A biomedical engineering club once stood as an informative series of seminars to grow the skills of the upperclassmen. Now, under new leadership, the club plans to take a new, more competitive direction.
NIU CellTech has joined the Huskie roster, as the new engineering club plans to open the gates for engineering students of all kinds, as well as any others willing to learn more in their trade. Alex Woltman, the president of NIU CellTech, has high hopes for the future of the club’s proceedings.
“This is the first time I’ve been a big part of an engineering club, or any club in general,” Woltman said. “I was very excited when I first joined just to get more experience, but it’s also just nice to be in a community who wants to learn and who have similar interest in what you’re talking about.”
The main focus of the club is to build the engineering and design skills of involved members, especially upperclassmen, with the goal of having their members take part in engineering design competitions against other colleges. The club plans to compete as early as next semester, though the structure of these plans are still in development.
Weekly meetings for the club have taken different forms to meet the needs of the members. Some days are meant to build skills for their trade through workshops with their fellow students, or by having engineering professionals speak to the club about their work in the field. Others can improve skills such as building their resume to have greater success at attaining the job they want.
Meetings can also include reports about the work these students have made on their engineering projects as the school year has progressed in order to share their success with others or to swap information about how to move forward with their work.
As it stands, NIU CellTech will include three sub teams: A biomedical engineering team, a biomechanics team and a unified third team between the two fields of study. These teams will work together during the interim between meetings and will report to the biweekly club meetings with an account of the progress they’ve made together.
The culture of the club is more casual and social than its beginnings, according to Woltman. Instead of being solely focused on building knowledge through long seminars, the club plans to take a more hands-on approach to learning and developing these skills.
Woltman plans to have the club stand out from its humble beginnings as part of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and provide a space for students to learn and grow by working on projects and holding workshops.
“The most important thing about this club is to make sure that students get these technical skills one way or another,” Woltman said. “While it’s not intense or grueling, we will be doing some fun activities with one another. That’s how I think people receive information at a broad level the best.”
Interested students looking to join the club or contact those involved can follow their Instagram for future updates and information.
Meetings are held biweekly, with their next meeting at 5 p.m Tuesday in the Engineering Building, Room 125. At this meeting, the club will organize a SolidWorks workshop, educating others about the software and how to use it professionally in their projects.
