Past Program – Summer Biodesign Immersion Experience

This program is no longer active. The BIE was funded for a decade by the NIH and we decided to sunset the program in 2022 to move on to new things. Excellent summer research resources can be found through the Office of UUndergraduate Research & Scholarships, which has a comprehensive Discovery Database.

After learning the biodesign process, BIE interns convened in-depth meetings with a wide-range of biomedical leaders (remote) to identify unmet needs in specific area of clinical practice. Before each user interview, students complete background research on the diseases being discussed, including (1) disease prevalence, pathophysiology, disease mechanisms, etc., (2) current treatment options and standard of care, (3) stakeholders involved in a solution, and (4) what the existing market looks like.

 

During each interview, students discuss standards of care, accepted & emerging procedures, take facility tours (pending COVID), and interview physicians, device manufacturers, product developers, regulatory officers, medical personnel to identify & formulate important unmet medical needs.

In summer 2020 and 2021, BIE was offered as a fully remote experience. BIE interns met remotely – in small groups — with industry and health leaders, as well as patients and other stakeholders, thus expanding both the intern’s professional network and understanding of various stakeholders’ points of view. BIE interns gained in-depth engineering design experience, project management experience, leadership and teamwork experience. Using the Biodesign process, interns identified clinical gaps where bioengineers can make a difference!

Program Deliverables:

Following each interview, BIE interns synthesize their observations and learnings, then formulate top unmet biomedical needs which point the way to where innovation is needed. When not remote, interns curated & compiled hundreds of new unmet needs into databases for their own innovation or to share with the world – check them out below: