IdealTap, a medical device that would make spinal taps easier and more efficient for the patient and physician, has won $25,000 in cash in the 2015 Discovery Competition in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Two Olin undergrads are members of the winning team.
The IdealTap team has developed a chair that can rotate a patient from a seated, upright position during a spinal tap procedure to lying on his or her side without the need for extra personnel or tools. Team members are:
- Matthew Burkhardt, a senior majoring in applied science (systems science & engineering) with a minor in biology;
- Mason Meiners, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering with minors in finance and energy engineering;
- Yuni Teh, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering and applied science (electrical engineering);
- Lindsay Kaminski, a senior majoring in marketing and entrepreneurship in the Olin Business School with a minor in art; and
- Esther Koh, a junior majoring in finance and healthcare management.
Article by Beth Miller; for complete details on the Discovery Competition, click here.
novel solution to replace prior methods of testing the viability of cells. The team developed an inexpensive technology that uses recent advances in digital holography, an imaging technique that uses optical components and software to reproduce a 3-D rendering of the sample. The system will take images of about 100 samples in under 5 minutes without destroying the cells. The product will be targeted to cancer and cell biology research.
