Biomedical engineering seniors gain critical marketplace skills at Coulter College training program

Six biomedical engineering seniors attended the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Coulter College in Coral Gables, Florida, August 13-16.

The Coulter College training program, an intensive three-day event sponsored by the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, promotes biomedical innovation in the clinical landscape. Students are encouraged to identify challenges within the industry and respond by designing improved solutions that incorporate viable commercial models.

The program is highly selective and invites only twenty student teams to participate annually.

During the program, students participated in a series of valuable commercialization training courses and had the opportunity to present an original biomedical innovation, one that could potentially impact future standards of care.

The program also included workshops, lectures and team activities hosted by some of today’s most influential industry professionals. The students were educated in the areas of patent law, FDA regulatory strategy and technology transfer, among others.

At the culmination of the event, students had the opportunity to present and pitch an original biomedical innovation. Penn State students unveiled a development aimed to quickly close surgical wounds while maintaining minimal scarring outcomes—similar to sutures.

The proposed device combines the ease of use and convenience of a staple gun with the precision of manual suturing, ultimately leading to reduced training times for medical professionals, reduced surgical and treatment costs and expedited wound healing.

Students developed the idea prior to attending Coulter College by observing surgeons and physicians at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center. They noted that manual suturing often slowed the flow of medical care and demanded a great deal of time and specialized skill from surgeons and physicians. The solution aims to remedy the situation by greatly reducing suture time and also allowing a variety of medical professionals to assist in the process.

Rebecca Nagurney, a Penn State student who attended the conference, believes the workshops and product pitch served as an excellent segue to the senior design course she will take later in the academic year.

“The lessons we were taught at Coulter College about the business end of engineering and how we need to make our products appealing to different markets were exciting concepts,” Nagurney said.  “We learned new ways to think and work with team members.  That is something you can't learn in the classroom, which made this experience truly valuable.”