UA biomedical engineering students win big at design training program
Congratulations to biomedical engineering students Allie Stephens, Alison Targosky, Jillian Savage, and Megan Laws for their recent accomplishment winning a design award at the 2019 Biomedical Engineering Society Coulter College held at Medtronic in Minneapolis August 1-4, 2019.
About Coulter College
Coulter College is a prestigious training program for biomedical engineering students held every year. Mentors guide student teams through a process coming up with approaches, designs, or products that meet clinical needs. The College is named after Wallace H. Coulter, an inventor responsible for 85 patents in science, medicine, and industry.
Twelve college teams from around the US were selected from over 30 teams who applied. The University of Akron’s team was the only team from Ohio at the event.
Megan Laws, Dr. James Keszenheimer, Jillian Savage, Allie Stephens, and Alison Targosky
Accompanied by their faculty advisor, Dr. James Keszenheimer, the students toured Medtronic, one of the world’s leading medical device companies. They then had a crash course in The Coulter Process, a biodesign process that follows three basic steps: identify healthcare needs, invent innovative solutions, and implement into the healthcare system through startups or other commercialization means.
The Challenge
The team was tasked with addressing a specific clinical need – improving the treatment for people living with hypertension, also known as high-blood pressure. They had 48 hours to develop an approach to meet this need, learn about the patent process and FDA regulations, develop a marketing plan, and present to their peers and mentors on the final day of the program. Students received prizes for their designs voted on by a team of mentors from industry, academia, and the medical profession.
The Approach
Accurate blood pressure readings are the first line of defense against hypertension as it must be accurately diagnosed before treatment can be initiated. Unfortunately, blood pressure monitors have varying quality and accuracy, and user variability can introduce further errors in the readings when taken by a patient, nurse, or physician.
Always hard at work, the team is clearly having some fun while they are at it
The team’s approach focused on improving the accuracy of measuring blood pressure, which, if implemented, would lead to better treatment for people with hypertension. If you are curious about the details, you will have to wait, as the design details and methodology are confidential given the potential for patenting.
“The competition was such an enriching experience. In a few short days our team learned so much about product design and commercialization,” says Megan Laws. “Our team was so determined to take home a win that we stayed up till 3 a.m. to practice our pitch. Geeking out over product designs plus no sleep led to an awesome experience!”
The team won the Top Design for Hypertension Award.
“The students exhibited great poise, creativity, and determination,” says Dr. Keszenheimer. “They were able to rapidly grasp new concepts and apply them under tremendous pressure and time constraints, much like what engineers experience in industry.”
Again, congratulations to Dr. Keszenheimer and his brilliant team of engineering students!