IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2022 - 36

with an aim to improve the lives of
all humanity.
Committed to Diversity
For Akay, this means pushing the
field of biomedical engineering forward
in an inclusive way.
As president, he says,
" I pledge to continue
to promote
female scientists
and engineers
by encouraging
involvement
in our
conferences,
publicat ions,
as well as technical
and membership
activities
and committees. We
will continue to actively
recruit and invite a diverse
membership to fulfill leadership roles
in our Society and will provide opportunities
and recognition for their contributions
to our community. "
One of the ways EMBS is doing
this is via public forums, an initiative
started in 2020 to stimulate discussion
about pressing health concerns and
potential engineering innovations to
address them. The first forum around
COVID-19 had more than 1,200 participants
while the second, what Akay calls
" a paradigm-shifting event on data science
and engineering in health care "
brought in more than 2,000 attendees. A
third forum on health-care innovations
and entrepreneurship highlighted industry
leaders across medical devices, biopharma,
digital health, neurotechnology
and more. More than half of the speakers
at these forums were women and minority
practitioners, underscoring again
Akay and the EMBS's commitments
to representation.
As for why this matters, Akay points
out that almost half of the students in
biomedical engineering in the United
States are female, so the issue is not
with getting women into the field at
the outset. However, diversity at the top
is still lacking. " We need to make sure
women are getting promoted all the way
36
Now, as
EMBS president for
2021-2022, he is leading
the Society's mission to
foster and promote global
biomedical engineering
innovations, research, and
education with an aim to
improve the lives of all
humanity.
up, " explains Akay. " You may have more
than half in the numbers of students or
junior doctors, but it's important to see
deans, department chairs, and hospital
or medical field leadership to make sure
progress is not slowed down. "
He continues, " COVID
brought the importance
of health-care innovations
to the forefront
as an area
we all need to
focus on. In
health care,
you have to
give not only
yo u r m i n d
but also your
heart, and that
takes all types of
people, " adding that
" Any medical device or
drug should be really inclusive
in its testing across age groups,
ethnicities, genders, and more. "
Looking ahead, one of Akay's upcoming
goals for EMBS is to host a public
forum on global health care in Botswana
as the organization has not held many
functions in Africa outside of Egypt. " I'd
like us to partner with scientists and
engineers from Africa to highlight and
discuss current and emerging healthcare
opportunities and challenges, and
identify new directions in the fields of
global health care, " he shares. " My goal
is to build a platform that strengthens
our collective capability to exchange
ideas as well as share, access, and manage
data, models, and the latest reports
on research and learn from each culture. "
As for the future of biomedicine more
broadly, Akay is looking forward to seeing
progress on multiple fronts. One is
in the field of innovative technologies for
health and wellness. With life expectancies
increasing, " It's important to live
longer, but also to have quality of life,
which can be improved with engineering
innovations, " he explains. A second area
is in intelligent drug design and delivery,
which Akay predicts will be improved with
technology and computational models.
Finally, he offers, " I believe we're
going to have significant development
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE JUNE 2022
of digital health, which coalesces digital
technology and analytics. Smart
implants merged with artificial intelligence
will help physicians assist patients
with preventing, treating, and monitoring
chronic diseases, infectious diseases,
and behavioral health (mental, pain, and
addiction) in their homes without any
obstacles to health-care resources and
also empower patients to take charge
of their own health by taking steps to
improve their lifestyles and diets. " He
adds, " We will have an intelligent closedloop
system merged with smart sensors
and implants to detect the onset of the
event and then use the smart stimulators
or modulators to prevent the event. "
He would not miss an opportunity to
encourage others to join him in these
endeavors and advises readers to explore
biomedical engineering. " Don't be afraid
of challenges, " says Akay. " Inquisitive
minds and critical thinking are key for
health-care and engineering discoveries
and innovations. Therefore, get involved
with challenging health-care problems,
take risks when needed, become well
prepared not only scientifically, but
socially and culturally, to reach out to
more people. Remember, whatever you
do in this field, even a small contribution
may have a huge impact on health care,
[the] economy, and society. "
-Leslie Prives
More Than 30 Years of
Women in STEM at the
University of Wisconsin-
Platteville
Its Formation, Development,
and Experiences
t
This article shows the evolution of the
Women in STEM (WiSTEM) program
at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville
(UWP) over the past 30 years. The
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2022.3155897
Date of current version: 4 May 2022
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2022

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