BME’s David Jiang receives the University’s Thomas G. Stockham Medal for Conspicuously Effective Teaching for 2023!
Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student David Jiang’s work in the University of Utah Cardiovascular Pathomechanics Laboratory seeks to establish experimental and computational approaches to improve cardiovascular disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Specifically, his thesis aims to develop robust modeling techniques to evaluate the biomechanical response of vascular devices, focusing on stents and small-diameter grafts used to treat coronary artery disease in over 2 million patients per year. Ultimately, his research seeks to integrate computer-aided engineering tools into personalized diagnostic and treatment strategies to reduce vascular device failure and cardiovascular treatment complications.
But, importantly, David is also passionate about using his biomechanics expertise to improve teaching. In the 2022-23 academic year, David developed, integrated, and taught new innovative interactive learning modules, focused on new computational modeling & simulation techniques applied to modern cardiovascular problems (students taking BME 4250 Biomechanics 1 downline should look forward to this state-of-the-art improvement). In recognition of this extraordinary effort to overhaul the biomechanics teaching lab content, David was awarded the University’s Thomas G. Stockham Medal for Conspicuously Effective Teaching. This recognition was established by the University of Utah in memory of Thomas G. Stockham, Jr., professor of electrical engineering, who is remembered as the father of digital recording in honor of his pioneering work in the fields of digital recording and tapeless editing. David’s creative computational and modeling improvements to teaching biomechanics are highly deserving of this University accolade.