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The Melville Library featured a unique exhibit created by an interdisciplinary team of SBU professors Ete Chan, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), and Nobuho Nagasawa, from the Department of Art, on Feb. 23, 2022 in the Central Reading Room.

The exhibit, titled “STEM + Arts = STEAM,” represents the synergy between the sciences and visual arts, and included a surprise exhibition of ten projects created by collaborative teams of BME and art (BMEXARS) students in addition to the three key exhibits of “STEAM Cabinet of Curiosity,” “Bio Lux” and “Continuous Individual Crisis Aid Alert System (CICaidA).”

The BMEXARS student collaboration projects included a glowing representation of Voldemort’s hand (“Voldemort Hands”), a prosthetic arm in the shape of a tentacle (“The Octacle”), acid-shooting breasts for trans women (“Acid Assets”), and a bionic eye headpiece (“Bionic Eye”).

“It was really interesting,” sophomore BME major Emma Durham, said. “Seeing the art designs come to life with our engineering parts was amazing.”

Durham worked with the art student Alana Califra on “The Octacle,” a bright purple arm prosthetic that resembles the tentacle of an octopus and is meant to turn heads with it’s fantastical design. The tip of the tentacle is a 3-D print that is designed to be moved by a pulled string, allowing the user to have more control.

Senior studio art major Mairead Wood, who also had a project on display, particularly enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the project. “This experience was so different from anything I’ve ever done, especially since I’ve never collaborated before, and definitely not with biomedical engineering students,” Wood said.

Wood, inspired by her Irish roots, created “The Walking Harp,” a prosthetic leg fitted with an Irish harp. When touched, the strings of the harp play music electronically.

Other projects included the “Nasal Shelter,” designed by Seong Yeon Lee (a.k.a. Sy) for audiences with rhinitis. The display includes a Hoberman sphere, composed of 400 individual resin printed parts that interact with each other to visualize the sensation of respiration. The sculpture also includes a woven inner branch that holds the Japanese zen garden, shrine and bonsai trees to psychologically bind the idea of tranquility.

“It took a lot of all nighters,” said junior business management student, Lee, who was inspired by his own experience with rhinitis.

After spectators were given the opportunity to walk around and see the projects, the event was kicked off by senior BME major Michael Ly, who acted as the MC for an audience of 50 people.

“I took up the BME major because I had a friend who needed a prosthetic, and I wanted to get into that area,” Ly said. “Part of the idea process for creating a prosthetic is not just about its functionality, but also about its appearance and aesthetic, and that just shows how you can’t talk about STEM without talking about arts, because the two are so interconnected.”

Professor Chan and Professor Nagasawa, whose collaboration made this event possible, each made a short speech, highlighting some of their interdisciplinary work.

Nagasawa, from the Department of Art, specializes in sculpture, installation, public art, and social sculpture practices, and has a multitude of exhibitions around the world.

Her most recent works are shaped by the intersection of art, science, and technology, exploring topics that include politics, ecology, criminology, and the psychology of places and people.

Nagasawa’s experiences working with optical fibers, combined with her motivation to aid humanity, led to her collaboration with Chan on the CICaidA project.

Chan, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is the faculty lead of the Bioengineering Education, Application and Research (BEAR) team, a vertically integrated student research group. She is dedicated to increasing interest in STEM through community outreach.

“What I noticed is that when science and art students work together, we’re really putting two sides of the brain together so that there is an explosion of ideas and fireworks,” Chan said, commenting on her experience collaborating with Nagasawa and the Department of Art.

Faculty from computer science, Professor I.V. Ramakrishnan, and art history Professor Karen Lloyd, also made short presentations on their current STEAM research. Lloyd presented on “Making Sense of Skin in an Early Modern Collection of Curiosities,” and Ramakhrishnan presented his talk, titled “AI Driven Sing-Along Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease.”

Then, students Ryan Chen, a senior biology major, and Luigia Than, a senior electrical engineering major, presented their work on CICaidA and the STEAM Cabinet of Curiosity, two of the main displays at the library.

Additionally, Sarah Szabo, a senior biology major, discussed her work on the Bio Lux dress, an outfit that displays colors in accordance with the wearer’s brain signals.

Christopher Moore, a sophomore biomedical engineering student, and Theda Clesceri, a sophomore majoring in studio art, also presented their collaborative project to the audience. Their work, “Light-Up Prosthetic Knee,” is a STEAM project designed for a ballroom dancer whose knees are worn down from excessive use, and gets total knee replacement.

As the knee joint bends, it causes a light to come on. With the prosthetic, the dancer can continue what she loves to do, and the design also adds a new element to her dance, since the color of the lights in her knees can be changed to match the color of her outfit.

Next week, the exhibit "STEM + Arts = STEAM" will be on display at the Melville Library. The display includes three biosignal-driven works which were developed by the interdisciplinary team of Professor Ete Chan from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Professor Nobuho Nagasawa from the Department of Art.

According to Tamanina Ashraf, a junior biomedical engineering major who is in Chan's BME 304 Genetic Engineering class and saw part of the display at the library, "a big part of STEM is the visual aspect of it, as in seeing it play out in front of you. Not only is this a visual way to show your heart rate but it’s also in entrancing, colorful lights."

Yajvin Dabbiru, a junior biomedical engineering major who works as a teaching assistant for the class, said, "It's one thing to understand STEM quantitatively, but to see it come to fruition in an artistic manner was refreshing. The use of art really shifts the perspective in which we look at work in STEM!"

The student's work will be fully on display to the public at the Melville Library from 1-2:20 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022.