February is American Heart Month, a time to raise awareness of heart disease—the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Heart Association.
To raise awareness locally, FIU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering established Miami Heart Month, during which cardiovascular disease experts are invited to present their research to current biomedical engineering students.
Florida Heart Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to stop heart disease through research and education, is one of the participants of the event. Following the inaugural Miami Heart Month, alumna Sana Nasim (at the time a biomedical engineering doctoral student) reached out to the foundation with a proposal to consider funding a project related to heart disease.