2022 BMC speaker series: Wim van Egmond–Microphotographer, Filmmaker and Artist

Wim van Egmond, Microphotographer, Filmmaker and Artist

Portraying microorganisms

In his talk, Wim will show examples of his work and explain how to find, handle and manipulate microorganisms to be able to observe them in close detail. Wim will describe how he photographs and films them. He will also show some examples of the drawings of his favourite microscopists from the past, giving a glimpse into how microbiology started. Wim is currently studying 17th-century microscopists and is working with the original microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.

Date and Time:
April 22, 2022
2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET
One-hour presentation including Q&A.

Missed the session? Watch the recorded session presentation here:
https://vimeo.com/702910812/b0ba4cbf12

BMC Speaker Series 2022–Tricks of the trade full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2022/02/21/bmc-speakers-2022

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Wim van Egmond is a Dutch artist whose work lies deceptively close to scientific work. He is fascinated by the almost artificial way in which science depicts nature. Wim began his career as a visual autonomous artist, studying painting and specializing in photography and using optical techniques such as microscopy. He portrays microbes and makes micro-landscapes. Initially, with the aim to make autonomous work often with one foot in the scientific world, he received commissions from the scientific community. Wim has developed techniques to create unique movies and images that were not seen before in both the worlds of science and of art. 

Website: https://wimvanegmond.com/

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/wimvanegmond

2022 BMC speaker series: Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Founding Director of The Continuum Robotics Laboratory

Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Founding Director of The Continuum Robotics Laboratory, University of Toronto

NEXT GENERATION SURGICAL ROBOTS

Continuum robots have the potential to radically improve innovation across multiple applications such as accessing kidney stones through the urethra, or treating brain cancer through the nose without having to open the skull. But this paradigm shift entails moving beyond discrete articulated robot bodies to continuously bending ones. In this talk, you will learn how Jessica and her lab design, create, and control the next generation of surgical robots.

Date and Time:
April 8, 2022
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
One-hour presentation including Q&A.

Missed the session? Watch the recorded session presentation here:
https://vimeo.com/697586319/071e82f5ee

BMC Speaker Series 2022–Tricks of the trade full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2022/02/21/bmc-speakers-2022

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Jessica Burgner-Kahrs is an Associate Professor with the Departments of Mathematical & Computational Sciences, Computer Science, and Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, the founding Director of the Continuum Robotics Laboratory, and Associate Director of the Robotics Institute at the University of Toronto, Canada. She received her Diplom and Ph.D. in computer science from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany in 2006 and 2010 respectively. Before joining the University of Toronto, she was Associate Professor with Leibniz University Hannover, Germany and a postdoctoral fellow with Vanderbilt University, USA. 

Her research focus lies on continuum robotics and in particular on their design, modeling, planning and control, as well as human-robot interaction. Her fundamental robotics research is driven by applications in minimally-invasive surgery and maintenance, repair, and operations. Her research was recognized with the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, the Engineering Science Prize, the Lower Saxony Science Award in the category Young Researcher, and she was entitled Young Researcher of the Year 2015 in Germany. She was elected as one of the Top 40 under 40 in the category Science and Society in 2015, 2016, and 2017 by the business magazine Capital and elected one of 100 Young Global Leaders from the World Economic Forum in 2019. Jessica is a Senior member of the IEEE, a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, and serves as a senior editor for IEEE Robotics & Automation Letters.

UTM Department of Biology Speaker Series: Patrick Lynch, Yale University

Patrick Lynch, Former Interactive Media Designer at Yale University

DIGITAL FIELD GUIDES TO AN ANALOG WORLD

"I've had a lifelong interest in both visual communication and various aspects of natural history, and was lucky enough to be able to combine my interests over a 45-year multimedia career at Yale University. This talk will look at the logistics of creating my books, all of which were wholly or at least partially generated with digital tools."

Date and Time:
March 25, 2022
12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET
One-hour presentation including Q&A

Seminar Link: https://lnkd.in/eqyvCfVA

Host: Professor Michael Corrin, Biomedical Communications

BMC Speaker Series 2022—Tricks of the trade full program:
https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2022/02/21/bmc-speakers-2022

U of T grad student wins The Vesalius Trust’s top award

We are proud to learn that Shehryar (Shay) Saharan is this year's recipient of the prestigious Alan Cole Award, the top student prize awarded by The Vesalius Trust.

