Carleton’s Engineering Club Recognized by IEEE for Third Time in a Decade

By Ellen Tsaprailis
Photos by CU@EMBS

IEEE EMBS has recognized Carleton University’s engineering club—better known as CU@EMBS—with the IEEE EMBS Regional Outstanding Performance Award for 2019.

No other student group in the world has received as much recognition from the esteemed IEEE EMBS—the world’s largest international biomedical engineering society. Previously, IEEE EMBS recognized CU@EMBS as the Global Winner in both 2017 and 2012.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team and Carleton’s fostering of leadership excellence,” says Kevin Dick, co-chair of CU@EMBS and a doctoral candidate. “We were humbled to learn that IEEE EMBS once again recognized our group as a world-class contributor to the local and global biomedical engineering community. We thank our members and faculty for supporting us and engaging in our initiatives.”

Founded in 2003, Carleton’s CU@EMBS is a student-run club providing opportunities to network with biomedical engineers in academia, industry and government. The club also promotes the field of biomedical engineering, including participating in high school outreach activities and hosting seminars.

Department of Systems and Computer Engineering Prof. Adrian Chan is the faculty adviser for the student club that mainly serves graduate students. Chan says the club connects well with Carleton’s biomedical graduate programs (MEng, MASc, and PhD in Biomedical Engineering) as well as the undergraduate programs in both Biomedical and Electrical Engineering and Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering.

“This award speaks to the high level of engagement Carleton students have,” says Chan.

According to Dick, the club focused on the professional development of their members this past year. Two events that stood out were their Phreesia Networking event and Careers in Biomedical Engineering Panel.

“We invited representatives from Phreesia (a patient intake management company with a local office) to give a talk about their ongoing work and current opportunities at the company,” says Dick. Resumes of their members were accepted for summer internships. “For the latter, we invited several Carleton University undergraduate and graduate alumni to describe their experiences in building their careers following their degree in biomedical engineering. Both of these events were very well attended and among our greatest successes.”

Changing their selection process from previous years, Dick explained that IEEE recognized five regions and then a single global winner was chosen from the five. “While we were not the global winner this year, we were recognized as the North American winner,” says Dick.

This year’s IEEE EMBS flagship conference will be held in Berlin, Germany at the end of July and CU@EMBS executive and doctoral candidate Madison Cohen-McFarlane will attend the conference to receive the regional award.