ARCS Foundation, Metro Washington Chapter (MWC) June 2023 Newsletter |
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Jun 11: Summer BBQ Social, 4:00-8:00 pm
Aug 14 week: ARCS Friends Activity, exact date TBD
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Members and family members are invited to a picnic bbq and social on Sun, June 11 at the home of Patty and Duncan Sparrell, 11720 Saddle Crescent Circle, Oakton. Festivities, including swimming and games for all, start at 4 pm, and dinner will be served at 5:30 pm.
This event is free. Dave's BBQ and drinks will be provided. Attendees are asked to sign-up to bring an appetizer, salad or dessert to share. Click here for info and to register.
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Have you heard about our new ARCS Friends Activities? Pay-as-you-go outings to strengthen friendships and meet new members. Think: garden tours, hiking, winetasting and the like. Activities will be designed for groups, small (3-4) and large (10 or more).
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Our first outing is sailing on the 74’ wooden Schooner Woodwind ($75/2 hrs) and lunch in Annapolis during the week of Aug 14. We already have a few members interested.
To register, simply msg Charlotte Knight at 630-362-8344 and identify yourself as an ARCS-MWC member. Get to know new friends as we sail on the Chesapeake bay!
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spring member meeting recap |
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We held our Spring Member Meeting on May 18 at Julie Hohl's lovely home. Following the meeting and vote for our 2023-2024 board, members enjoyed sharing a tasty potluck luncheon in Julie's backyard garden. Members enjoyed reconnecting in person and sharing their thoughts about this past year's favorite activities.
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Many thanks were given to Elli and Claudia as they stepped down from co-Presidents to their new roles as Past co-Presidents for the 2023-2024 board. Thanks were shared with outgoing board member Beverley for her role as secretary and with our five at-large members Alice, Amy, Rebecca, Patty and Charlotte for their contributions to the board.
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Sydney S. Turner - JCM Foundation Scholar
1st Year Scholar, PhD Candidate. Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Virginia
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Research:
Sydney’s research investigates the effects of water disinfects (silver, copper, and chlorine) at concentrations below the drinking water standard on Aedes aegypti (vector for dengue, zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever) mosquito larvae to develop guidance for point-of-use water treatment and vector control management within underserved communities.
Describe the expected benefit of your research to society:
In 2010, it was reported that over 40% of the world’s poulationfetched water from outside of the home. Storing water in the home can lead to adverse public health outcomes caused by water degradation and proliferation of mosquito populations (WHO, 2012). Mosquitoes are the most prolific, invasive species contributing to disease (Lounibos, 2002). With more studies observing the resistance of common pesticides by mosquitoes, such as temephos with Aedes aegypti (Lima et al., 2017, Legorreta-Soberanis et al., 2017), a clear need has been identified for alternative vector control methods. With the might of the ARCS network backing my feet on the ground, we will advance efforts to break the pervasive cycle of poverty in underserved communities by addressing two major public health concerns: access to safe drinking water and vector control for the prevention of the spread of vector borne diseases.
With the University’s legacy of slavery, Charlottesville’s consistently being in the headlines for the 2017 Unite the Right rally, and the social unrest characterizing the summer of 2020, my call to action included pivoting my research to include social justice in engineering education. My tangential research of social justice in engineering education has many expected benefits to society. The purpose of this research is to gather data about how engineering students view social justice in their engineering education and future careers before and after completing an educational engineering in social justice workshop. The information gleaned from this study will be used for the development of future educational materials, paving the way for the enhanced integration of social justice into engineering education. My work with social justice in engineering education has engaged many others (via papers/conferences) to collectively build a pedagogy of love that meets the issue of minoritized, marginalized, or otherwise under-resourced backgrounds leaving engineering programs due to a lack of proof that engineering can be used to benefit the individuals, groups or identities that they identify with or are passionate about (Rulifson & Bielefeldt, 2017). Thus, resolving the struggle of engineering programs to recruit and retain a diverse student population (Purdy & Wasburn, practice.
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Ryan P. O’Hara – McNichols Family Foundation Scholar
1st year scholar, PhD Candidate, Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
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Research:
Ryan’s research uses personalized virtual heart models in combination with high performance computing to predict the risk of adverse cardiac events and improve clinical treatment planning for patients with cardiac arrhythmias
Indicate how an ARCS Award Might Benefig Your Research:
My research would benefit exceptionally from the academic freedom provided by external funding. Computational research requires multiple iterations of testing and verification, which becomes even more challenging with large, biophysically detailed data. Additional computational resources would greatly improve the progress of my research project and allow me to defend my thesis in a timely manner (expected June 2023). An ARCS award would also support me to present my third research project at one of the top conferences in my discipline in the upcoming year.
Career Objective:
Following my PhD defense, I aim to continue my career with a focus on cardiac modeling and electrophysiology. I have a passion for translational engineering, specifically towards patient care. I would like to work with the latest technology either through the medical device industry and/or the FDA. Computational medicine, including software as a medical device, is an emerging field that has started to reshape the standard of care in the United States. I intend for my career, whether at a federal agency or in industry, to contribute to ensuring that new innovations are safe and effective.
Peer-Reviewed Publications:
O'Hara RP, Binka E, Prakosa A, Zimmerman SL, Cartoski MJ, Abraham MR, Lu DY, Boyle PM, Trayanova NA. Personalized Computational Heart Models with T1-Mapped Fibrotic Remodeling Predict Sudden Death Risk in Patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. eLife. 2022; 11:e73325. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.73325
Haase E, O’Hara RP, Maybhate A. The Do-It-Yourself Electrocardiogram. Biomed Eng Education. 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s43683-021-00061-0
Paliwal N, Ali RL, Salvador M, O’Hara RP, Yu R, Daimee UA, Akhtar T, Pandey P, Spragg DD, Calkins H, Trayanova, N. A. Presence of Left Atrial Fibrosis May Contribute to Aberrant Hemodynamics and Increased Risk of Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation Patients. Frontiers in Physiology. 2021; 12. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.657452
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Membership: It's time to renew your membership. Official kick-off began at the Spring Member Meeting and runs through June 30. Click here to renew online.
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P.O. Box 60868
10221 River Road
Potomac, MD 20859-0868
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