Professional News, May 2, 2003

Two separate ideas developed by students in a Duke engineering design class that seeks to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities have become winning entries in the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) national design competition.

David Chong of Wheaton, Ill., and Billy Watson of Tacoma, Wash., were named winners for adapting a baseball glove with an aluminum brace and a Velcro strap to aid the catching prowess of a young boy born without a thumb.

Kyle Smith of Lafayette, Ind., and Lynn Wang of Burlingame, Calif., also won for developing a new kind of wearable arm restraint for a therapy encouraging partially paralyzed children to manipulate an impaired arm by constraining finger, hand, wrist and elbow movement in their other, normally functioning arm.

Both Duke teams were members of last fall's Devices for People with Disabilities class session in the Pratt School of Engineering's biomedical engineering department. The two Duke teams will join three other winning groups at RESNA's June annual conference in Atlanta, where they will display descriptions of their work.

Three other design teams from the Duke class will present posters on their designs at the conference.

Chong, Smith and Watson are all graduating seniors, while Wang is currently enrolled in the Pratt School's Master in Engineering Management program. The People with Disabilities program now holds two semester long classes each academic year.

The first annual Robert Silber, MD, Memorial Research Prize has been awarded to Dr. Stephen Chui. The award, which was established by Silber's family, recognizes an outstanding hematology oncology fellow at Duke for excellence in research.

Chui's research focuses on immunity and its potential therapeutic applications. "We are trying to demonstrate that the immune system can be consistently directed against cancers," explained Chui. "It is commonly accepted that the body is making abnormal cells with malignant characteristics. The theory of cancer immunosurveillance is that the body's immune system is usually removing abnormal cells. However, sometimes the immune system does not recognize the abnormal cells, resulting in the development of cancer."

The $1,000 research prize was awarded to Chui in honor of Silber, a clinical professor of medicine at Duke who died in 1998. Dr. Silber had a remarkable career, serving as director of the New York University School of Medicine's hematology division from 1968-1992, prior to joining Duke. His scientific research focused chiefly on leukemia and on the treatment of hematologic malignancies.

The Pratt School of Engineering recognized two alumni for their achievementsand two faculty members for excellence in teaching and research at the annual alumni banquet April 26 that concluded the spring meeting of the school's Board of Visitors.

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences Professor Charles Harman received the distinguished faculty teaching award, consisting of a plaque and $2,000. The award, selected by a faculty committee with student input, recognizes "superior dedication to undergraduate teaching."

Harman joined the faculty in 1961 and teaches courses in thermodynamics and power generation.

Ashutosh Chilkoti, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, received this year's distinguished faculty teaching award. It is given annually in recognition of"significant contributions to the advancement of his or her field." The award also consists of a plaque and $2,000.

Chilkoti, an expert in protein engineering and genetically engineered biopolymers for drug delivery, has already been recognized nationally for his research excellence. He is also the past recipient of the Biomedical Engineering Society's award for outstanding research by a graduate student and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, which recognizes young scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Michael Drozd was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award for his academic achievement and entrepreneurial successes in microwave technologies. Drozd is president and CEO of Industrial Microwave Systems, a research-triangle park company he founded in 1997. The firm is the leading producer of microwave-based heating and drying systems for continuos flow manufacturing processes. Drozd, a former A.B. Duke Scholar, received his BSEE and Ph.D. from the School of Engineering.

Randy Repass, founder and chairman of West Marine, received the 2003 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award. West Marine is one the nation's largest boating supply chains in the nation with over 260 stores in the United States and Canada. Repass, who resides in Southern California, graduated from the School of Engineering in 1966 with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

The school's engineering alumni council chooses alumni award recipients based upon their achievements and contribution to their community.