The Vesalius Trust is a non-profit foundation that promotes innovation in visual communication for the health sciences by supporting students through scholarship funding and research grants, and through continuing professional education.

Saharan, a second-year graduate student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications at the University of Toronto, was recognized for his project An interactive educational resource for knee biomechanics instruction.

L: Photo of Shehryar Saharan. R: Screen shot from Saharan’s master’s research project.

The Trust also awarded Vesalius Scholarships to three MScBMC second-year students:

Alex Ka Hei Ho for Nerve transfer surgery for peripheral nerve injuries: a patient and healthcare provider educational animation

L: Photo of Alex Ka Hei Ho. R: Screen shot from Ho’s master’s research project.

Aimy Meng Yu Wang for Design for the heart (D4H): creating a patient-informed resource-set for communicating heart failure

L: Photo of Aimy Meng Yu Wang. R: Screen shot from Wang’s master’s research project.

Amy Ke Er Zhang for Building undergraduate life science students' confidence and understanding in practicing visual science communication.

L: Photo of Amy Ke Er Zhang. R: Screen shot from Zhang’s master’s research project.

The Vesalius Trust awarded Vesalius Research Grants to support the work of two MScBMC second-year students:

Cassie Fangyu Ren for her research project, A 2D patient education animation on PTSD-SUD for PTSD patients

L: Photo of Cassie Fangyu Ren. R: Screen shot from Ren’s master’s research project.

Naomi Robson for her research project, A user-informed, interactive, digital three-dimensional pelvic anatomy model for pelvic healthcare professionals: modelling a neglected region, and incorporating user testing and expert certification practices into 3D model creation.

L: Photo of Naomi Robson. R: Screen shot from Robson’s master’s research project.

Thank you to our students for continuing U of T's excellent record in attracting Vesalius Trust funding to the Biomedical Communications program.

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Links referenced in announcement:

Shay Saharan’s web site https://www.ss-design.site/

Master of Science in Biomedical Communications web site https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/

Alex Ho’s web site https://alexandraho.com/

Aimy Wang’s web site https://www.aimywang.com/

Amy Ke Er Zhang’s web site https://www.amykzhang.com/

Cassie Ren’s web site https://www.cassieren.com/

Naomi Robson’s web site https://www.robsonvisuals.com/

2022 BMC speaker series: Federica Fragapane, Data Visualization Designer

Federica Fragapane, Data Visualization Designer

Designing visual narratives: data visualization for and with people

As an information designer, I constantly explore the possibilities that designing a data visualization opens in terms of creating a connection with the people. The main purpose is communicating the design process behind many of my projects which aims at engaging the readers, inviting them to read my pieces and therefore exploring the information and stories I’m telling through them. Visual experimentation has a significant role in such research.

During the talk I’ll show the process behind a set of data visualizations with a common ground of interest for the relationship between designer and people: not only as readers, but also as narrators. I'll share the design phases and the lessons learned throughout the processes

Date and Time:
March 18, 2022
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
One-hour presentation including Q&A.

Missed the session? Watch the recorded session presentation here: https://vimeo.com/689842804/682e4a76a4

BMC Speaker Series 2022–Tricks of the trade full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2022/02/21/bmc-speakers-2022

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Federica Fragapane is an independent information designer. She has designed projects and data visualizations for Google, the United Nations, Scientific American, BBC Science Focus, Columbia University and she periodically collaborates with La Lettura–Corriere della Sera.

Fragapane is a co-author for the Geopolitical Atlas of Water (Hoepli, 2019) and for Planet Earth (National Geographic Kids and White Star, 2016). 

She is Research Associate at ODI, a global think tank.

In October 2021, Fragapane won the Pierre Keller Award at the Hublot Design Prize 2021 in London, an international recognition that aims to support early career talent in the world of design. Many of her projects have an experimental approach and are aimed at exploring the design of new visual languages and the relationship between data visualization and people.

