Michael Kase, DMD, began his undergraduate education as a Biomedical Engineering student before shifting to the dental field. At the time, Kase says he didn’t think the two areas of study had much in common.
These days, however, Kase sees such a strong connection that he is actively working to foster greater collaboration between the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry and the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering.
“There is a commonality that I didn’t even realize was there back when I started college,” says Kase, who currently is an associate professor in the UAB Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, where he is a practicing Maxillofacial Prosthodontist. “In both, there is this desire to work with your hands to do things that ultimately helps patients.”
After going through the UAB SOD Prosthodontics Residency Program from 2009 to 2012, Kase returned to UAB as a faculty member in 2017. A few years later, he had his first experience working with engineering students.
“We had an idea where we would use our phones and take a series of photos circling around a patient’s head, and then use software to put it all together so we’d have this 3-dimensional model of the patient's face, an early form of photogrammetry,” Kase says. “But it’s hard to be standardized when you’re just walking around a patient holding your phone in front of them.
“So some of the engineering students made us this contraption where we had a cell phone mount and were able move all around the head in an incremental, standardized order. That was the first project that introduced me to them.”
The collaboration accelerated last year after Kase again approached BME to see if the students had any suggestions about how to improve an orbital prosthesis for a patient. Kase says he was overwhelmed at the number of responses he received.
“They were really into the idea, so I started working with some of their undergrad students on the project,” Kase says. “When they presented their proof-of-concept prototype for their class, I was absolutely amazed at how much they came up with and what they were able to present. It was way above and beyond what I expected.
“Then they invited me to speak at their seminar, and I talked about what I do for a living and some other ideas I had. They just ate it up and requested to do some more work with me. So now I have several projects going on (with BME).”
The BME students so enjoyed Kase’s presentation that they presented him with a plaque as the Best Speaker at the seminar. Kase also recently received a formal appointment in Biomedical Engineering, and plans to expand the collaboration between BME and the SOD.
“I’m always impressed with how well the biomedical engineering students can take these ideas that we have and bring them to life,” Kase says. “Dentistry is full of gadgets and inventions and interesting things like that. Sometimes people have ideas, but they don’t know where to go with them. And we have this biomedical engineering department here that is full of people who want to work on these ideas. So there is this possibility of great collaboration between us and them.”