Meinig School hosts 4th-annual Industry Engagement Day and Project Showcase

On Friday, May 15, the Meinig School hosted the fourth-annual industry engagement day and project showcase for its master of engineering (M.Eng.) students. The event, held virtually over Zoom this year, was the largest yet with 55 guests representing over 45 organizations sharing experiences with attending students. Organized by M.Eng. Director and Professor of Practice Newton de Faria, graduate field assistant Belinda Floyd, and seminar/events coordinator Suzanne Koehl, the daylong event was held as a way to connect industry representatives with the breadth of talent in the Meinig School M.Eng. Program.

“The focus of the event,” explained de Faria, “is networking and access. We provide students the opportunity to showcase their year-long efforts and accomplishments as well as the chance to engage with industry. Industry participants are able to connect as well as learn about our program, projects, and processes.”

The event included morning career panel sessions in which students heard from early career and seasoned professionals about their companies, their challenges, and their pathway to success. These sessions were followed by a keynote talk by Virginia Giddings, Director of Exploration for Edwards Lifesciences, who spoke on “A Recipe for MedTech Innovation.”

Afternoon events consisted of student design projects presentations and a competition in which the teams shared about their trajectory from idea to prototype with focus on the needs, challenges, and technical merits of their technology, and a pitch presentation and competition where the focus was on the merit of their invention in the eyes of the stakeholders/investors. See below for more details on the winning teams and projects.

Competition winners:

Design Competition:

1st Place –Neopress Neonatal Cardiac Arrest
(Sochima Bishop, Yunshu Zhang, Jiasui Liu, Bing Ke)
Abstract: NeoPress is a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) assistance device that enables caretakers to perform effective yet non-harmful CPR to newborns. By guiding chest compressions to the appropriate site, rate, and depth, it allows blood circulation to be restored and maintained until the arrival of Emergency Medical Services. NeoPress was designed to be ergonomic enough to allow for prolonged continuous use, and intuitive enough to be essentially “panic-proof”. Our device offers a simple, affordable, and effective way to combat neonatal cardiac arrest at home.

2nd Place -Opioid Overdose
(Joshua McRae, Ahnaf Rahman, Matthew Weisshaar, William Chan)
Abstract: The opioid epidemic is one of the leading causes of death for people under the age of 50. Our design team has developed a device that will have an enormous impact on this epidemic. The team’s prototype device is designed to first detect physiological signals of an opioid overdose and then administer a pharmaceutical to reverse the effects. The device offers constant monitoring without the need for third party activation or administration which will drastically reduce response and treatment time. The reduction in these times will save countless lives of those dependent on opioids.

3rd Place - Heart Valve Bioreactor
(Jason (Zhongqi) Lin, Zhihang Zheng)
Abstract: Tissue-engineered heart valve (TEHV) has been considered as a promising solution for the growing cases of heart valve disease in both adults and children due to its remodeling capability, providing customized and sustained laminar flow over-time. However, it is critical to pre-condition TEHV under mechanical stress to promote ECM remodeling, subsequently strengthening and preparing the tissue for implantation. Our mission is to mimic the aortic pressure wave of the pediatric patients through design and input parameter modification and to support TEHV metabolism during conditioning through the incorporation of oxygen delivery into the current sterilized closed system design.

Pitch Competition:

1st Place –Neopress Neonatal Cardiac Arrest (description above)

Runner-up - iDrop Revolution
(Bayan A. Alturkestani, Sheethal Ajakkala, Brian Schultheis)
Abstract: iDrop aims to revolutionize the global eye drop market, which is estimated to be worth $15.5B, annually. Dry Eye is a chronic ocular disease, affecting 16.5M Americans per year, requiring the, use of artificial tears or lubricants for treatment. Currently, eye drops are the standard for delivery, but present challenges such as disruption from blinking eyes, medication waste, and the need to tilt back. In order to increase patient compliance, iDrop intends to address inadequate drug delivery to the eye in humans and animals. Our noninvasive method has improved dosage accuracy, provides stability, and is easy to use.

More info:

Meinig School M.Eng. Program; Newton de Faria