Every fall, a group of mostly seniors takes a course called Foundation of Biomedical Engineering (BME) Design where engineering students learn to assess product needs for biomedical applications. In the spring they take the follow-up course, BME Design Projects. Students are grouped into teams and work through the processes they learned about in the prior semester, eventually prototyping and creating a product that can be tested in real-world applications.
This past academic year, groups of students studied under Rachelle Palchesko to complete their project course. One group was assigned to work with Becky Morrow of Frankie’s Friends, a local non-profit that focuses on veterinary and rescue services for cats and other animals. The student group consisted primarily of seniors majoring in chemical engineering (ChemE), electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and materials science and engineering (MSE) who are seeking additional majors in BME.
Morrow was already familiar with Carnegie Mellon, as Frankie’s Friends occasionally brings rescue kittens and cats to campus for Study Break with Cats, a de-stress event hosted by the Department of Chemical Engineering where students can play with the cats, providing a moment of tranquility for the students and human socialization for the hopeful future pets. “I’ve actually been to all of them,” said team member Cindy Jiang, “It was a pretty fun de-stress event right before finals.”
