Winners in third annual Design-A-Thon
A skin tone colorimeter and a tool for training cornea transplant surgeons both earned first prizes in the third annual BTEC x BMES Design-A-Thon, a joint effort by ENG’s Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC) and the BU student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).
Students entered in this spring’s competition had spent the academic year crafting technological solutions to healthcare disparities, with the help of grad student mentors and the resources available in BTEC as well as the Engineering Product Innovation Center and the Singh Imagineering Lab.
Anum Kotecha (BME’28) developed a novel method of simulating penetrating keratoplasties (cornea replacement surgery). To create 3D-printed models of the cornea and the surgical field, Kotecha developed a novel bio-ink as well as its curing agent. He assembled these materials, along with sutures and other surgical supplies, into a medical training kit (pictured at top) that would cost $15, far below the price tag for currently available eye training models, which can run to $500 or more. The kit’s low cost is aimed at making training accessible in under-resourced regions around the globe.
Jackson Muise, Emma Stone, and Shripreetika Guruprasad (all BME’25) collaborated on a compact skin tone colorimeter intended to reduce racial bias in medical imaging. Specifically, spatial frequency domain imaging has seen increasing use as a medical diagnostic tool, but skin tone affects the optical measurements. Current colorimeters can be used to account for skin tone and reduce racial bias, but these devices are often bulky, expensive, and somewhat imprecise. The BU team’s system (pictured at left) is compact, cost-effective, and more sensitive to reflected light. It is also the first open-source academic colorimeter, allowing other researchers to replicate and build upon their design.
“The range of projects and the level of innovation were very impressive, ” says BTEC Executive Director and Professor of the Practice Diane Joseph-McCarthy (BME, Chemistry), who served as a judge. “Each team did a fantastic job addressing the design challenge.”
Two teams won second prize: Oscar Locatell-Harris (BME’25), Mohamed Mohamed (ECE’25), Sayed Mohamed (ME’25), Reda Samari (BME’25), Bharath Venkatesan (BME’25), and Tanisha Rungta (BME’26) for BUzz Bracelet, an affordable wearable device for detecting and alerting auditory dangers for people with hearing loss; and Jacob Labovitz, Ananya Pemaraj, and Lakshmi Rajesh (all BME’25) for cellulose-based antibacterial coatings to prevent medical device infection.
Kotecha’s keratoplasties training tool also won the competition’s People’s Choice Award, voted on by his fellow students. In addition, students voted Heather Murray and Joseph Urban, both BME doctoral students, winners of the Graduate Student Mentor Awards.