What’s in it for industry?
The Design Program gives clinicians and industry professionals a chance to partner with talented, motivated BME design students and train their collective focus on a particular problem. Our Design Program partners not only ask to participate again, they also refer their colleagues because our students consistently generate high-caliber ideas that:
- Improve upon existing technologies
- Lead to novel solutions
- Win design awards
- Form the basis for journal articles
- Secure provisional patents
Get involved
Client/sponsor
Act as client for Engineering 100 or BME 450/499 students
- Provide financial support for project materials.
- Present problem and possible solutions.
- Be available to students throughout course.
Donors
- Provide in-kind donations of equipment, tools, or material.
- Contribute to equipment fund.
- Support fabrication costs for student prototypes.
Lecturers
- Clinical lecture and brainstorming session for BME 599. If topic is chosen by students, serve as clinical mentor/resource during second semester
- Guest lecture and suggested readings on specialized engineering or business topic for Engineering 100, BME 450/499 or BME 599
Presentation reviewer
- Attend BME 450/499 and 599 team presentations, offer feedback and questions
Technical expert
- Serve as technical resource on particular topic as needed
Interested in getting involved?
Email us at bme-design@umich.edu and let us know. A Note on Intellectual Property: A testament to the innovative, well-developed output of BME design students is that intellectual property is an important consideration for these classes. In general, students’ stake in a project’s IP increases as course demands increase. Individual course materials spell out IP arrangements and options, but the guiding principle is that IP is owned by the individuals who contribute to the design – typically the students and the client if s/he makes an inventive contribution to the design. In most cases, U-M owns the IP developed by U-M faculty.