Wichita State University's Biomedical Engineering program has been selected as one of 20 teams from universities across the country to participate in the 2015 Coulter College Program.

The Coulter College is a training program focused on accelerating the translation of biomedical innovations to the market place to improve patient care. It challenges students to help them better understand how innovations can meet clinical needs while providing tools and approaches to evolve identified problems into novel solutions.

The Wichita State team consists of students Hana Alsoudi, Seham Alyan, Zayna Alyan, Mycah Jones, Nicole Stahl and Evan Stallard. Guiding the team is faculty supervisor Gary Brooking, WSU engineering, and clinical supervisor Chris Deck, Via Christi HOPE.

As part of the Coulter College program, the students will learn how to evaluate the best point of leverage within a given clinical need and understand how to evaluate possible solutions. By the end of the program, the team will understand how to balance providing clinical benefits alongside a viable commercial model.

The 20 teams will convene in Miami Aug. 13-16 for an intensive bio-design process, where students will focus on the problems of epidural placement and look for solutions. The program is intended to provide a creative environment for a range of multi-disciplinary topics that the students may not otherwise be exposed to. Topics included patent law, regulatory strategy, reimbursement codes, working with technology transfer offices, follow-on funding sources and more.

The Coulter College is supported by the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, in conjunction with the Biomedical Engineering Society.