Biomedical Engineering Center for Translational Research.
2007 Conference and Expo.
Friday, May 4, 2007.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Engineering.
Engineering Centers Building.

Morning Agenda: Focus on Translational Research.
Prof. Robert Radwin, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Welcome, 8:30 AM. 

Hello, I'd like to welcome everyone 
to the 5th Annual Biomedical Engineering Translational Research 
and Design Conference and Expo.
We have a very full schedule this morning and this afternoon.
I'm Rob Radwin. 
I'm the chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
I want to welcome our guests 
and guest speakers to the conference this morning.
This morning, our focus will be on translational research, 
and we have several presentations for you.
I'll be telling you about our department 
and about our involvement with the
Wallace Coulter Foundation 
and the Translational Research Partnership Program.
Michael Gara from the Coulter Foundation 
will be talking about the Coulter Foundation's vision 
for translational research, 
and then we have several presentations by a number of faculty 
in our department who have been working over the course of a year 
on translational research projects, 
and this is the first public disclosure of their innovations. 
Many of these projects are extremely innovative and exciting.
I think you'll enjoy all of the them.
After that, we have a keynote address by Dr. Scott Augustine, 
who is the CEO of Augustine Biomedical + Design, 
and that will be followed by lunch.
This afternoon's agenda will involve the BME Student Design Expo, 
and this is done in combination 
with the Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Awards.
The students have been working all semester 
on their own translational research projects and design projects, 
and you'll have an opportunity from noon 'til 2 o'clock 
to see their posters and see the prototypes 
that they've been working on all semester.
At 3:30 you're all invited to join a reception, 
and we'll announce the winners 
of the Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Awards, 
and you're all welcome to join us throughout the day's events.
So, I'd like to tell you a little bit about this, our department and this program.
Our department's vision is to advance healthcare 
by integrating education, discovery, innovation, and entrepreneurship, 
and I think you'll see evidence of this vision being realized throughout the day's events.
We're one of the newest departments at the university.
We became a department in 1999, but biomedical engineering research 
at UW-Madison dates back to the late 1950s and was formerly a master's degree, 
a graduate degree program in 1970, 
and that degree at least existed in principle 
throughout the 1980s until the inception and realization of our department.
We were fortunate over a number of events in the 1990s 
that launched our department.
We received a substantial grant from the Whitaker Foundation 
that allowed us to introduce bachelor of science and PhD degree programs in 1998, 
and we are quite fortunate to have a number of faculty members, 
some of whom you'll see today, who have been hired 
under the Cluster Hire Initiative that started in 1999 and continues today.
We have a number of cluster hires in our department.
Our department has several emphasis areas, 
and you'll see some projects in most of these areas today.
The first area is bioinstrumentation and bioMEMS, 
and this includes all aspects of medical diagnostic equipment, 
implantable devices, microfluidics, 
and you'll see projects in these areas 
both from our faculty and our students.
We have a long history in the bioinstrumentation area.
This is really how our department sprung out of electrical engineering.
A number of faculty from electrical engineering 
joined our department when it was formed.
Another area that's been around in UW-Madison 
for a long time is the biomechanics area, 
and today biomechanics spans everything from 
human kinematics, muscle neurophysiology, 
all the way to cellular mechanics.
The third area is a newer area in our department.
It is the biomaterials and tissue engineering area, 
and you'll hear projects dealing with 
a number of tissue engineering and biomaterials projects.
The fourth area is biomedical imaging, 
and in biomedical imaging we have faculty who are involved in MRI, 
and we partner with a sister department in the medical school 
called medical physics that has a number of affiliates 
who are involved with our faculty and our students 
in research and education in medical imaging.
Our undergraduate program is quite unique.
In our department -- 
I think there's no engineering department in any field that's like this -- 
in our department all of our undergraduates work 
on a design project every semester, 
starting from the time they are admitted to the department as sophomores, 
and so each student has experience working on at least six projects, 
and these projects are important to them, 
not only to get experience on how to make prototypes 
and how to be engaged in the design process, 
but also it helps them select courses 
and it acts as their advising and gives some great interaction with the faculty -- 
faculty within our department and throughout the university.
Our students have been quite successful in patenting their innovations, 
and we have a number of design prizes that our students have won over the years, 
including prototype prizes and business plan prizes, 
and many patents have come out of this design course. 
I'm sure you'll be impressed.
We have recently been awarded a Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Partnership 
in Biomedical Engineering, and this is just an outstanding opportunity 
and fits so well with our department 
and the way our department's vision had been established, 
and in this partnership we have set up an organizational structure 
called the Biomedical Engineering Center for Translational Research, 
which is sponsoring this conference today.
It develops partnerships between faculty in our department, 
in biomedical engineering, and clinicians in the medical school, 
to develop new innovations based on clinical needs; 
identifies and supports new projects through funding from the Coulter Foundation; 
and works to help translate these innovations, 
from the laboratory or from the benchtop into the clinic, 
so that the patients who need these new innovations 
will benefit from them rapidly.
We're in good company.
There are ten universities that have been a part of this partnership, 
and many of these are among the top biomedical engineering departments in the country, 
and we're proud to be part of that.
Our vision for translational research in biomedical engineering at UW-Madison 
involves a number of processes, 
the start of which is clinicians and researchers getting together, 
and either clinicians identifying problems that would benefit from technological innovations, 
or researchers who have developed new research in their laboratory, 
that have solutions to problems that they might have not even been aware of -- 
getting together with clinicians to develop new products 
that are intended to be commercialized, 
and we have processes to receive market input 
and work with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation 
as well as many of the other great resources for technology transfer 
on the UW-Madison campus -- 
to produce intellectual property and to translate these innovations rapidly 
into industry, either through startup companies 
or through licensing, and to market them, ultimately, into the clinic.
And so the structure of our center in relationship to UW-Madison 
is primarily to seed-fund projects, 
to develop partnerships between clinicians and researchers, 
and to promote commercialization, 
and we have a large infrastructure
that exists at the University of Wisconsin in order to do that.
Now, when you think of research on this campus, 
you often think of the kind of research where researchers apply for grants 
from extramural agencies, and they produce knowledge or research in education, 
and this is what we would call basic research.
Translational research is one where we force the research innovations 
to follow a path of commercialization through this process, 
which involves intellectual property, disclosures, licenses, 
the startup of companies, and the involvement of biomedical industry. 
And, again, you'll hear a number of examples of these throughout the day.
We have a number of programs to promote our program, to develop our partnerships.
Most recently we had focus groups that involved clinicians and biomedical engineering researchers 
to identify new problems that are worked on by our faculty 
and more than 2,000 clinicians at UW Health.
We are trying to foster an innovation community, 
and this involves a deep involvement among our faculty and the clinicians, 
and there is a number of projects that we're starting or have started 
that are creating this innovation community, 
and then ultimately to commercialize the innovations, 
and there is a number of activities that we're engaged in, 
with regard to commercializations.
So, today you're going to hear about the five projects 
that were sponsored a year ago, 
and these projects have been done by our faculty, 
and you'll have an opportunity to learn about these projects, 
many of which are being disclosed for the first time, 
and then this afternoon the Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Awards 
and the student design projects are on the agenda.






















Copyright 2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
Last modified 12-Jun-2007.
Created 30-May-2007.