Class of 2020
Megan Albert
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation I will be working for Integer as an R&D engineer.
What will you miss most?
I will miss the people I met and was able to work with throughout my time in the BME program.
Keenan Barr
What will you miss most?
The thing I will miss the most is all the BME homies and going through challenges together.
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation I plan to attend medical school in St. George, Utah.
Jake Benkofske
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The most valuable part of my time at the U was the freshmen seminar tours. It led to my first job which gave me great experiences and networks that furthered my career.
What will you miss most?
I will miss my peers and the atmosphere of continued learning. Being around other curious people that want to better themselves and the world is inspiring.
Mia Cirrincione
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was presenting our group's senior design project in front of numerous judges and professors.
What will you miss most?
I will miss all of the daily interactions with my peers and professors, and I will always be grateful for their support throughout the challenging, yet rewarding, four years.
Julia Clarin
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
BME has helped me diversify my engineering education by exposing me to learning opportunities beyond the classroom. I am confident running experiments in the lab as well as prototyping or 3D printing a medical device in the machine shop. Because of my biomedical background, I feel that I bring a unique and well-rounded perspective to both academia and industry.
What will you miss most?
The camaraderie that has developed among the BME class is something that I have cherished and that I will truly miss.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be continuing as an R&D Engineering Co-op in Abbott's Structural Heart Division for the remainder of the Summer. Then I will be heading off to Boston this Fall to start my PhD in Bioengineering at Northeastern University.
Carissa Dock
What are your plans after graduation?
I will attend the University of Minnesota Medical School in the fall and will complete my last year of eligibility on Minnesota's track and cross country teams!
What will you miss most?
I will miss my classmates!
James Erler
What was your proudest moment?
Researching in Dr. Sachs's lab.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I have accepted a software engineering position at Medtronic that starts soon.
What will you miss most?
Dr. Netoff's off-topic jokes in signals/systems.
Spencer Finkbiner
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I learned how think critically and tackle complex problems in a wide range of subjects.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be attending medical school at the University of Kansas.
Mitchell Gross
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be completing my masters in Biomedical Engineering here at the University of Minnesota before going to law school to become a Patent Attorney.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Assisting a professor with research regarding neural networks to try to improve generating T2 maps from raw MR images.
What was your proudest moment?
Actually getting through BME.
Olivia Johnson
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
BME taught me how to learn in a more effective manner. Key to much of the homework, projects, and lab work was the need to determine what I didn't know and then use my resources to learn what I needed to know.
What will you miss most?
I'll miss the BME 2020 community.
Rishab Hanjagimutt
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The most valuable part of my BME experience was all of the exposure I had to rapid prototyping experience I gained in my coursework. This culminated in the creation of my Senior Design Project which utilizes augmented reality to remap the visual field of partially blind patients.
What will you miss most?
I will miss collaborating with my fellow classmates and the sense of camaraderie that was cultivated through these last four years.
Lexie Hanneman
What will you miss most?
The thing I will miss the most is being in class with all of my best friends.
What are your plans for after graduation?
My plan after graduation is to work for a medical device company in the Twin Cities.
Benjamin Hanson
What are your plans for after graduation?
My plan after graduation is to continue my education with the integrated program provided by the Biomedical Engineering Department here at the University of Minnesota to achieve a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering graduating May of 2021.
What was your most memorable moment?
One of my most memorable moments during the past four years was when my Bioelectricity lab group was able to complete the LabVIEW code for a goniometer controlled Pong video game. This was memorable as our LabVIEW skills were limited and getting this to work was quite an accomplishment.
Jacob Heinz
What will you miss most?
I'll probably miss my classmates in BME who I've gotten to know well over the years. I can already tell that it is difficult to stay connected when you aren't in the same classes every day.
What are your plans after graduation?
I am in the five-year master's program so I have a year left, but after that I plan to work in industry, ideally in product development.
Ali Holden
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I urge lower division students to take their education into their own hands early in their college career. Often, internships will require students to have some sort of experience or technical skill that doesn't come in the program until junior or even senior year. Seek out technical projects like the Minnovate project competition, EWH's prototyping seminars, or the BMES model team to begin building skills. This will not only help your resume, but will also supplement your education by showing you how concepts are important in real engineering.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be moving to Massachusetts to work as a Supplier Quality Engineer at Medtronic in Danvers.
What was your proudest moment?
This, right now. After transferring, I struggled to get into the program. I almost quit and went back to the school I transferred from. But I got in, and I was ecstatic and so proud. But school remained an uphill climb. There were so many days I didn't think I would make it to this day. But here I am — finished, on time, two years of internships under my belt, and a job lined up. This right here, this is my proudest moment.
Julia Howes
What will you miss most?
I will really miss late-night study sessions with my friends at Nils. Shout-out to Megan and Mickinney for being awesome study buddies, and to Gopher Chauffeur for always getting us home safely!
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
One of my most valuable experiences was working in Professor Ashkenazi's lab. I was able to help develop a really fascinating optical ultrasound detector for imaging coronary vessels.
