Biomedical engineering students to display new health-care products

More than 100 biomedical engineering undergrads have been working night and day on 20 different projects that they will put up for faculty evaluations on Friday, Dec. 3 at the expo in the lobby of the Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive. The public can visit during the evaluations from noon-2 p.m.

Michael J. Cudahy, founder and chief executive officer of Marquette Medical Systems Inc., of Milwaukee, will speak at noon.

The students’ projects are the outcome of a course in the Department of Biomedical Engineering that puts each student to work every semester on real-world challenges in the health-care and medical-products industries. What the students come up with might affect the future of medical care in the world today.

Now in its seventh year, the Biomedical Engineering design course, the only one of its kind in American higher education, is supported by four companies whose engineers work with the students to tackle design challenges the companies have identified. The four are American Medical Systems, Datex-Ohmeda, GE Health Care and Nicolet Biomedical.

The design projects include an electromechanical disposable drug delivery system, a new localization device for breast lesions, a device to produce rotation of the neck to help with functional CT and MR imaging of the neck, an artificial limb to study burns that occur from exothermic reactions that sometimes happen during orthopedic cast curing, a robotic image-guided biopsy and a portable patient-training device for lung-cancer treatment.

For a more detailed description of all 20 projects, visit the program’s Web site. For an in-depth look at the program, read the November feature article on the UW Business News Wire.