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OUTREACH

Women in STEM Summer Camp

This research camp is offered each summer at Robert Morris University and is led by Dr. Rika Wright Carlsen.  It provides an immersive, hands-on experience in injury biomechanics to girls in the 9th - 11th grades.  Topics covered include material testing, computer-aided design, medical image analysis, wearable sensors, and rapid prototyping (3-D printing).

Next Summer Camp: Summer 2021

Engineering Speed Networking

This event is held each year at Robert Morris University.  It provides an opportunity for girls in grades 9 - 12 to meet one-on-one with female engineering professionals to learn more about engineering careers through the personal stories of those working in those fields.

Last Virtual Speed Networking Event: May 20, 2020

STEM Educational Toolkit Competition

In this competition, undergraduate student organizations at Robert Morris University design a STEM Educational Toolkit that can be used by K-12 educators to teach a STEM concept.  These toolkits will be made available to educators in the Pittsburgh region.

 

2018 Winner: RMU Chapter of National Society of Black Engineers

TEACHING

Biomedical Engineering Courses

ENGR2510 - Biomedical Engineering Principles

This course provides an overview of the BME discipline and major subdivisions, such as biomechanics, cellular engineering, tissue engineering, bioelectricity, and imaging. Also introduced are quantitative tools utilized throughout the BME curriculum. The class will be involved in the formulation and execution of a design project. 

Instructor: Dr. Carlsen

ENGR3510 - Biomechanics

This course develops the application of the principles of continuum mechanics to biological tissues and systems. After briefly reviewing selected results from statics, strength of materials, dynamics, and fluid dynamics, the course details several constitutive equations of biological materials, properties of living tissue, and the mechanical basis and effects of pathology and trauma. The course emphasizes the mechanics of the muscle-skeletal and circulatory systems. 

Instructor: Dr. Joo

ENGR4510 - Introduction to Biomaterials

This course provides an introduction to biomaterials, both synthetic and natural, that are implanted in the human body or employed in a medical device for the purposes of promoting improved human health. The course covers the synthesis, characterization, properties and applications of clinically significant biomaterials and discusses regulatory issues (legal, safety, reliability, biocompatibility, and ethics) concerning the use of biomaterials.  

Instructor: Dr. Carlsen

ENGR4520 - Design & Manufacturing of Biomedical Devices & Systems

This course details the conception, modeling, analysis, design, manufacturing and assembly of Biomedical devices and systems. Students select, formulate, and solve a design problem and manufacture a prototype, as appropriate. Applications include, but are not limited to, diagnostic instrumentation, prostheses, and cardiovascular devices against the background of ethical considerations, FDA regulations, and product-liability issues.  

Instructor: Dr. Joo

Mechanical Engineering Courses

ENGR1610 - Statics & Strength of Materials

The first part of this course called Statics covers the application of the principles of engineering mechanics to problems involving equilibrium of particles and solids. Topics include resultants, equilibrium, friction, trusses, center of gravity, and moments of inertia. The second part of this course called Strength of Materials introduces the principles of mechanics necessary for the solution of engineering problems relating to strength, stiffness, and material selection. Topics covered include stress, strain, torsion, beams, columns and combined stresses at a point. 

Instructor: Dr. Carlsen

ENGR2180 - Engineering Materials

The course content includes an examination of engineering materials such as metals, plastics, and composites with an emphasis on material selection. Processing for the optimization of material properties is covered extensively, as is material cost estimation for manufacturing.  

Instructor: Dr. Joo

ENGR3300 - Fluid Mechanics

This course provides an introduction to the field of fluid mechanics. Topics include fluid statics, use of differential and finite control volume analysis with continuity, momentum, and energy equations, Bernoulli and Euler equations, vorticity, potential flow, incompressible viscous flow using Navier-Stokes equations, dimensional analysis, pipe flow, boundary layers, separation, introduction to turbulence. 

Instructor: Dr. Carlsen

ENGR4610 - Continuum Mechanics

This course will provide advanced knowledge of the fundamental concepts of the mechanics of material and spatial descriptions of motion of a continuous medium. Topics will include, but not limited to, kinematics of finite deformation, definitions of stress, balance principles: mass, momentum, and energy and general theory of constitutive equations. This course will facilitate further study in specialized fields such as aerodynamics, mechanics of viscous fluids, elasticity, plasticity, and continuum damage mechanics in mechanical and biomedical engineering. 

Instructor: Dr. Joo

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