Biomedical engineering professor takes part in academic exchange in Israel
Mirela Ovreiu, instructional assistant professor in biomedical engineering (BME), was one of the 33 professors invited by the Jewish National Fund’s Faculty Fellowship Fund to attend a program designed to boost collaboration between Israeli and US institutions.
Teaching tips
Ovreiu teaches an assortment of classes – covering physiology for BME, biomechanics, biomedical signal processing.
One of the things she learned from a counterpart at the Braude Academic College of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel was the importance of being proactive with the students.
She explains, “the typical teaching approach has been to state the problem, work out a solution, test for understanding through an exam – all during class time.”
“The professor at Braude shared how she provided materials in advance of the class to allow for more questioning about the specific problem in classroom time.”
Ovreiu plans to incorporate this approach in future classes.
Academic interests
She also had the opportunity to engage with academics in one of her areas of interest: biomedical signal processing. This involves the mathematical analysis of physiological activity – heart, brain, muscles, etc. – to understand patterns and possible health solutions.
For instance, she was able to discuss the potential predictors of heart rate variability in atrial fibrillation analysis with a counterpart at the Ben Gurion University.
Jewish National Fund’s Faculty Fellowship Program
The program seeks to link scholars from diverse disciplines with their Israeli counterparts at major institutions for the purpose of initiating exchanges and collaborations.
Program participants meet with professionals and experts involved in government, industry, education, media and other sectors to understand the many facets of Israel’s evolving national and international policies.
Ovreiu found it to be an amazing experience:
“We visited sites of different flavors: technology, art, education, culture. As a team, we created indestructible connections: from cooking together at the Cooking School in Tel Aviv to experiencing a unique meeting of a new generation of politicians sharing the same stage – Arab and Jewish.”