BIOINSPIRED ENGINEERING AND PHYSICS
Curiosity-driven research, lessons from nature, and engineering solutions
ABOUT
Hi, I am a Mechanical Engineer with a PhD in Fluid Mechanics and 6+ years of experience in R&D and healthcare. My passion is in innovation, problem-solving, and STEM communication. I have worked on healthcare projects spanning drug delivery, medical therapy, and robotic surgery.
Areas of particular interest are:
- Diabetes management via parenteral drug delivery
- COPD management via metered-dose and dry powder inhalers
- Pain management via signal processing of time series data
- Patient blood management via multimodal detection methods
- Robotic assisted surgery via single port access
- Implant implementation and retrieval
- Phantom models for validation studies
- Modelling disease transmission
RESEARCH
In nature, mechanical stresses often force organisms to continually develop novel and diverse strategies to ensure species survival. While humans have developed highly innovative technologies, there are still countless engineering challenges that nature has already solved. My research draws inspiration from natural phenomena to understand fundamental principles that drive organismal behaviors and apply them to engineering systems.
TEACHING
I had the pleasure of teaching several lab courses over the years as a graduate teaching assistant and a full lecture class as a head instructor. I have a passion for engaging students with hands-on activities so they can actually see how fundamental ideas learned in the classroom translates into the real world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I learned to bring more 21st century tools into my pedagogy and honed my abilities to engage students through asynchronous learning.
OUTREACH
I love to to tinker in the lab and "MacGyver" simple table top experiments in order to demonstrate various principles. For me, this is a wonderful opportunity to share my love of jerry-rigging with the public and demonstrate that everyone can have the mind of a scientist and engineer. It is also a means in which science is made more easily accessible to everyone in hopes of inspiring the next generation to pursue STEM as a career.
CONTACT ME
Brian Chang, PhD
Email: bchangphd at gmail.com
