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This workshop will provide a deep dive into the NSF GRFP Merit Criteria and strategies for editing your work for length, clarity, and alignment with the selection criteria. Applicants at all stages will benefit from attending.

This is the last of four biweekly summer workshops on the NSF GRFP; applicants are also encouraged to participate in our grad fellowships biweekly writing group. You can learn more about these events and review materials from previous info sessions and workshops on our .

The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) provides selected fellows with three years of funding, including a living stipend and tuition funds, to support a research-focused doctoral degree in STEM, social sciences, or STEM education. The current application cycle is open to US citizens and permanent residents planning to begin their first graduate program in Fall 2027, or who will be in the 1st year of a PhD program in Fall 2026. BS-MS students planning to continue on to a PhD program are only eligible to apply in their final year of BS-MS study (and not as first year doctoral students).

BIOMED PhD Thesis Defense

Title: 
Finite Element and Neural-Network-Based Modeling for Simulation of Scoliosis Progression and Correction

Speaker: 
Christian D'Andrea, PhD Candidate
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems
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Advisor:
Sriram Balasubramanian, PhD
Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems
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Details:
Spine fusion is the standard surgical treatment for correction of severe adolescent scoliosis, but it suppresses remaining growth. Growth-modulating approaches such as vertebral body tethering (VBT) have been developed to mitigate fusion downsides, acting through both on-table correction and sustained asymmetric mechanical alteration of vertebral growth to correct curvature over years. These procedures present a planning challenge by requiring a surgeon to anticipate the correction occurring post-operatively due to years of stress-altered growth. Incomplete curve correction and implant breakage have been observed, so a tool is needed to assist surgeons in planning such procedures by predicting long-term growth-based correction, while accounting for patient-specific factors including flexibility and skeletal maturity.

This work laid a foundation for such a simulation tool, developing finite element (FE) models which were personalized to the detailed spine geometry of 20 VBT patients and calibrated to match their correction due to both surgery and subsequent stress-modulated growth. Beyond VBT, new growth-modulating implants are being developed, and are tested using expensive and time-consuming porcine in vivo testing. Here, FE models may accelerate growth-modulating implant development by screening implant designs prior to animal testing. Hence, similar FE modeling approaches to those used for VBT were applied here to develop and calibrate porcine-specific models to reproduce scoliosis induction observed in vivo after implantation of a novel tether-based device.

Conventional FE methods still may take hours to solve, which excludes possible intra-operative use for adaptive real-time surgical planning. Neural-network-based methods have been demonstrated to learn an FE model's solutions, but still often require thousands of conventional FE evaluations for training. Training neural nets directly using material constitutive laws and without use of conventional FE solutions may enable faster training, but this approach is not well-explored in biomechanics. Such applications to intervertebral disc deformation and lumbar spine bending range of motion were therefore developed here, demonstrating similar accuracy and increased speed compared to conventional methods.

Taken together, this work develops toward pre-clinical, pre-operative, and intra-operative applications of spine biomechanical simulation with focus on pediatric scoliosis correction with growth modulation.

Topic
Reactive Astrocytes Shape the Microenvironment of Melanoma Brain Metastases

Need help with your résumé? This is the perfect time to ask your questions! Meet with Ken Bohrer, Senior Career Counselor, in this virtual graduate resume dropin workshop 

Register on Handshake: 

Face-to-Face Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training, as required by NIH, was previously provided as Course RCRG 600, as assigned by Graduate Academic Advisors. Based on feedback from Faculty and Students and understanding the other commitments our students have during the year, in 2024, this was moved to a single-day face-to-face course offered as part of Welcome Week. This course is being offered instead of the Winter RCR 600 course provided by the Graduate College. It is required for all individuals as assigned by their school, college, or program, as well as all trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH training, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant, or dissertation research grant. Face-to-face RCR training is also strongly recommended for undergraduate and graduate level students, as well as faculty, who plan to conduct research, regardless of the funder, for individuals who have not otherwise completed live RCR training.

Need help with your résumé? This is the perfect time to ask your questions! Meet with Ken Bohrer, Senior Career Counselor, in person at the Office of Graduate Studies.

Register on Handshake:

Attend this workshop to prepare for Drexel’s Virtual & In-Person All Majors Fall Career Fair 2026! This workshop will help graduate students make the most of this opportunity to connect with employers hiring for full-time, part-time, co-op, and internship positions. Plus, network with employers!