The BMEidea recipients were awarded at the recent MD&M East expo and conference. The competition is designed to raise the profile of innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of biomedical engineering education. “The program recognizes and rewards the finest in student biomedical innovation,” says Humera Fasihuddin, representative of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.

Fasihuddin explains that the winning entries were selected for their ability to meet the following criteria:

The first-place winner in 2010 was a rapid hypothermia induction device from a team at Johns Hopkins University. The award prize is $10,000. The team’s device helps emergency personnel rapidly and safely administer a therapeutic hypothermia treatment to victims of cardiac arrest, to improve their chances of survival upon reaching a hospital. The principal investigator is Harikrishna Tandri of Johns Hopkins Heart & Vascular Institute, and the engineering team leader is David Huberdeau.

The second-place award of $2500 went to a low-cost ventilator for use in developing nations and large-scale disasters from Stanford University. It is designed to treat acute respiratory distress patients in low-resource, pandemic, and emergency environments. The principal investigator is Stephen Ruoss of the Department of Medicine, and the engineering team leader is Matthew Callaghan.

Coming in third place (with a prize of $1000) was a natural orifice volume enlargement (NOVEL) device from the University of Cincinnati. It is designed to help uro­gynecological procedures by providing surgeons with improved visibility and access to deep target tissues, thereby reducing postoperative complications. The principal investigator is Mary Beth Privitera of the biomedical engineering department, and the engineering team leader is Daniel Pucke.