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Tong BME Design Awards color logo showing the graphed output from a medical instrument along the bottom and a human head in profile, with veins and arteries leading to highlight in the brain

Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Awards Details

There are two competitions and respective awards in this program:

  1. The Tong BME Design Awards

    All designs will be judged at the end of the spring semester during the BME Design Expo final poster session held on the penultimate Friday of the spring semester, 2 May 2008. The panel will consist of guest entrepreneurs, innovators or biomedical industry leaders. Criteria for prize selection are the following:

    1. Has the team defined the client's identified clinical/medical/scientific need?
    2. Has the team identified any competing devices/existing intellectual property?
    3. Are the design problem and the proposed solution clear and self explanatory?
    4. Does the design appear to satisfy the client's functional requirements?
    5. Is there evidence of significant technical progress?
    6. Is the prototype skillfully designed and constructed?
    7. Does the prototype work?
    8. Oral presentation: Does the team have a professional demeanor?

    Awards will be announced at 4 PM. The reception begins at 3:30 PM in the Tong Auditorium. Each team member of the winning design from each class (BME 201, 301, and 402) will receive:

    • $100 prize check
    • A mounted certificate, and
    • Recognition on the Tong BME Design Awards Plaques in the Engineering Centers Building

    All attendees will be provided:

    • Food and beverages, served from 3:30 to 5 PM
    • A Tong BME Design Awards T-shirt

    NOTE: Posters will remain up and partially staffed from 2:00 to 3:00 PM to allow for informal viewing by students, faculty, judges, and guests.

  2. The Tong BME Research & Development Follow-on Award

    The objective is to advance the winning project through the University of Wisconsin-Madison commercialization infrastructure, such as I&EDR grants or the W. H. Coulter Translational Research Partnership in Biomedical Engineering. The follow-on prize will include funds and employment for up to two students to further develop their designs in collaboration with a BME faculty member for advancing them towards reaching patients through commercialization. It will require a written application including a statement of intent and a design development proposal written by the student(s), a letter of recommendation by a faculty member, and a letter of support from the proposed client. Proposals may be submitted by any sub-group of members from a BME 301 or 402 design team and will be judged separately by the BME design faculty.

    The student statement of intent should address the following:

    1. Plan describing how the award will be used for improving the prototype design
    2. Explanation of clinical need and description of market for the invention.
    3. How intellectual property will be protected.
    4. How the work supported by an award will contribute to commercialization.
    5. Specific plan for advancing the design:
      1. Documentation of current design (derived from final report)
      2. Description of future work:
        • additional research
        • technical development
        • testing (bench and clinical)

    The letter of recommendation by a BME faculty member should address:

    1. Intent to advise and mentor the student(s) on the project.
    2. Merits of the proposed project to move the invention beyond a student prototype.

    The letter of support by the client should provide:

    1. Explanation of interest in, and availability to co-advise, the project,
    2. Brief discussion of the prototype's merits and desire for subsequent development.
    3. Description of the lab, and both the space and materials that will be provided during the period of support.

    • A brief letter of intent must be submitted the Program Manager by Thursday, 8 May 2008. The letter should indicate the name of the project, the person(s) requesting support, and the period of support (Summer 2008).

    • All application materials must be submitted to the review committee by Monday, 19 May 2008. Judging will be completed by Thursday, 22 May, and the award announced the same day.

    • Proposals may request funds to:

      1. Support 1-2 students through summer or academic year part-time employment at the university under the auspices of a faculty advisor.
      2. Provide up to $1,000 for supplies for prototype refinement, and cover the costs of fabrication and testing that will further enhance the commercialization potential of the design. All costs must be justified.

Questions may be directed to Mitchell Tyler at: metyler1@wisc.edu

BME Department Chair: Robert Radwin