Anne McLoughlin, a BME junior, and Gaetano Scuderi, a BME senior, were recognized by the biomedical engineering department as Alfred R. & Janet H. Potvin Outstanding Undergraduate Students in Biomedical Engineering.
Anne McLoughlin, a junior Biomedical Engineering student from South Kingstown, RI has a focus in biomaterials and tissue engineering. She is a member of the WPI ski team, Phi Sigma Sigma sorority, Active Minds, and she loves to be outdoors. She is very interested in human anatomy and physiology, and hopes to use this knowledge to create medical devices that compliment the body’s natural functions.
Gaetano Scuderi grew up in Agawam, Massachusetts. At WPI, he is completing a track in Biomaterials/Tissue Engineering and is minoring in Biology. Throughout the community, he is a Big Brother/Big Sister mentor, Vice President of Member Development for the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, President of Habitat for Humanity, and is involved in Alpha Eta Mu Beta Biomedical Engineering Honors Society as well as Tau Beta Pi Engineering National Honors Society. He plans on attending graduate school to obtain a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with a specialization in regenerative medicine.
The BME Department has the honor of awarding prestigious scholarships to outstanding students majoring in biomedical engineering, thanks to the generosity of an alumnus of WPI, Dr. Alfred Potvin. Dr. Alfred Potvin, an electrical engineering undergraduate student at WPI from 1960-64, has enjoyed a highly successful professional career in BME in both academia and industry. He founded the BME program at The University of Texas at Arlington as a joint program with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and served as its first Chairman. Today, it has over 175 graduate students. He also founded and served as Director of the Medical Instrument Systems Division at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, and concluded his career as Dean of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis where he developed the foundation for its BME Department with the IU Medical Center and Purdue University in West Lafayette. He also served as a member and as a Chairman of the advisory committee for the BME Department at WPI during Dr. Bob Peura’s tenure as Department Head.
The intent of the Potvin Undergraduate Scholar in Biomedical Engineering is to provide recognition and reward to students majoring in BME at the junior or senior level who have achieved truly outstanding academic credentials. In addition to their academic achievements, these students demonstrate exemplary service to the BME Department, the University, and to the community, possessing outstanding potential for professional success as a biomedical engineer.