Deadline: May 30, 2016 | Apply here
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Date: August 22, 2016
Prize: $65,000 in prizes
Eligibility: undergraduate students only

With $65,000 in prizes, debut is a competition open to undergraduate student teams working on innovative solutions to unmet health and clinical problems.

DEBUT competition by VentureWell

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and VentureWell have come together to support and expand the, a project that recognizes undergraduate excellence in biomedical innovation.

DEBUT competition challenges teams of students in undergraduate biomedical education to solve real world problems in healthcare.

In past years, undergraduate student teams have applied separately to NIBIB’s DEBUT competition and to VentureWell’s BMEStart competition. The new public-private partnership on the DEBUT competition allows student teams to submit one application and gives teams more chances to win a prize in recognition of their technology solution.

NIBIB’s goals:
1) to provide undergraduate students valuable experiences such as working in teams, identifying unmet clinical needs, and designing, building and debugging solutions for such open-ended problems;
2) to generate novel, innovative tools to improve health care, consistent with NIBIB’s purpose to support research, training, the dissemination of health information, and other programs with respect to biomedical imaging and engineering and associated technologies and modalities with biomedical applications; and
3) to highlight and acknowledge the contributions of biomedical engineering to advancing healthcare.

VentureWell’s goals for the competition are to challenge undergraduates to learn, practice, and demonstrate their technical, creative, and innovative capabilities by addressing a real clinical need and documenting the promise of
1) technical, economic and regulatory feasibility;
2) technological innovation; and
3) potential for commercialization of the solution described.

Strong DEBUT submissions will define a healthcare problem and demonstrate the development of a device, product, or technology designed to solve it. Examples include but are not limited to: surgical devices, home health care devices, diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventative applications, rehabilitative and assistive technologies, technologies for underserved populations and low resource settings, point-of-care systems, precision medicine, or other innovations that will have a substantial impact on clinical care and patient outcomes.

DEBUT is open to undergraduate students only (teams with graduate students on them should consider applying to VentureWell’s BMEidea competition). Students enrolled in senior biomedical engineering capstone design courses are especially encouraged to apply to DEBUT. Multidisciplinary teams are also encouraged to apply and may include undergraduate students from diverse fields such as business, nursing, physical therapy, life sciences, physical sciences, or other related disciplines. Inter-institutional collaborations are also encouraged; in these cases we require a faculty advisor from each institution. Each team must include at least one Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering student.

Strong DEBUT submissions will demonstrate a mastery of analytical and design skills and capabilities; the ability to manage the product development process; the ability to work effectively in teams; and written technical communication skills. Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:

• Significance of the problem being addressed
• Impact on potential users and clinical care
• Innovative design
• Working prototype

Additional prizes will be awarded to entries that also demonstrate:

• Market potential and economic feasibility
• Patentability

In past years, undergraduate student teams have applied separately to NIBIB’s DEBUT challenge and to VentureWell’s BMEStart competition. The new public-private partnership on DEBUT allows student teams to submit one application and gives teams more chances to win a prize in recognition of their technology solutions.

Prizes

• 1st Prize $20,000
• 2nd Prize $15,000
• 3rd Prize $10,000
• Venture Prize $15,000
• Design Excellence Prize $5,000