News

• RMU students and faculty contributed to Liftoff PGH 2020, a December regional conference held by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation to look at innovations that will affect medicine in the future. The team presented at the virtual conference using 180-degree video that viewers can move up, down, and side to side, as if from the patient’s perspective. 

• Rika Carlsen, an associate professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, is one of the scientists taking part in the PANTHER program, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research to reduce traumatic brain injuries. The three-year program includes scientists from government laboratories, the industry sector, and several universities. RMU’s portion of the $10 million federal grant money is expected to be $750,000, and will fund Carlsen’s research and the hiring of two post-doctoral researchers with expertise in computational modeling to assist her starting in January. Carlsen’s role will be to expand her research and simulations with a highly detailed computer model of a human head, including the skull, fluids and brain tissue, to be used in simulations testing response to low intensity or sub-concussive impacts and blows, as well as higher severity impacts and blast waves from explosions. Look to read more about this in the coming days at the RMU online newsroom. 

• Marketing students, Abby Watkins, Tina Parsons and Dalton Faith were awarded the Young Leader Award in St. Gallen, Switzerland earlier this month for their work on the Joint U.S. Swiss Program. The RMU team participated in a virtual ceremony where the students received their award. This award comes from their work on a global consulting project in the spring where they worked for Geberit North America designing a North American product entry strategy into the prefabricated housing/commercial market.

Editor's Note - The Minuteman is taking off for the holidays and will see you again on January 8. Happy Holidays!