You can be an AEMB MINDS Scholar
Apply for the 2023 - 2024 MINDS Scholars Program We are excited to announce the 9th year of our Mentoring for INnovative Design Solutions (MINDS) Scholars Program. The MINDS program is an innovative approach that provides students with the opportunity to collaborate and network with peers and mentors across the country, while building necessary engineering design skills, including 3 key considerations that are not usually stressed in coursework projects. The 3 key considerations are (1) market considerations for commercialization (unmet need, size of market, reimbursement potential, etc.), (2) regulatory strategy, and (3) evaluating prospects for intellectual property protection. MINDS Scholars enhance their knowledge of product design, and learn how to effectively communicate with teammates and mentors who are from other schools and organizations using collaborative online tools, which are becoming an increasingly important skill in today’s work environment. The MINDS Scholar Program has received funding from the National Science Foundation since 2016. Participation in the MINDS Scholar Program is through a competitive application process that takes place annually August- September. The theme for the 2023-2024 MINDS Scholars Program is Biomedical Engineering Design: Impacting the Lives of People with Disabilities. Our kick-off design workshop that marks the beginning of the 6-month MINDS program will be online this year. The initial workshop will be a 2-hour Zoom session that will be scheduled between October 8 and October 15, 2023, coinciding with the week of the BMES Annual 2023 Meeting. The exact date will be announced in September. At the online workshop, participants will meet their assigned teams and professional engineering mentors. Each team will continue to work on their project for six months after the workshop using collaborative tools such as online meetings, document sharing, and group collaboration applications. Alpha Eta Mu Beta will provide additional resources and assistance to help participants and mentors address the design criteria. Depending on the scope and quality of completed projects, teams may be eligible to potentially receive travel support to present their projects at the 2024 BMES conference. Please note that students do not need to be AEMB or BMES members to participate. We are especially encouraging sophomores and juniors to apply because they will get the most out of the program, but seniors and graduate students are also welcome. The application form is at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MINDS2023. Please fill out the application in its entirety and submit by September 18, 2023. If you have any questions about this application or about the MINDS program, please email aemb@alphaetamubeta.org What did past Scholars get out of this program? You
can read more about past MINDS Scholars, mentors, and their projects at our MINDS Scholars
Recognition Page. In previous cohorts of the MINDS Scholar program, team
members communicated with industry experts and entrepreneurs from start-up
companies, technology transfer offices, and established medical device
companies. These MINDS Scholars indicated that they gained experience working
with different universities and using different collaboration and communication
tools. They also felt they acquired important insight into the value of
intellectual property management and its challenges, FDA & ethics approval
and market considerations, and their understanding of the thought process from
invention to market. A majority of students in past cohorts agreed or
highly agreed that the MINDS program had improved their ability to be part of
collaborative projects between institutions and provided them with tools to
collaborate more successfully, as well as improved their teamwork skills. Many
also indicated that it had impacted their career goals, making them more likely
to engage in careers that involved actual product development and
entrepreneurship. Scholars reported being more aware of practical barriers in
design, and how to handle collaborative projects. Here are some sample comments
from past MINDS Scholars: “All
of the talks we were a part of can be devolved into three questions
every engineer should ask themselves before they make a commitment to a
product’s development: Can it be done? Can it be sold? Can it get
approval? If any of these questions give you pause you should assess
your current position and rethink the path you will take. This program
has given me enough tools to plan on attacking these questions before I
ask them.” “The MINDS
program has been an amazing experience. The new experiences and lessons
learned outside the classroom setting have included how to work with
someone across a state line, learning how to match up each other
schedules, and hearing professionals talk about the importance of the
design process in their jobs and career paths. Particularly insightful
was hearing how the professionals come up with ideas and brainstorm.” “I
enjoyed the freedom associated with the project and the knowledge I was
able to gain by doing research on my own. If I was not involved in this
project, I would have not pushed myself to read as many scientific
papers or explore the development process as in depth as I did.
Further, I was able to apply concepts from my current classes to our
project and thus was able to practice out-of-class applications,
solidifying my knowledge of material I needed for courses integral to
my major.” “I enjoyed the
aspect of having a mentor and the whole concept of working remotely. I
think it is important we had someone to discuss our ideas with, as well
as it has the potential to create a meaningful and lasting
relationship. Also, the strictly online meetings were good exposure and
experience to working remotely with a team on technical projects.” “I'd
like to thank the committee members and coordinators of the program for
providing me the opportunity to meet and work with people from all
across the country. It has widened my perspective and given me insight
on the challenges I have to overcome in order to become a better
engineer.” Are you the next MINDS Scholar? We sure hope so and we hope to review your application soon! |