Department News
2008-12-01
Eric Rutan won second place in one of five subsections in the Food and Pharmaceutical/ Biotechnology division undergraduate poster competition of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2008 National Meeting held in Philadelphia. Eric's poster was entitled "Field Strength Dependency of Red Blood Cell Rupture Rate in Dielectrophoretic Microdevice". He was closely mentored by Kaela Leonard, a Ph.D student in the Medical micro-Device Engineering Research Laboratory. Eric's faculty advisor was Adrienne Minerick. His research explored the affects of applied AC field strength on the rupture rate of the red blood cells. It was shown that larger field strengths increase the rupture rate for all blood types. Eric is a senior and will be graduating with his B.S. in Chemical Engineering in May 2009.