4/12/2012
For almost nine hours, Niket Patel remained calm while he waited his turn. It wasn’t until five minutes before he was scheduled to speak that he began feeling a little shaky.
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For almost nine hours, Niket Patel remained calm while he waited his turn. It wasn’t until five minutes before he was scheduled to speak that he began feeling a little shaky.
Patel was at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., on Friday, March 30, to compete in the Old Guard Oral Presentation competition, a highlight of the American Society of Mechanical Engineer’s (ASME) Student Professional Development Conference, and he had his sight set on the top prize. He was confident that he knew the material and he had presented to larger audiences before, so that did not trouble him.
In the end, Patel walked away with first place overall in the Old Guard competition and an extra prize for best technical presentation. He will have the opportunity to compete again in the final Old Guard competition November 9-15 at ASME’s 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in Houston.
He said he worked on the presentation throughout spring break, applied the techniques he had learned about in summer seminars, and even asked a graduate student to give him some pointers on how to improve the presentation.
The content of his presentation came from his work with Amy Wagoner Johnson, an assistant professor in mechanical science and engineering (MechSE), for whom Patel has done research projects since the summer of 2011. His work helping Wagoner Johnson is concentrated on researching synthetic bone substitute materials and systems.
“The research is motivated by bone loss in people due to injuries and accidents,” Patel said. “You get significant bone loss and bone doesn’t regenerate that easily. If you get a minor fracture, you can cast it up and the bone will regenerate, but if you have significant loss, the bone cells can’t regenerate.”
Patel said Wagoner Johnson’s research group is looking at ways to create scaffolds and use hydrogels (special polymers) to guide bone cell behavior and help repair bone loss. Part of that process involves using an Electrohydrodynamic Jet (E-Jet) printer in the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems lab to print at the micron scale to create patterns of stiffness in substrate material. The researchers then gauge how bone cell behavior is affected by varying stiffness.
Patel said his work involves resolving problems that come up along the way, such as finding a technique using fluorescence to help see the micron and sub-micron level detail in patterns the E-Jet prints.
After lunch on Friday, a few hours before his presentation, Patel took a break from supporting the University of Illinois ASME’s student design team in the Energy Relay race to find a quiet corner and practice his presentation alone three or four times.
“I usually just practice once or twice, but this time I actually practiced three times, just to be fluent with the whole topic,” Patel said.
But, Patel has not always been comfortable with public speaking. He said working with Wagoner Johnson has provided him with opportunities and mentorship to help polish his presentation skills.
“I have worked on it a lot,” Patel said. “I have developed those skills now. I know what a presentation is supposed to do: it’s not just an information dump, it should spark interest.”
After this first-place finish, it is safe to say that Patel’s work is paying off.
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Contact: William Bowman, associate director of communications, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, 217/244-0901.
Writer: Chad Garland, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.