I had a great time at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) 2017 Conference celebrated in Kansas City, MO (November 1st-5th, 2017).Once again,  I was honored to be an NSF ASSIST Travel grant recipient (#EEC-1548197) and participate in the NSF Leverage/ASSIST   Faculty Development Institute. This was a great experience in which I was able to network with faculties from all around the US. The Institute had some stimulating workshops regarding NSF CAREER awards and other grants opportunities.

Furthermore, I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the Biomedical and Bioengineering Engineering Science Symposium Oral Presentation session. There I presented some of the work being conducted by the NSF Center for Health Organizational Transformation (CHOT) at PSU. Moreover, our presentation, titled “Machine learning Applications: Towards personalized medicine and biomechanical modeling” (see presentation), introduced students to the current applications of Machine Learning in the Biomedical and Bioengineering fields. I also served as a judge for this section, so congratulations to Wendy Alvarez on winning the first place in the oral presentation competition (see her picture receiving the prize from the hands of Dr. Gaedicke, Engineering Science Symposium chair, below). She presented her research in the Biomedical and Bioengineering section, so I was able to see at first hand her exceptional work. I also assisted as a judge for the poster competition, so congratulation to Mariana Flores, winner of the poster session.

We also were part of the Graduate Fair, assisting Dr. Gersie from the Applied Research Laboratory, the Center for Engineering Outreach and Inclusion, and the Multicultural Engineering Graduate Association from Penn State in the search and recruitment of minorities and underrepresented students that are planning to pursue a graduate career or job in the STEM fields. During the fair, I had the privilege to meet, talk with, and advise several great students who are already doing some interesting research work.

Here are a few pictures of the conference. Again the Air Force Research Laboratory always showcases some interactive and engaging technologies.