Adaptive Fishing Kit inventor Brian “Sunya” Nimityongskul (Large image) |
2006–2007 highlights
- Research grants and invention disclosures
- New funding for research
- Faculty honors and recognition
- Student innovation
- Student honors and educational advances
From left: Ashley Huth, Claire Flanagan, Chris Westphal and Eric Bader (Large image) |
Ladder CAT inventors (from left): Mike Sracic, Elliot Haag, Dan Goesch and Logan Hamel (not pictured: Dave Tengler) (Large image) |
Student innovation
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The Adaptive Fishing Kit, a kit that converts a standard fishing rod and reel so that people can use it with only one arm, took the top prize and $10,000 in the Schoofs Prize for Creativity during the UW-Madison Innovation Days competitions. The first-place Tong Prototype Prize and $2,500 went to the Ladder CAT, a device for safely lifting loads up the entire span of an extension ladder. The competitions, open to all UW-Madison undergraduates, award cash prizes to those whose ideas are judged most creative, novel, innovative and likely to succeed in the marketplace
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Alumnus Peter Tong (MSEE ’65) and the Tong Family Foundation sponsored the new Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Awards to honor one team of BME undergraduates in each of the sophomore, junior and senior class years for its exceptional design. In addition, a panel of judges awarded two student teams additional funding to further research and develop their designs. Senior Ashley Huth and junior Claire Flanagan improved their design, which centers on improving the clinical applicability of a bioactive wound dressing for large-surface-area wounds such as burns or skin-graft donor sites. By making significant changes in the chemical composition of and method for administering this bioactive “bandage,” the group transformed a laboratory-based technology into a novel, clinically relevant product.
Seniors Chris Westphal and Eric Bader redesigned components of their leg-load device, which enables them to successfully, dynamically image a subject’s hamstring muscle. Using the device, the researchers can study how tissue rebuilds in the hamstring after an injury; ultimately, physical therapists could use the knowledge to identify and implement appropriate hamstring-rehabilitation techniques.
