HMRC-CREATE students
adds. “They have a unique background in a multi-disciplinary environment and the beginning of a toolkit that’s going to allow them to take on multiple career paths depending on their interests, whether they stay in academia or choose to work in industry or in health care policy for government.” Elizabeth Hassan, a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering, is conducting research at the HMRC to develop functional outcome measures to assess performance after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction—a commonly injured knee ligament, particularly for young athletes. “I have two established surgeons involved at every stage of my project, which means that I know my work will be directly useful to doctors and their patients,” Hassan says. “The CREATE program made this collaboration possible. When I talk to colleagues at other centres they can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a direct, open relationship with the clinicians. It’s something really unique about Queen’s and it’s the big reason I didn’t even apply anywhere else for my PhD; for me Queen’s is the best place in the country to study biomechanics.” Elodie Lugez, a PhD candidate in Computer Science, works in a close collaboration with the HMRC to improve the quality of computer-assisted
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The CREATE program is particularly interesting because it encourages
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doing more in graduate education than is traditionally done. It’s also a great platform for encouraging coordinated research over a sustained period.
surgeries. Thanks to the HMRC-CREATE grant, which has been, she says, “highly beneficial,” she has learned from many established professionals working in her area and expanded her network. “Meeting regularly with other HMRC-CREATE trainees enabled me to share ideas and collaborate,” she says. “There is also a professional training aspect, as this grant gave us access to some privileged preparation for various tasks, such as media interviews.” As well, the grant enables her to attend conferences, where she can present her work, receive feedback, and meet and learn from other peers. Valerio Russo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering who works at the HMRC on a project related to heart tissue regeneration following myocardial infarction. “I use stem cells extracted from human fat,” he says. “It is a very abundant cell source and it is usually discarded after medical
procedures such as abdominoplasty— basically like taking gold out of garbage.” In addition to the welcome financial support, Russo says, the collaborative aspect of CREATE has been helpful. “I got to work with a cardiac surgeon and many other experts. I was also able to observe cardiac surgeries—two of the fat depots I used are around the heart— which gave me a real-life view of the
PhD candidate Liz Hassan, Sc’03 conditions I’m trying to treat.” He’s learned to look at the big picture, which helps in designing his studies, Russo adds. “Collaborations and goal orientation have been the great gifts CREATE has given me, and they’ve helped a lot in my research.” THE COMPLETE ENGINEER 15