BME Undergrads Selected as Finalists in Design Competition

A team of four Wayne State Biomedical Engineering first-year students has been selected as a finalist in the Undergraduate Design Competition at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Summer Bioengineering Conference. The innaugural competition sought submissions from undergraduate design teams from around the US and Canada. Based on two page descriptions of their designs, six teams were selected by a panel of judges to present their projects at the upcoming international conference, which will be held in Nemacolin, PA, at the end of June. While undergraduate teams at all levels (freshman through seniors) were encouraged to submit a design, the majority of projects were submitted by capstone design teams of senior students. The selection of this first-year team demonstrates the excellent work that the new undergraduate BME students are doing even early in their curriculum.

The team of Brandon Heid, Ali Abdallah, Nigil Valikodath, and Hajra Khan, which works under the team name BANH, designed a device that will allow a diabetic patient with the use of only one arm to test his blood sugar independently. This device was developed based on the request of an actual client who approached the BME Department for assistance. The conceptual design will be prototyped this semester to allow actual testing and feedback from the client.

Through sponsorship by the National Science Foundation, each of the Undergraduate Design Competition finalist teams will be provided with $2500 to support prototyping and travel costs to the conference.