4th Annual BTEC x BMES Design-a-Thon Winners
The 3 winning projects, all to develop medical devices, share an emphasis on addressing women’s health challenges.
BTEC’s annual Design-a-Thon event, in partnership with the BMES student Chapter, is designed to give students a forum to express their creativity and innovation through hands-on-learning, and responding to an engineering design challenge. Each team is asked to create improved health outcomes by increasing access to healthcare technologies and designing for a wide range of needs. Students are given an open challenge and are asked to address it in any way they see fit. In addition to design solutions, each project includes plans for cost analysis and feasibility, development, and commercialization. The projects are developed in BU’s Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC), with access to other resources on campus.
The 3 winning projects include:
LymphSense: The goal is to develop a low-cost, portable device that enables early detection of lymphedema, a chronic condition of fluid buildup that disproportionally affects women. The device will allow at-risk individuals to monitor their condition easily and prevent irreversible damage. The team included Alex Fu (ME’29), Turky Alhargan (BME’27), Anvesh Sharma (BME’27), Yasaa Mohammad (BME’28). The project also won the People’s choice award.
NeuroTrack: The device is the first head impact monitor to quantify cumulative head impact exposure, and support data-driven assessment of long-term neurological risk, specifically for collegiate female soccer players, an understudied sports population with a high concussion rate. The wearable headband tracks the quantity and magnitude of head impacts, and alerts trainers. The team included Helene Tyburczy (ME’27), Nathan Ramirez (BME’27), Yassir Dembri (BME’27)
Soft Robotic Tenaculum: The redesign of a 150 year old instrument includes development of a soft robotic tip to lower pain during gynecological procedures. The device accommodates different orientations of movement and contact, combatting fear-driven avoidance and encouraging greater reproductive healthcare access. The team included a single student, Defne Avcilar (BME’29)
The Design-a-Thon event is sponsored by Merck, a multinational biopharmaceutical and healthcare company, with research offices in Boston. Merck sent 5 scientists to present their current work and answer questions on the science and their careers. They also posed questions for the student presenters throughout the event.
Diane Joseph-McCarthy, Executive Director of BTEC and one of the 3 judges observed, “The quality, degree of innovation, and diversity of the projects was outstanding this year.”