Student Clubs

American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(ASME)

Society of Women Engineers
(SWE)

Contact Us

Mechanical Engineering
Seattle University
901 12th Ave. ENGR 525
Seattle, WA 98122-1090

TEL: 206.296.5520
FAX: 206.296.2209

Ethan Albright '02

Ethan is a native of Seattle who graduated from Ballard High School. Ethan worked full-time while pursuing his BSME at Seattle University, graduating in 2002. For his senior design project, he developed a pilot control testing system for Boeing. After working for LipoSonix for several years, he joins Mirabilis Medica, a privately held medical device company in Bothell, Washington.

Mirabilis Medica is currently developing therapeutic ultrasound for use under real-time guidance of imaging ultrasound. Therapeutic ultrasound uses a high-intensity focus ultrasound (HIFU) to destroy diseased tissues while leaving non-targeted tissues unharmed. Currently, Mirabilis Medica is spearheading efforts to find an affordable noninvasive treatment for uterine fibroids, benign tumor growths in the muscle layers of the uterus. While many cases of uterine fibroids are asymptomatic, as many as a quarter of all women have fibroid symptoms including mild discomfort at one end to infertility and miscarriage at the other end of the spectrum. It is the most common reason for hysterectomies, an invasive surgery with many side-effects. As HIFU has recently been approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating uterine fibroids under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guidance, Mirabilis Medica is pioneering efforts to use imaging ultrasound as a guide to further reduce the treatment cost.

As a senior mechanical engineer at Mirabilis Medica, Ethan is working on the mechanical design of the ultrasonic system, transducer mechanics and its packaging. Working together on an interdisciplinary team of physicians and scientists, Ethan is helping to put together a treatment solution that will hopefully improve the quality of life of many women.

External Links:

• Mirabilis Medica
• LipoSonix

Department News

ASME HPVC West
Won 2nd place design and 3rd place overall Utility in ASME HPVC West - 5/09

P Woolsey
Won 2nd place in a WW ASME student paper contest - 3/09

MIT!
G Bratzel '09 was accepted for graduate study at MIT - 2/09

Global Village
Mechanical Engineering department welcomes 6 exchange students from Kogakuin University, Japan - 2/09

NSF REU
G Bratzel '09, F Mased '09, and B Hensley '09 participated in NSF REU in WSU, Virginia Tech & TUD - 6/08

Study Abroad
K Goebel '09 and A Beach '10 participated in a 7-week internship at Kogakuin University in Tokyo, Japan - 6/08

Graduate School Bound
C Mortell '08 (OHSU), T White '07 (Washington), A Eastman '07 (Pitt), E Lim '06 (Oklahoma State), R. Graudins '04 (Cal Poly MBA), and T Stapleton '04 (SeattleU MBA) - 6/08

Articles

In-demad and well paid
BSME is the 2nd most in-demand and 2nd highest paid college degree in 2009

Major in demand
Mechanical Engineering is the top in-demand major.  Read more »

Mech Engr on the rise
The classic discipline is cutting-edge again.  Read more »

Job market sizzles
Colleges are failing to produce enough ME graduates.  Read more »

Slow moving tide
A few professors are pushing for curriculum change in Japan.  Read more »