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This academic year, Emily Egge ’07 (Annandale, N.J) is participating in research which will help medical personnel to better predict the individual blood flow of a patient with stented arteries, which will help in the designing and development of better stents.
Egge, a mechanical engineering major, is working with Jenn Rossmann, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. So far, she has researched the history of stenting and the design evolution of the modern stent, which is expandable mesh that widens a partially blocked artery.
The two are collaborating as part of Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their work through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
“The work I have done has been primarily based on lots of research and reading, as well as getting myself oriented enough with the computer software to eventually be able to model my findings and to explore the further possibilities of this project,” Egge says.
Her next step will be to model the stents and use computational fluid dynamics to simulate blood flow through various stent designs for her honors thesis.
“By evaluating the influence of stent parameters on blood flow, the influence of the flow on the stent, and the influence of both flow and the stent on the artery wall, she will learn more about how such vessels may be most helpfully diagnosed and treated, and what stent parameters may be best suited to particular vessels,” Rossmann explains.
According to Rossmann, Egge is learning about medical terminology and practice, bioengineering, and using the mechanical engineering technique of computational fluid dynamics to analyze this complex biomechanical problem.
“Seeing a long-term research project through to the end is a fantastic learning experience,” Rossman says. “The obvious lessons are about your subject matter—the how’s and why’s and what-ifs that you pose in your research. The less obvious, but equally as important lessons, are about the nature of research — the 19 times something doesn’t work before it finally does, and the way ‘answers’ usually bring up more, and harder, questions. Such projects also require self-motivation and project management skills that Emily has already demonstrated.”
Rossmann says that Egge possesses the intellectual curiosity that will motivate her to pursue this topic over three semesters, and the abilities, discipline, and time management skills necessary to successfully complete the project.
In turn, Egge values Rossmann’s guidance.
“Dr. Rossmann is a wonderful teacher and advisor,” she says. “I am so glad that I have this opportunity to work with her. She provides just enough input to get me motivated and to think of new ideas and ways of approaching this project.”
Egge transferred from Clemson University and began her Lafayette career as a biology major.
“I soon came to realize my strengths lay in mathematics,” she notes. “I did some research about the field of bioengineering and, with some help from advisors, I came to mechanical engineering, which provides me the math I craved as well as the aspects of design that I hope to apply to biology.”
Egge says that Lafayette’s smaller size provides an excellent academic environment for projects such as the one she is working on because professors are more open and willing to explore students’ ideas as well as incorporate them into their fields of interest. Furthermore, Lafayette’s size better suits her goals in her major.
“Transferring from a larger school to a smaller school has given me a chance to compare,” Egge adds. “I found that in my field of interest Lafayette is hands on, whereas in a larger atmosphere you wouldn’t get that kind of attention until graduate school.”
Rossmann finds great benefits in the program from an educator’s perspective.
“The EXCEL program offers Lafayette students an amazing opportunity to make meaningful contributions to cutting-edge research,” she says. “For a faculty member, it’s a real joy to see students take pride in their own discoveries, gain new appreciation for what they learn in courses here, and experience the thrill of research.”
In addition to her research work, Egge is working on a project with the Lafayette Technology Clinic to help the Allentown and Bethlehem Health Bureaus prepare a comprehensive health preparedness plan. She has volunteered with the Landis Community Outreach Center for programs such as Art for the Young at Heart and the SPCA.