31 Mar 2025
2025 IBME Open Day
IBME faculty and researchers hosted 67 secondary school students from 21 schools across England for a day of STEM-focused lectures and demonstrations with applications to Biomedical Engineering
IBME Open Day demonstrations in the Richard Doll Building at the University of Oxford
On Thursday March 13th, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) hosted its annual Open day with short seminars and demonstrations covering the wide-ranging impactful work performed within the biomedical research clusters. Sixty-seven students from 21 schools across England attended the event. Of these, eight schools were located in Oxfordshire, five in London, as well as, Reading, Rugby, Kent, Surrey, Chichester, Christchurch in Dorset, and Hertfordshire. Some students travelled over two hours to attend the event.
Over the course of the day, students watched 9 hands-on demonstrations and attended 5 lectures delivered by IBME faculty and their teams of researchers. Topics included healing with ultrasound, tissue repair and regeneration, machine learning in global health, preventing sports injuries with better protective helmets, and bridging the gap between technological innovation, medicine and science entrepreneurship.
At the end of the day, students walked away with an overview of the different types of research conducted at the IBME, an understanding of the real-world problems solved by this research, and an understanding of the different career paths and routes of entry available to faculty and researchers in biomedical engineering. Prof. Robin Cleveland, Professor of Engineering Science and Fellow of Magdalen College, explained to students that “there are many career paths into biomedical engineering and there are no closed doors.”
A key learning outcome of the event was increased student understanding of biomedical engineering as a possible and interesting career path that applies STEM learning to solve concrete challenges and improve healthcare. Following the event, one student shared, “I was previously only interested in medicine. Now I am also considering biomedical engineering because I am good at maths and physics.”
Prof. Constantin Coussios, Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, highlighted, “Now in its 7th year, the IBME open day was able to showcase the extraordinary breadth and impact of the developments taking place at the interface between engineering and medicine. I would like to extend my thanks to the IBME faculty, staff and researchers who donated the time and energy to make this inspirational event possible, but most importantly to the teachers and pupils who took time out of their busy school schedules to inspire and be inspired towards a career dedicated to enhancing the lives of patients through technology.”
Doctoral students Alexander Witt and Mohammed Alwelyee during their demonstration “Wet Spinning for Hollow Fibre Membrane Bioreactors”.
Doctoral students, Thalia Seale and Haobo Zhu, supervised by Dr Abhirup Banerjee during their demonstration “Looking into the Heart.”
Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Ryman Hashem and doctoral student Yixing Lei from the Podium Institute for Sports Medicine and Technology, preparing their demonstration on “Soft Robotics and Augmented Reality for Rehabilitation”.
Prof. Constantin Coussios and the IBME Administrative and Professional Team (From left to right: Dr Katherine Baysan, Prof. Constantin Coussios, Caroline Brown, Mandy Townsend, and James Fisk)
