In the 11th Annual Michigan Tech Undergraduate Expo the 1st Place award winning team was Biomedical Engineering team sponsored by Boston Scientific. The project was “Bioabsorbable Polymer-Coated Metal Stent Degradation Simulation Design”
Team Members are Kristina Price, Brendan Daun, Thomas Faulkner, Erin Larson, Derek Yesmunt, and David Strobel, Biomedical Engineering; and Kelsey Waugh and Matt Gardeski, Materials Science and Engineering.
The advisors are Dr. Jeremy Goldman (BME) and Dr. Jaroslaw Drelich (MSE).
Project Overview
The next generation of drug-eluting stents may contain drug-releasing biodegradable polymer coatings. However, the biodegradation rates and
behavior of these polymer coatings will first need to be tailored to meet the needs of diseased arteries. As an improvement over existing methods, we have developed low-cost, simplified, and time-effective methods for characterizing the degradation behavior of different polymers. These parallel in vitro and in vivo methods exploit the properties of fluorescent molecules and utilize simple implant geometries to characterize degradation rates and behavior.
See photos at Expo Awards page.
The 3rd Place was won by a Biomedical Engineering team sponsored by Portage Health. The title of their project was “Portage Health Noise Monitoring Device.” Team Members are J. Ethan Lynch, Shaubhik Bhattacharjee, Trent Jansen, and J. Nathan Willemstein, Biomedical Engineering; and Lynn Giesler, Biomedical Engineering/Mechanical Engineering. The advisors are Dr. Michael Neuman and Dr. Keat Ghee Ong.
Biomedical Engineering students also served on the Honorable Mention award for the Jaipur Foot Improvements team.
Team Members are Victoria Demers, Mechanical Engineering; Allison Lebovsky, Biomedical Engineering/Mechanical Engineering; Paul Sturmer, Robert Strobel and Marcel Kerkove, Mechanical Engineering; and Stefanie Bass, Biomedical Engineering
The advisors are Dr. Gregory Odegard (MEEM) and Dr. Anil Jain, Jaipur, India. The sponsor was Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.
Another Honorable Mention team included Biomedical Engineering
students on the “Cost-Optimized Prosthetic Knee Joint”
Team Members: Elizabeth Anne Dancy, Biomedical Engineering; Matthew Goldsworthy, Aram Kim, Laura Maciosek and Anna Miller, Mechanical Engineering; and Kelsy Ryskamp, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering;
Advisor: Dr. Gregory Odegard (MEEM)
Sponsor: Dr. Rajesh Malhotra, All India Institute of Medical Sciences