Cerritos College Hosted Integrative Workshop on the Convergence of Biology and Engineering Design

NORWALK, Calif. - March 3, 2014 - PRLog -- The recent event was held on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 in the Social Science building. Dr. Miodrag Micic, Department Chair and Professor from Cerritos College Engineering Design Technology Department and Dr. Michelle Navarro, Professor from Cerritos College Biology Department presented the topics from their respective disciplines. They talked about future convergence of biology and engineering technology; between the living and non-living things as a blend of men and machines.

Micic and Navarro discussed the integration between Biology and Engineering Design Technology. Many fields intersect between Biology and Engineering Design Technology, including some of the fastest growing industry sectors such as Genetic Engineering, Bioprocessing Engineering, Medial Device Engineering, Neuroengineering, Tissue Engineering / Artificial Organs, Systems Biology, and Synthetic Biology.

Both Dr. Micic and Dr. Navarro showed how the explosions of knowledge in life sciences preceded engineering invention in the beginning. ”The invention of the microscope led to the discovery of the cells and cell biology, and more recently 3D printers and big data processing capabilities are driving new areas of Tissue/Organ Engineering and Neuroengineering,” said Dr. Mickey Micic. “In today’s world, some of the concepts learned in Biology influence Engineering Design through the well-established principles of Biomimicry and Biomimetic design, which are a base of the sustainable design approach.”

Dr. Micic, a veteran of medical device industry, has served in the past as a Vice President of MP Biomedicals and is currently a consultant in the field of medical devices.

Dr. Micic explained some of the efforts to bridge two disciplines such as teaching of the Biomimetics design approach as a part of a sustainable design. Cerritos College ENGT department is offering Certified Sustainable Design Certificate (CSDA) testing and certification as a part of its ENGT and New Product Development (NPD) program. In this newly created Cerritos College FabLab, students learn practical aspects of 3D printing/additive manufacturing, design for 3D printing, and 3D scanning; all essential skills for the future jobs of the growing medical device industry. The 3D FabLab was sponsored by the IIPI grant and hosted at the Engineering Design Technology Department.

“Another example of training for the life science technology workforce of the future is our Engineering Technology classes, where the students learns how to run and control process plants - Petrochemical, Biotechnology, pharmaceutical  and pharma process plants are very similar,” said Dr. Micic.

Dr. Navarro provided an inspiring story about stem cells and cloning, their discovery, and current state of the art of the field and current and future applications in curing today incurable diseases and in regenerative medicine. “With the blending of Technology and Biology in a discovery of the stem cells, the whole field got enabled by the advancement in applied fluid mechanics and instrumentation, embodied by the development of flow cytometers. The two sides have joined at the point of creation of artificial organs, wherein the Engineering Design Technology designs the structure of the organoid scaffolds and provides environment for cell growth and differentiations, resulting in the end of artificially created living tissue,” said Dr. Navarro.

Both Dr. Micic and Dr. Navarro presented their vision of the future, wherein the stem cells and 3D printing will create fully functional replaceable organs on demand. Dr. Navarro already teaches basics of genetic engineering, i.e. genetic cloning within her molecular biology class.

"Most of the today and definitely the majority of future jobs will require creativity and multidisciplinary integrative approach,” said Dr. Yannick Real, Dean of Technology Division of Cerritos College. "We at Cerritos College have a diverse base of both full-time and part-time instructors with a multidisciplinary knowledge and tangible industrial experiences in the fastest growing areas of the local industry needs in the new fields."

ABOUT THE PROGRAMS:

Interested in Engineering Design Technology? Earn your certificate of achievement and CSWSA certification in our program. To learn more about our Engineering Design Technology department, visit our website at http://cms.cerritos.edu/engt/ and our Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CerritosCollegeFabLabsor contact Dr. Miodrag Micic at (562) 860-2451 Ext. 2910 and mmicic@cerritos.edu.

To view the presentation, visit  http://prezi.com/j-v_dhd2tks_/biology-and-engineering-technology-cerritos-college/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy.

The Cerritos College Teacher TRAC in collaboration with the CTE Counselors have hosted an Integrative Workshop series for faculty members at Cerritos College since Fall 2011.The workshops are funded in part by the Chancellor’s Office, California Community Colleges Teacher Preparation Pipeline Grant. To learn more about Cerritos College Teacher TRAC, visit the website at http://cms.cerritos.edu/teachertrac/. To learn more about Cerritos College Counseling Department, visit the website at http://cms.cerritos.edu/counseling/.