New Connolly Center Director Publishes Two Collaborative Works Professor Jay Margalus co-authored pieces featured in bioRxiv and for the International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces.

By Brian Laubscher
September 7, 2023

Jay Margalus, the newly-hired Johnson Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership and director of the Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington and Lee University, recently published a pair of collaborative articles.

Margalus co-authored an article featured in bioRxiv, a pre-print journal covering biology, detailing his collaborative work on low-cost cancer screening and imaging equipment. He also co-authored a paper titled “Maker Design and Computational Thinking in an Undergraduate Ecology Lab – Constructing a Shaker Table,” which has been accepted into the 2023 International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM) conference.

The bioRxiv article, which has not yet been certified for peer review, discusses the deployment and access to equitable global cancer care in low-resource settings. In an effort to make preventative equipment more accessible, Margalus worked in collaboration with oncologists from the University of Chicago to develop an inexpensive solution for early cancer detection. The group recently developed a low-cost microscope that leverages machine learning to assist in early cancer detection in the head and neck area for as little as $200. Previously, the least expensive option for this type of imaging would cost $250,000.

The second paper, which was co-authored alongside several of his former colleagues from DePaul University, focuses on student learning and retention involving course-based undergraduate research experiences. The case study elaborates on one example of student-led incorporation of making in an ecology lab where they studied tremors produced by a shaking table and what effect it had on the biomass of radishes and winter wheat. The group will present their research at the ISAM conference held Oct. 18-20 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Margalus began his work at W&L in July 2023 after serving as the faculty director of maker innovation at DePaul University’s Idea Realization Labs. He holds a Master of Science with distinction in human-computer interaction from DePaul University, a Bachelor of Science in political science from North Central College, and various design certifications from Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

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