New twist on an old task: taking a personal approach to illustrating the brain

10:03 a.m.
Maeve Doyle

Viktoriya Khymych, MScBMC Class of 2022, created a remarkable likeness inspired by Art Deco illustrations for her digital neuro-self portrait.

A medical illustrator may well be asked to create illustrations of the brain over the course of their career. But it’s rare that the assignment gets so personal.

"When Neuro was a first-year course, the first assignment was just a very straightforward illustration of the brain in isolation," says Shelley Wall, associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Until this year, students in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program created original but standard illustrations of brains, in whole or in section. The illustrations consolidated their knowledge of the anatomy and developed their digital rendering skills.

Rescheduling the course Neuroanatomy for Visual Communication from first-year curriculum to second-year gave Wall, the course instructor, the opportunity to challenge the design and rendering skills of the graduate students.

Innovating course content

"In first year, students are still finding their way in anatomical illustration. Now that Neuro is a second-year graduate course, I could take it to the next level because the students' skills are so much more developed. So I conceived the neuro self-portrait assignment," she says.

In Neuroanatomy, students learn the structure and function of the brain and the cranial nerves. They engage in interactive exercises, examine brain specimens and skulls, study historical and contemporary texts, and watch videos of dissections.

"Drawing the brain is one thing. You must make it accurate. But what makes this assignment so different is that you really must understand all the important relationships between the brain, the brain case, and the external features of the head. And making the assignment a self-portrait is a way of making it also a completely unique illustration that really puts the students’ stamp on it and allows them some creativity," she says.

Exceeding expectations

Even working within the constraints of the course assignment, and the strict parameters of depicting the brain with accuracy, the second-year graduate students delivered a broad range of unique and original illustrations.

Mimi Yuejun Guo, MScBMC Class of 2022, made the neuro self-portrait assignment even more complex by portraying the brain from an upward angle, and at a three-quarter view.

Mimi Yuejun Guo used two different traditional mediums and then digitally composited them to create her self-portrait.

"I used carbon dust to create a black-and-white self-portrait with less saturation and colour to not compete with the brain illustration. I used acrylic paint for its vibrant colours and to highlight the brain," says Guo.

Wall says that Guo added a whole new layer of complexity to the assignment by portraying the brain from an upward angle, and at a three-quarter view.

"I chose this perspective to show all the crucial anatomical parts–the cerebral hemisphere, the cerebellum, the brainstem and the origins of the cranial nerves," says Guo.

MScBMC graduate student Sana Khan’s neuro portrait of her brother is an homage to Bourgery’s 19th c. canonical text Traité complet de l'anatomy de l'homme.

Sana Khan’s brother posed for her portrait, which Khan created in a style that references the nineteenth-century anatomical atlas Traité complet de l'anatomy de l'homme written by Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery, and illustrated by Nicolas Henri Jacob.

"Rather than “ghost” the brain over the portrait, I wanted my illustration to look in vivo–as if you could pull back flaps of skin and tissue to see the brain within," says Khan.

The homage to Bourgery’s canonical text also adds a touch of whimsy to the illustration, Wall says. “I like to think that this assignment not only challenges the students, but let’s them have some artistic fun as well.”

Shehryar Saharan, MScBMC Class of 2022, used his father's own unique brain scans to create a neuro portrait and an infographic to explain the difference between a normal and tumourous pituitary gland.

One student in Wall’s course had his own father's unique brain imaging data to work with.

In 2020, Shehryar Saharan’s father was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour. As a patient, his father received copies of his MRI brain scans.

"Before my father's surgery in 2021, I tried to help him understand his condition better. I was shocked by the lack of high-quality visuals available to explain the tumour in relation to the optic nerve and the rest of the brain. When this neuro assignment was introduced, it became the best excuse to help fill this void and create a neuroanatomy visualisation that would explain my dad's condition in a meaningful and simplified way," says Saharan.

Saharan asked his father to pose for the portrait and he used his father's brain scans plus many other references to illustrate the brain and the tumour.

Saharan says that his father, whose surgery was a success, loves his neuro portrait. "After my dad saw the finished piece, he was better able to understand what he had gone through. He said he wished that he had had it earlier."

