An interdisciplinary team of students will apply their talents to developing accessible materials for both parents and students who are limited English proficient, or that belong to traditionally underrepresented groups be exposed to STEM careers at an early age. The ultimate goal is that this will lead to formal mentoring, and laboratory experience for students as they reach K12 and postsecondary education. The immediate goals of this team will be to:

  • Create partnerships with middle schools in the greater Ann Arbor area
  • Conduct surveys on the student body population, and their previous exposure to STEM as a career path
  • Design infographics with information on BME as a career pathway
  • Design booklet with information on Biomaterials and their role in medical technology
  • Create videos to expose students to scientists with similar cultural backgrounds
Students apply to a specific role on team as follows:

Biomaterials Design & Application (1 Student)

Preferred Skills: Knowledge of the biomaterials literature, experience with the fabrication of hydrogels or polymeric materials.

Likely Majors/Minors: BME, ChemE, MSE

Graphic Design (1 Student)

Preferred Skills: Experience with illustrator, or other graphic software

Likely Majors/Minors: ARTDES, SI

Community Outreach, Survey & Assessment (2 Students)

Preferred Skills: Experience with developing and performing survey assessments, conducting background research on target population.

Likely Majors/Minors: EDUC, PSYCH, PUBPOL, SI, SOC

Educational Information Visualization (1 Student)

Preferred Skills: Creating accessible infographics, knowledge of Spanish is a plus.

Likely Majors/Minors: ARCH, ARTDES, EDUC, SI

Faculty Project Lead

María Coronel received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami in 2010, where she started her work in Biomaterials for oxygen generation. She went on to graduate from the PhD program at the University of Florida (UF) in the department of Biomedical Engineering in 2016, advised by Dr. Cherie Stabler, a Professor in the BME department and affiliate faculty at UF Diabetes Institute. In 2022, Dr. Coronel completed a post-doc at Georgia Institute of Technology working with Andrés J. García on biomaterials for transplant tolerance. She started as faculty in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan in 2022. Her current research is centered on engineering biomaterials for perturbing and investigating immunological responses. Her work has been funded by the Juvenile Research Foundation, and NIH.
Students: 5

Likely Majors/Minors: ARCH, ARTDES, BME, ChemE, EDUC, MSE, PSYCH, PUBPOL, SI, SOC

Meeting Details: Wednesdays, 2-4pm

Application: Consider including a link to your portfolio or other websites in the personal statement portion of your application to share work you would like considered as part of your submission.

Summer Opportunity: Summer research fellowships may be available for qualifying students.

Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students on campus.

IP/NDA: Students who successfully match to this project team will be required to sign an Intellectual Property (IP) Agreement prior to participation.

Course Substitutions: CoE Honors