Stevens assistant professors – Sarah Goodman from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and Antonia Zaferiou from the Department of Biomedical Engineering – as well as Emily Boltcreed, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, and Efe Ozkaya, a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The discussion focused on academic life after receiving a Ph.D.

The day concluded with a rapid-fire pitch presentation consisting of 10 selected students who gave five-minute presentations of their research. Afterward, there was a networking session in which attendees could mingle and ask questions about each other’s work. 

Hopefully just the first of many

 The goals of the Next-Gen Symposium were to promote interdisciplinary collaboration, showcase preliminary research, stimulate innovative thinking and highlight technological innovations in healthcare. Based on the overwhelming response and spirited discussion among the attendees, it’s safe to say those benchmarks were met.

“This is a great opportunity to celebrate our students’ success, which is part of the relaunched [Semcer] Center,” said Hongjun Wang. “This is a testament not only to the great faculty here, but of course the students, as well, because you are the future of our healthcare-related research.”

While nothing is official regarding a 2025 return date, the stage and the proverbial bar have both been set.

“If our event allows us to foster an environment where graduate students feel like their hard work is being noticed and they leave the event with more ideas about how to move their projects forward, then I think we would have accomplished what we set out to do,” said Ibrahim.

For more information, visit the Next-Gen Healthcare Innovators Symposium homepage HERE. You can also check out the Semcer Center for Healthcare Innovation HERE.