Students Compete for $20,000 at Cardiovascular Device Pitch
Oct. 24, 2024 - Biomedical engineering student teams gathered on Oct. 10, 2024, to pitch their cardiovascular device designs to an industry panel of judges. Seven teams competed and two came away with prize money. The competition was hosted by the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Cardiovascular Innovation and Research Center (CIRC) in partnership with the Samueli School and held at Beall Applied Innovation (BAI).
This cardiovascular device competition at UCI was initiated by a $25,000 donation from Shlomi Nachman, the former group chairman of both Cardiovascular Specialty Solutions and Johnson & Johnson Vision.
“My background is in cardiovascular technologies so this is close to my heart,” said Nachman, who has over 30 years of experience in the field. “A business competition seemed like a logical way to grow students’ capabilities by improving their communication skills and connecting them to industry.”
Biomedical Engineering Professor and CIRC Associate Director Elliot Botvinick put together the competition and consulted with BAI’s scalable ventures incubation director, Juan Felipe Vallejo, to select the application reviewers and judges. The six judges all had backgrounds in the cardiovascular technology industry, including specialists from Edwards Lifesciences and Johnson & Johnson.
The teams, composed of undergraduate and graduate students, attended a workshop week in August featuring talks on the FDA approval process, NIH grant funding and research methods. In September, teams submitted and received reviews on a business model for their product. They continued to work with faculty and industry advisers until the final event during which each team gave a 10-minute pitch followed by a discussion with the judges who offered specific feedback.
The winning team was Venaptic, a device that detects deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the leading cause of preventable death due to cardiovascular disease. Comprised of doctoral students Piyashi Biswas and Adhithi Lakshmikanthan, alongside undergraduates Neha Muvvala, Lucas Jones and Polaris Phan, the team took home $20,000. Their device is a system of ultrasound patches that continuously monitor blood volume in the legs to detect the formation of DVT for earlier diagnosis and treatment.
“We plan to use the prize money to develop the first prototype of our device,” said Biswas, the team’s lead. “There is a dire need for technological advancements in the DVT detection space to empower patients, help them access timely medical interventions and save lives, and our team is excited to make this happen.”
Runner-up team BioLoop won $5,000 for a noninvasive, continuous blood pressure monitor that tracks and controls blood pressure fluctuation using electrical nerve stimulation. Team lead Sara Marmarchinia and team members Xinlei Chen, Junye Li, Maryam Hassani and Arash Abiri hope to reduce the risk of heart failure and stroke by managing hypertension using their closed-loop technology. They plan to put their prize money toward research and development.
Botvinick said he was impressed by the students’ innovation in response to this first-ever cardiovascular device competition, and the advice and networking opportunities the students gained from industry professionals was valuable.
“Your homework is to take down all of the feedback you received from this opportunity,” Botvinick told the teams in his closing remarks. “My homework is to provide more of these events for you.”
– Lilith Christopher
