Principal Investigator

Amy L. Lerner, Ph.D. University of Rochester work Box 270168 Rochester NY 14627-0168 office: Goergen Hall 307 p 585-275-7847 f 585-276-1999 amy.lerner@rochester.edu

Honors & News

October 17, 2011

UR Alumna Jennifer Moshier Inspires

Jennifer Moshier, a mechanical engineering and Lerner Lab alumna who is currently teaching engineering at a high school in Alexandria, VA, has recently taken on a project to design a device to help a disabled teacher. Specifically, her students were asked to design an assistive technology device for Kris Gulden, a teacher at T.C. Williams high school, who uses a wheelchair. This week, the students presented their designs to the superintendent as well as several guest speakers who came to discuss the importance of assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering. The student work was even featured on NPR and other news outlets. Jennifer has shared that her experience at the University of Rochester truly shaped her role as an educator today and she is grateful to have the opportunity to spread her passion.
April 6, 2011

BME Students Awarded Fellowships for Graduate Research by the National Science Foundation

Three BME seniors received prestigious National Science Foundation Research Fellowships, and Michael Hoffman, a Ph.D. student in the Benoit Lab, received an NSF Honorable Mention. The fellowship, which is part of a federally sponsored program, provides up to three years of graduate study support for students pursing doctoral or research-based master's degrees.

The fellowship includes a three-year annual stipend of $30,000, a $10,500 educational allowance to the institution, and international research opportunities. Danielle Benoit, assistant professor in biomedical and chemical engineering at Rochester, says that the financial support provides students the flexibility to attend conferences, participate in training programs, and travel to meet with other researchers in their field.

The following graduating BME seniors received fellowships:

Benjamin Freedman (Lerner Lab) '11

University of Pennsylvania

Adam Kozak '11

Duke University

Hannah Watkins (Benoit Lab) '11

Cornell University

2011-12 Fullbright Scholarship and Whitaker International Fellowship to the United Kingdom
May 25, 2010

BME Faculty Have Big Designs

BME faculty members Amy Lerner and Scott Seidman know about design. In fact, they have "designed" a program that allows senior BME students to tackle real-world challenges. Now in its tenth year, the two-semester Senior Design program, overseen by Lerner and Seidman, provides seniors with hands-on experience working with real clients. Lerner and Seidman guide the students to apply everything they've learned to solve problems faced by clinicians and industry.
May 6, 2010

BME Sweeps this Year’s Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition

Teams involving BME seniors won all four awards at the annual Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition. Business plans were based on projects completed as part of the Senior Design class, a two-semester class offered by Amy Lerner and Scott Seidman.
First place went to Arm Embrace, second place to DPN Diagnostics, third place to Injector Perfectors, and fourth place to Radiation Analysis Dosimetry. The primary goal of the Charles and Janet Forbes Entrepreneurial Award is to encourage current, full-time UR undergraduate engineering students to consider the commercial potential of their design project or research. The competition is open to any students in the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and may involve interdisciplinary teams of students. This year, two teams in the competition included students from Computer Science and Biochemistry.
All fifteen of the BME senior design teams will present their prototypes on May 11th in the Munnerlyn Atrium of Goergen Hall.
More coverage on this story can be found at Your News Now (YNN) and Rochesterhomepage.net.
September 14, 2009

BME Graduate Sarah Lancianese wins Young Investigator Award

Recent graduate Sarah Lancianese received a Young Investigator Award at the 2009 World Congress on Osteoarthritis in Montreal, Quebec. She presented her work on the use of biomechanical models to understand risks for knee osteoarthritis in a plenary session including the 6 highest rated abstracts from young investigators. This abstract represented the final chapter of her PhD dissertation which she defended in July, 2009. The overall project, supervised by BME Associate Professor Amy L. Lerner, investigated the combined effects of obesity, limb alignment and bone mechanical properties on the knee joint. Dr. Lancianese is now a design engineer at Wright Medical, Inc. in Memphis TN.
April 13, 2009

Professor Amy Lerner wins Professor of the Year honors.

Professor Amy Lerner of the Department of Biomedical Engineering won top honors as Professor of the Year in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This honor is based on student nominations and election, and so reflects the high quality and dedication she brings to her teaching from a student's perspective. Dr. Lerner teaches Biosolid Mechanics as well as the capstone Senior Design course required of all Biomedical Engineering majors. Congratulations, Amy!