Clemson Bioengineering senior design program just went state-wide. Following on years of successful partnerships with upstate healthcare institutions, the program recently expanded its partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
“We are in our 7th year of partnering with clinicians to identify and design solutions to critical healthcare needs,” said Dr. John DesJardins, director of Clemson Bioengineering’s Senior Design program and Hambright Leadership Associate Professor in bioengineering. “In 2011, the program had 48 seniors working with the Greenville Health System (GHS). Now there are more than 120 seniors, and we have the capacity to engage many more clinical partners and expand the impact of this award winning program.”
The design program has seen many successes, with teams winning awards and accolades in the BMEStart competition, Engineering World Health Design Competition, Collegiate Inventors Competition, and VentureWell E-Team Program. “Our students complete a rigorous 2-semeser design process that is modeled on FDA guidelines and industry standards” said DesJardins, “They investigate a clinical need, and together with their clinical, industry and academic mentors, they produce innovative solutions with the potential for commercialization.”
In 2012, two of Clemson’s teams worked with MUSC clinical partners from the intensive care unit, and the resulting design solutions were exceptional, according to Dr. DesJardins. Five years had passed since a collaboration with MUSC and the senior design program, and it was a Clemson alumna who sparked the renewed collaborative effort. Chelsea Ex-Lubeskie, MS (’12), a licensing manager at the MUSC Foundation for Research Development (MUSC FRD), said she saw a clear opportunity to bridge the partnership between student and clinician. “We have truly innovative clinicians here at MUSC, and I thought, if the program is working with GHS, why can’t it work with MUSC, too? I loved the senior design process. It inspired me to follow a career in healthcare innovation, and it is advantageous to both the students and clinicians.”
Chelsea and Dr. Michael J. Yost, Ph.D. FAIMBE, Associate Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering and Vice Chairman for Research, serve as the innovation and clinical leads for the students’ interaction with MUSC clinicians. The process is underway, with six Clemson teams actively collaborating with MUSC clinicians in the 2017-2018 design cycle.
In addition to the two-semester design process, the Clemson-MUSC partnership will also support the summer needs-finding program, DeFINE, Design Fundamentals in Needs Finding Experience. This immersive six-week program allows a select group of bioengineering students to spend their summer shadowing clinicians, to identify hundreds of opportunities for innovation, and to bring these lists back into the design program for further development. Now in its fifth year, this NIH-funded program led by Dr. DesJardins has been recognized by Clemson University as the 2017 Service Learning Program nominee for the South Carolina Commission for Higher Education award.
“We are very excited to have MUSC as a new partner in our design program,” said Dr. DesJardins. “The future of bioengineering innovation in South Carolina is strong.”
The 2018 annual Bioengineering Design Expo will take place on May 4, 2018, at the TD Convention Center in Greenville, SC.
About the MUSC Foundation for Research Development
FRD has served as MUSC’s technology transfer office since 1998. FRD has filed patent applications on more than 400 technologies, resulting in over 150 U.S. issued patents. Additionally, FRD has executed more than 150 licenses and spun out more than 50 startup companies. Products by MUSC startups have been approved by the FDA acquired by publicly traded corporations, and have attracted substantial investment dollars to South Carolina.