Evan Huber
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will continue attending the University of Minnesota for a master's degree.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I found taking both engineering and biology-related classes most valuable.
Anders Jenson
What are your plans for after graduation?
Taking a service year while applying to medical schools.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Learning how to apply biomedical theory to solve real-world problems.
Karene Jensen
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
What I found most valuable about the BME experience was the opportunities available for undergraduates and how we were able to form strong connections with classmates to get through challenging content.
What will you miss most?
What I'll miss most is not being able to see my friends everyday and not being on the beautiful Twin Cities campus.
Yogini Kaul
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
My experience in BME gave me the tools to approach difficult challenges with confidence and know that, with hard work and a bit of ingenuity, I can come up with effective solutions to the problems I see in the world.
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation I will miss seeing my friends and classmates every day, and all of my great professors. These people have taught me so much over the past four years.
James J. Kerber
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
One of the most valuable things about BMEn in my opinion is the breadth of the content that we cover. Since I went into biomedical engineering, I can have intelligent conversations with electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and doctors. No other major can do that as effectively as biomedical engineers can.
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation I plan to go back for my Master's in biomedical engineering and explore future career opportunities in patent law.
Allison Kerker
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be working as a Manufacturing Engineer for Boston Scientific in Maple Grove, MN.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Coming into college I was tunnel visioned on prosthetics, so the most valuable thing for me was learning about the breadth of BME and how many options we have career-wise.
David Kim
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be working at Medtronic as a Quality Engineer on structural heart valves.
What will you miss the most?
I will miss my classmates and all the fun shenanigans we had in and out of class (I'm looking at you, Logan with the giraffe costume in physiology lecture).
Noah Nathan Kochen
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moments were conducting research in BME labs and showing our campus to my family who visited all the way from Peru.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be continuing my studies here at the University of Minnesota, where I intend to obtain my PhD title in Biomedical Engineering.
What will you miss most?
I will miss the long, funny and sometimes desperate study sessions with Joey, Rishab and Greg.
Lydia Perez Kocis
What will you miss most?
I will miss cheering on the Gopher football and hockey teams with friends and all of the other fun times on campus.
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was submitting my last assignment of senior year and completing a BME degree.
Ryan Kruchten
What are some highlights of your BME experience?
I greatly enjoyed the time with my senior design team bringing our project to the final prototype, interning at the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center and then continuing as a Lab Technician, interning at Zurich Medical where I took on full-time responsibilities during senior year, and becoming the principal engineer of a product aimed at protecting students, athletes, and consumers from athlete's foot and other foot infections.
My trip to Shanghai to present at DMD China was a big highlight of senior year and finishing out my education, and a huge step for me professionally in both networking and learning about international medical device markets and products.
Abigail Lavey
Why did you choose BME?
I choose BME because it was a perfect mix of engineering and biology.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
It was most valuable to see how engineering principles can be applied to the human body and all the systems it contains.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be working full-time at Heraeus Medical Components beginning in June as a Process Development Engineer.
Taylor Liao
What will you miss most?
I will miss the BME train moving from Jackson to Keller in junior year.
What are your plans for after graduation?
Gap year and then grad school.
Aaron Liu
What will you miss most?
All the great friends I made during my time here.
What was your proudest moment?
Not failing transport.
Yixuan Liu
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was presenting our senior design project at the final Zoom meeting.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I am going to pursue a Master's Degree after graduation.
Elise Miller
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation, I will start working as a Process Development Engineer at Abbott Structural Heart in St. Paul. In the fall, I am excited to start a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering part-time at the U of M!
What will you miss the most?
I will miss seeing my lab members at the Neuromodulation and Technology Lab the most... in fact, I already have missed them a lot this semester! They are all so bright, inspiring, and supportive.
What was your proudest moment?
When I was gaining internship experience over the summer at a neural engineering company, a clinical engineer handed a device I had worked on to a patient. After seeing the impact I had on them (even as just an intern), I knew that I had made the right choice by choosing a career path in biomedical engineering and that all the hard work that I had done was worthwhile.
Sam Newell
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was representing the department as a team leader on the recent PPE gown project culminating in a Star Tribune article. As so many of those who worked with us said, "lots of people are talking about what to do, but you guys actually did something."
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I found the people to be the most valuable part of the experience. The BME department is a wide area with a diverse group of people and an array of opportunities. I am completing the 4+1 master's program in BME here at the UMN. You can't get rid of me just yet!
Dan T. Nguyen
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was the senior design show. Even though this year we had to host it remotely, I am grateful for the chance to demonstrate how we were able to apply what we learned into solving clinical problems.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
In addition to classroom education, I am grateful for various opportunities offered by our student groups and other initiatives, to contribute my skills and effort to healthcare innovation.
Minh-Uyen Nguyen
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be working at Heraeus Medical Components and after a few years I plan on going back to school for a master's.
What will you miss most?
I’ll miss all the inside jokes and laughs that were shared together. The struggles that we went through these past 4 years have only brought us closer.
Ben Niemiera
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Having the opportunity to learn from an excellent core faculty.
