Senior Design Students Take on Ultrasound Problem for Final Project

For the last nine years, senior engineering students have helped real-life customers solve biomedical engineering problems through a two-semester Senior Design course taught by Amy Lerner, Ph.D., and Scott Seidman, Ph.D. This year, BME seniors Aaron Gelinne, Bo Wang, Andrew Bochenko, and Tony Broyld solved Dr. Paul Bigeleisen's need for a system to stabilize an ultrasound imaging transducer when inserting a needle into tissue. According to Dr. Lerner, The UltraNeedle team was a great example of the kind of successful design process our students use to develop medical innovations. The students worked extensively with their clinical 'customer', learning about the technical challenges of the medical setting, and the demands of the end-user. They developed a simple, but elegant prototype that allowed for significant testing by representative customers. At the same time, they thoroughly considered the challenges that may be faced in manufacturing, marketing and obtaining regulatory approval for their device. We are very proud of their success, and look forward to continued development of their proposed solution.