Weldon BME Team Places 3rd in BMEStart Competition

Handheld Plasma Isolation Device
Handheld Plasma Isolation Device
The Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering would like to congratulate Jonathan Bernhard, Rebecca Bercich, Kate Larson, Jason Lindsey, as well as their advisor, Dr. Pedro Irazoqui, for their third place victory in the inaugural BMEStart 2010 Competition. The award was given to the student group in recognition for their Senior Design project entitled "Handheld Plasma Isolation Device." The project was a joint collaboration with Abbott Point of Care. Winners were announced in early October at the BMES Annual Conference in Austin, Texas.

BMEStart was launched this year by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) to recognize excellence in undergraduate student biomedical innovation, design, and entrepreneurship. Annually, the NCIIA will provide undergraduate student entrepreneurs the opportunity for extracurricular, team-based education experiences to design innovative, commercially promising medical devices and technologies.

Design proposals were evaluated by judges drawn from academia. Winners were selected based on their design’s technical feasibility, clinical utility, market potential, novelty, patentability, and benefit to quality of life and care.

We would like to congratulate this group once again for their accomplishments in the BMEStart 2010 Competition. All of the group members belonged to the Weldon School’s Senior Class of 2010 and have moved on to accomplishments within their current graduate school and industry positions. Both Jonathan Bernhard and Rebecca Bercich are pursuing 5th Year Master’s Degrees within the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Bernhard under Dr. Alyssa Panitch and Bercich under Dr. Pedro Irazoqui. Jason Lindsey is attending graduate school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. Kate Larson has a position within the Zimmer Sales Academy. The Weldon School wishes these alumni continued success as they progress through their respective career paths.