2012 Undergraduate Design Project Competition in Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices

Undergraduate students engaged in design projects related to rehabilitation or assistive devices during the current (2011-2012) academic year are encouraged to submit an abstract of their design project to the annual SBC meeting. The top 6 finalists will be given an opportunity to present their work during a special podium presentation session. The objectives of this undergraduate design competition are to showcase the undergraduate design work, give students an opportunity to describe their work, introduce them to the Bioengineering Division of ASME, and provide a chance to meet professionals in the bioengineering field. This competition is sponsored by the Bioengineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers with support from the National Science Foundation.

Who can enter?
Any individual or team of undergraduate students who are graduating no earlier than Fall of 2011 are welcome to submit a design proposal abstract. The students do not need to be enrolled in a course or completing the project as part of their curriculum to be considered. All majors are welcomed to submit an abstract. The project must be initiated and completed during the academic year (June 2011-June 2012; ongoing projects are not eligible). There is no limit on the number of students on the team. If selected as one of the top six projects, at least one member of the design team must attend the Summer Bioengineering Conference to present their work. All students on the abstract should be undergraduates at the time the project was completed.

What design projects are desired?
Any design projects related to rehabilitation science or assistive technologies will be eligible. This definition will be broadly interpreted to include any device that helps people perform activities. This includes devices that aid people with disabilities, help people recover from an injury, or enhance physical or mental capabilities of healthy individuals. Specific projects can be checked for approval prior to submission by contacting the competition organizer. Projects must have a significant novel design component and cannot simply be a presentation of data from an existing device or strictly a research project. The abstract of the design proposal will be judged based on its merits as a proposed device to solve a problem, while the presentation competition at the SBC will be judged based on the actual realization of the product or a prototype of the product. The actual duration of the project (semester or yearlong) at the student's institution is not important providing it was completed during the current academic year (between June 2011 and June 2012).

How is the design proposal submitted and how is it judged?
Students must submit the Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices information template by the normal conference deadline of January 13, 2012. This form will contain basic information about the design problem and student and faculty affiliation information, etc. A detailed a two-page abstract must be submitted by February 15, 2012 using the Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices submission template.

Please read further details on the Judging Criteria.

What happens after the top six finalists have been identified?
By the end of February the top six finalists will be identified. Pending support from NSF, the institutions for each of the top six finalists will receive a monetary award to support both student travel to the SBC as well as help defray some of the costs of fabricating and testing the rehabilitation device. Some abstracts that were not selected as finalists may be invited to present their work as a poster at the conference. It is expected that each of the top six projects will have a physical realization of their design and a functioning prototype used to evaluate the success of the design. Teams are encouraged to bring their product to the conference, but are not required to do so. At least one student representative from each of the top six design teams must register for the conference and attend. The top six teams will have their abstract proposal published in the conference proceedings.

What happens at the SBC for the top finalists?
Each of the six finalists in the rehabilitation and assistive devices undergraduate design competition will present their results in a special podium session during the Summer Bioengineering Conference. Student teams will be given a 15-minute period to describe their work. This may be the first public disclosure of the project for intellectual property concerns. On-site judging of the presentations will be made by a group of judges. There are five criteria for judging the presentations: 1) product need and market potential, 2) description of the device, 3) performance of the device, 4) economic plan, and 5) presentation clarity and style. The scores from the proposal abstract evaluation will not be used to select the winners from the presentations. First, second, and third place will be announced at the conference banquet Saturday night. All six finalists will have a description of their final design posted on an ASME website.

Please read further details on the Judging Criteria.

Questions about the Undergraduate Design Project Competition in Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices should be submitted to the competition organizers for SBC 2012, Martin Tanaka, PhD.