UMSL’s OrthoSummit gives aspiring medical professionals confidence to pursue their dreams

UMSL's OrthoSummit gives aspiring medical professionals confidence to pursue their dreams

by Dave Benson | Aug 10, 2026

Before attending "OrthoSummit: Engineering the Future of Medicine" at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, RaShad Boone thought that his career aspirations were nothing more than a pipe dream.

Thanks to the two-day summer camp hosted by UMSL's Orthopedic Bioengineering and Mechanics Lab, the Liberty High School senior now feels emboldened to pursue his dream.

"I was interested in being an orthopedic surgeon before I came here, but I was worried that it was going to be too hard," Boone said. "But after this experience, I feel like I will pursue that into college."

Comments like that were music to Hamid Sanei's ears.

An associate professor and chair of mechanical engineering in UMSL's School of Engineering, Sanei was the driving force behind OrthoSummit, a workshop held Aug. 4-5 that introduced two students entering their freshman year in college and six others who will be high school seniors to orthopedics, biomechanics and medical device innovation through structured instruction and hands-on surgical simulation.

Helping students gain that kind of confidence was the program's ultimate goal. Rather than simply teaching participants about orthopedic procedures, Sanei wanted them to experience the critical thinking, problem-solving and hands-on work behind them, showing students that careers in medicine and engineering are more attainable than they might have imagined.

"Some of them said, 'Oh, it was simple,' and that's because of the hands-on component of it," Sanei said. "When they do something themselves, then they can see the whole process. The way they went through the workshop and had the confidence that, 'Oh yeah, I can definitely do that, and it was simple,' that really means that the objectives of the workshop have been met."

Johnson & Johnson partnered with UMSL for the program, with its orthopedics division, DePuy Synthes, supplying six surgical trays filled with plates, screws, nails and other materials, along with synthetic bone models for the students to practice on. After an introductory discussion about orthopedics and the role of engineering in medicine, students rotated through interactive stations where they treated simulated tibia fractures using external fixation, intramedullary nailing and plate fixation.

"I liked how hands-on it was, being able to do things ourselves," said Maddie Mills, a senior at St. Joseph's Academy. "I kind of thought I'd just be watching somebody else do things instead of actually doing it myself."

Ian Fall, a clinical sales specialist with DePuy Synthes, assisted with setting up the stations and helping the students understand the procedures. Fall said he was impressed by the School of Engineering's program giving the students a rare glimpse into a potential career in the healthcare industry.

"When I was their age, I didn't really know anything about this profession, so it's a beautiful opportunity to show them, 'Hey, this is something you can do, even if you didn't know it existed,'" Fall said. "They seem like a really sharp bunch, and it seems like this is something that they really took an interest to. I can definitely see a few future medical people in this group."

For some of the students, OrthoSummit wasn't their first introduction to UMSL.

Several had attended previous summer programs or outreach initiatives on campus, experiences they said helped them explore potential career paths, gain a better understanding of college life and build the confidence to pursue new opportunities. OrthoSummit added another layer to that journey, giving them an up-close look at a field many had never imagined experiencing firsthand.

"It's nice to keep coming back here because they have so many different things for me to do," said Kairos Academies senior Kori Leggett, who has participated in the Saturday Academy and Summer Academy through UMSL's Bridge Program and also attended the engineering camp earlier this summer. "And it gives you a really good view of what college is going to be like, with all these lectures and going to different classrooms and doing all these cool experiments."

The students weren't the only ones who left impressed. Watching them gain confidence only reinforced Sanei's belief that OrthoSummit offered an experience unlike any other outreach program he'd encountered.

Rather than simply following step-by-step instructions, students worked with the same types of instruments and implants found in operating rooms and had to decide for themselves how to repair simulated fractures using engineering concepts. Sanei expressed his gratitude to Johnson & Johnson, as well as the grants that helped make his vision a reality.

"I haven't seen any workshop like this," he said. "What I really wanted was the whole surgical tray, which is very hard to get. But I didn't want just one screw or two screws, I wanted the screw set, I wanted the plate set, so the students would have to use their critical thinking to choose what to use. We were able to put them in the position of a surgeon who would have to decide what would be the best course of action during a procedure, so it had that critical thinking component."

Sanei hopes programs like OrthoSummit will help elevate UMSL's profile as the School of Engineering continues expanding its research and outreach efforts.

"A lot of people automatically, when they're thinking of engineering or mechanical engineering, they're thinking of (Missouri) S&T, they're thinking of SLU, they're thinking of (Washington University in St. Louis)," he said. "We want to put ourselves on the map. We want everyone to know that we are doing cool stuff here, and we are doing things that others are not doing. You get to experience something that is unique to UMSL."

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