ASU student Kaleia Kramer (second from right) joined engineering Grand Challenge Scholars from other universities at the recent White House BRAIN Conference. Photo by: Randy Atkins/National Academy of Engineering
Arizona State University biomedical engineering and Grand Challenge Scholars Program student Kaleia Krämer recently participated in the White House BRAIN Conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The event brought together representatives from research organizations, national laboratories, foundations and companies that have aligned their research goals with those of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Nanotechnologies) established by President Obama’s Administration.
Krämer was among three college undergraduate students and a graduate student at the conference whose studies and research interests also align with the aims of the initiative. The students represented the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars Program.
Students in the program take courses of study designed to prepare them to contribute to solving the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century as defined by the national academy. One of the 14 Grand Challenges is Reverse-Engineering of the Brain.
Krämer was invited to the conference in part because of her work as a research assistant at ASU in the Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, directed by professor Marco Santello, a neuroscientist and the director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
In addition, she gained more research experience this past summer by winning a Flinn Scholars Internship, enabling her to work at the Arizona Center on Aging and the Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance, both based at the University of Arizona.
Read more about Krämer’s research and summer internship.
Krämer and one of the other students at the BRAIN Conference contributed to an Office of Science and Technology Policy blog after the event. They expressed their views on the conference, the BRAIN Initiative and the Grand Challenge Scholar program. They also discussed their research and their motivation for enrolling in the Grand Challenge Scholars program.
Krämer wrote about how a close friend’s experience with a neurovascular disorder influenced her decision. Read the blog post.
She was able to attend the conference with support from an Experiential Learning Grant, which are available exclusively to ASU Grand Challenge Scholars students.