The Biomedical Communications program continually evolves by adding new courses to the curriculum and new assignments to courses. Wall says that the innovative neuro self-portrait assignment is, for medical illustrators, the perfect intersection of complexity and accuracy, and creativity and originality.

Neuro self-portrait by Sherry Sheng Yu An, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Amy Assabgui, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Mimi Yuejun Guo, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Viktoriya Khymych, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Alexandra Ka Hei Ho, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Minjee Kim, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Cassie Ren, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro portrait by Sana Khan, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Naomi Ying Robson, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro portrait by Shehyrar Saharan, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Abeeshan Selvabaskaran, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Aimy Meng Yu Wang, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Michie Xingyu Wu, MScBMC Class of 2022

Neuro self-portrait by Amy Ke Er Zhang, MScBMC Class of 2022

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Links referenced in the story

Shelley Wall’s web page: http://www.shelleywall.layfigures.com/

Neuroanatomy for Visual Communication: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/required-curriculum/#MSC2012

Mimi Yuejun Guo’s web site: https://www.mimiguoart.com/

Sana Khan’s web site: https://www.sfkhanvisuals.com/

Shehryar Saharan’s web site: https://www.ss-design.site/

Anatomy of a Data Visualization: Telling stories with your data

A workshop by Shay Saharan, Michie Wu, and Amy Zhang, MScBMC Class of 2022

Friday, February 25, 2022
1:00-2:00PM EST
Online (Zoom)
Register to attend: https://bit.ly/anatomy-dataviz

Data visualization is a powerful tool for telling meaningful stories with data. It helps us see patterns and trends that we might not have noticed otherwise, or tell a story that’s more compelling than numbers in a table.

This workshop will increase your understanding of data visualization. You will learn how to select the best visualization type for your data and audience, and improve its effectiveness using graphic design. You will also be introduced to some of the tools necessary for visualizing your data.

(Offered through the Graduate Professional Development Conference 2022 hosted by the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre.)

All members of the University of Toronto graduate community are welcome to attend.

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Links included in announcement

Shay Saharan’s web site: https://www.ss-design.site/

Michie Wu’s web site: https://www.michiewu.com/

Amy Ke Er Zhang’s web site: https://www.amykzhang.com/

Graduate Professional Development Conference 2022 brochure: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/asc/sites/files/asc/public/shared/pdf/gpdc/GPDC%20Winter%202022_Program2%282%29.pdf

2022 BMC speaker series: Jerry Gu, Scientific Creative Lead at BioRender

Jerry Gu, MScBMC, Class of 2018.

Cultivating Competencies for the SciCom Job Market

Why do interviewers ask certain questions about your past? As BMC graduands about to enter exciting careers in science communication, you will inevitably participate in competency interviews. In his talk, Jerry Gu will explore the what, why, and how around career competencies, so you can be intentional and crush future job interviews.

Date and Time:
February 25, 2022
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
One-hour presentation including Q&A.

Missed the session? Watch the recorded session presentation here: https://vimeo.com/685292086/e6c8aceb04

BMC Speaker Series 2022–Tricks of the trade full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2022/02/21/bmc-speakers-2022

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Jerry Gu is the Scientific Creative Lead at BioRender. He has a background in biochemistry and graduated from the University of Toronto’s Biomedical Communications program in 2018. Jerry is passionate about scientific illustration, solving product challenges, and team management.

Welcome back to campus

The University of Toronto resumes in-person learning and activities across its three campuses on February 7.

Thanks to Alex Ka Hei Ho, a second-year graduate student in the biomedical communications program, for our tiger poster.

We took inspiration from 2022's Lunar New Year–the Year of the Tiger–to welcome home our biomedical communications family, and the entire University of Toronto community. It's so good to see you.

Here's to facing the future with the courage and strength of tigers!

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Link referenced in announcement

Masks, ventilation and vaccines: Three key ways U of T is preparing for a safe return to in-person activities: https://www.utoronto.ca/news/masks-ventilation-and-vaccines-three-key-ways-u-t-preparing-safe-return-person-activities?utm_source=UofTHome&utm_medium=WebsiteBanner&utm_content=UofTtoSafeReturnPreparation