What are your plans for after graduation?
Returning to BME to do the five-year integrated BS/MS program.
Amanda Nowacki
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Professor Saliterman's class, Medical Device Prototyping, was crucial to building the technical skills that I have today. Professor Saliterman taught us necessities such as basic circuitry and CAD, as well as enriched our learning with a final course project. From taking that course, I was able to co-op for Medtronic and make valuable connections in both industry and academia.
What are your plans after graduation?
I'm going to be doing some work for Medtronic as well as attending graduate school. I will be focusing on the biomechanics of tissues, wound healing, and the interface between tissues and medical devices.
What will you miss most?
I'll miss my friends and my classmates the most. Bouncing sleep-deprived ideas off of people at 3:00 in the morning is something that, although may have been stressful at the time, I look back on with rose-colored glasses now. The camaraderie of our class will be greatly missed. We were able to approach anything in an optimistic, lighthearted manner.
Abrielle Prunty
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The most valuable experiences I had through BME have been the incredible hands-on opportunities I have gotten by doing research in a cardiovascular tissue engineering lab and working as a preclinical surgical research lab technician.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be starting full-time as a Reliability Engineer at Medtronic in their Aortic, Peripheral, and Venous (APV) business unit.
What will you miss most?
I will miss seeing my friends every day in classes and in lab. We were always able to be there for each other for support and smiles even on the tough days.
Macalister Odeen
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Graduating from BME has given me not only an education that has made me into a better engineer but also a group of classmates that I look forward to working with in industry.
Anthony Pogorelc
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I thought the most valuable thing about my experience in the BME program was the opportunity to be exposed to many different disciplines of engineering. Although I did not focus on one specific discipline until senior year, I was able to learn enough in multiple fields to be competent and confident in applying those skills.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be working as a production engineer for a Milwaukee-based company called MPE. The company is a smaller company that designs and manufactures various medical products for OEMs like Medtronic and others.
Rahema Rashid
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I value how we learned to integrate different disciplines within engineering and health sciences to advance biomedical research and improve the quality of human life.
What will you miss most?
I will miss learning from the highly experienced faculty, the company of my classmates, and staying up late finishing assignments with my friends.
Logan Remington
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was designing the Gown For U PPE gowns that would be used to protect 35,000 healthcare workers in the Fairview system and potentially more in the future.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
We have such a broad set of skills that encompasses all engineering fields and can be addressed to solve any engineering problem.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be pursuing a Master's degree at the U of M and then potentially pursuing a PhD afterwards.
Megan Schmidt
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The integrated lab classes provided great hands-on experience and allowed me to apply the knowledge I learned in the classroom.
What are your plans for after graduation?
Next year, I will be completing my Master’s of Biomedical Engineering in the five-year program.
What will you miss most?
I will miss seeing my friends on a regular basis. It’s difficult to imagine not being all together next year.
Justine Schneider
What was your proudest moment?
My proudest moment was presenting the student group Engineering World Health to the CSE Dean's Industry Advisory Board comprised of numerous CTOs and VPs of R&D! Plus, I made it through the BME coursework without becoming an avid coffee drinker!
Kushal Sehgal
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The ability to work on stimulating and meaningful projects has been the most valuable experience that BME has given me.
Jaxon Sommers
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The most valuable part of my education was the hands-on learning I was able to do with a variety of technologies like 3D printing, ultrasound, and nerve stimulation.
What are your plans for after graduation?
This fall I will be attending Georgia Institute of Technology for a Master's in Biomedical Innovation and Design.
Nichole Torgerson
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
Throughout my BME experience I found that the most valuable takeaway was my ability to problem-solve. The program forces you to think through and process problems that you don’t have an exact answer to by giving you problems you haven’t necessarily been taught to solve.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be working for Medtronic in Plymouth, MN as a Sourcing and Continuity Engineer.
Savanna VerBout
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation, I will be working as a Reliability Engineer at Medtronic.
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
From my experience in BME, I have valued most the relationships I made with my classmates, which through long nights of studying have become lifelong friendships, and the perseverance and problem solving skills that this program helped me develop.
Coralie Wilcox
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
I will always be thankful for the support and encouragement from fellow BME students and professors while going through this program, and it is definitely what helped me stay focused and motivated!
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation, I will be taking a gap year before attending law school.
Miles Wing
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The most valuable part of my BME experience was learning how to respond to adversity inside and outside of the classroom. The professors were good at putting me in situations where I didn't know all of the answers, so that I could learn to think critically and problem solve rather than just memorizing information.
What was your proudest moment?
The proudest moment of my undergrad career was finishing junior year. As a freshman and sophomore you hear horror stories, and junior year starts to look pretty daunting. Getting that behind me and looking forward to my final year felt like a huge accomplishment.
Mickinney Zhang
What did you find most valuable about your BME experience?
The most valuable part of my BME experience was the opportunity to explore the different specialty areas in biomedical engineering through the variety of courses.
What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation, I will be starting the five-year BME Integrated Master's Program at the University of Minnesota while continuing to work as an R&D Engineer at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.