Congratulations to Ryan B. Felix, who was recently recognized as a 2025 Fischell Fellow! See below for the entire story:
The Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) hosted its eighth annual Enhancing and Promoting Interactions and Conversations (EPIC) Retreat at the recently established Edward and Jennifer St. John Center for Translational Engineering and Medicine (CTEM) at the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore. This event brought together students, faculty, and staff to share new research, strengthen collaborations, and welcome the 21 incoming graduate students. At the retreat, BIOE Ph.D. candidates Ryan B. Felix and Darby Steinman were announced as the 2025 Fischell Fellows.
This year’s retreat carried special significance by taking place at CTEM, a collaborative hub uniting the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), and the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). The two institutions are working together to improve health care and patient outcomes by bridging engineering, computer science, and medicine. As the proud home of CTEM, UMCP and UMSOM are leading efforts to address urgent health challenges and develop innovations that improve lives.
The Fischell Fellowship, named in honor of inventor and department namesake Dr. Robert E. Fischell, recognizes outstanding graduate students who are pursuing applied research and product design with the potential to transform human health.
Fourth-year doctoral candidate Ryan B. Felix, jointly advised by BIOE Department Chair and Professor John P. Fisher and UMSOM Professor Peter Hu, is driven by the intersection of artificial intelligence and health care. His research focuses on developing AI-powered decision support tools for clinician use and advancing autonomous medical robotics. With the support of the fellowship, Felix plans to build technologies for rapid prototyping of complex tissue constructs for regenerative medicine and pharmaceutical testing, as well as AI-driven tools that help clinicians during the early stages of trauma care.
“Dr. Robert E. Fischell is our department’s namesake for good reason, and receiving this fellowship in his honor is both humbling and gratifying,” Felix said. “As engineers, our responsibility is to create something that truly benefits patients. The Fischell Fellowship will help me move closer to that goal.”
Felix was drawn to BIOE for its nationally recognized program and its proximity to institutions such as NIH, FDA, and Johns Hopkins. He credits Maryland’s unique ecosystem of research and entrepreneurship for offering an ideal environment to make translational contributions to human health.
Story adapted from the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.
