BioInnovate Fellowship

BioInnovate is a highly competitive program that pairs graduate and post-doctoral students into synergistic innovation teams. Each team is given the resources and education to take innovative ideas from conception to production. The program leverages the highly collaborative expertise of the School of Medicine, School of Engineering, School of Business, and Technology Venture faculty. The program is further strengthened through creative partnerships with local community entrepreneurs and national medical device corporations who provide the real-world experience and application to the program.

Fully-Accredited Master of Bioengineering Degree

BioInnovate is a fully-accredited master of bioengineering degree track that aims to provide a comprehensive biomedical device design and entrepreneurship training program through the use of a multidisciplinary, hands-on teaching approach in classroom, clinical, and laboratory settings. Students and fellows from engineering, medicine, business and law backgrounds will be trained in clinical problem identification, medical device innovation, and commercial translation; all within the regulatory framework of the FDA. Students will immerse themselves within clinical environments and learn to observe procedures, the utilization of medical devices, and interact with patients and clinicians to uncover unmet clinical needs. Students will translate these unmet needs into medical device concepts that will be refined for commercial potential. Once final concepts have been generated, student teams will further develop these ideas into testable prototypes and develop business plans while operating under the regulatory framework of the FDA. Upon completion of the BioInnovate track, students should be able to:

1. Observe and identify unmet needs in clinical environments;
2. Work effectively in multidisciplinary teams in asynchronous environments;
3. Understand and apply FDA QSR in the design and development of medical devices;
4. Develop a business plan, attract potential funding sources, and start a company in the medical device industry.

This track builds on a collaborative relationship between the College of Engineering, School of Medicine, School of Business and Tech Ventures to create a unique interface that moves new ideas towards development and commercialization. The Department of Bioengineering's undergraduate BioDesign program serves as a foundation for the graduate BioInnovate track and has successfully completed projects in diverse fields of medicine including surgery, cardiology, speech pathology, rehabilitation, gastroenterology, cardiothoracic surgery, ophthalmology, neonatology, urology and anesthesiology.