BME undergraduate FastStitch team wins first prize
BME undergraduate team continues to win awards for its invention of the FastStitch device, a disposable suturing device created to guide the placement of stitches to guard against the accidental puncture of internal organs. Most recently the FastStitch team placed first in the Undergraduate Division category of the 2012 Collegiate Inventors Competition. Winners were announced in November 2012 during an awards ceremony held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Representing the team from Johns Hopkins were Leslie Myint, Daniel Peng, Andy Tu and Stephen Van Kooten. The team received $12,500 for their work with the FastStitch device and the team’s faculty advisor, Dr. Robert Allen, Associate Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, received an additional $4,000.
The Collegiate Inventors Competition, created in 1990 by the nonprofit organization Invent Now, recognizes student inventors whose research and inventions have the potential to change the future. Applications are received from universities and colleges throughout the U.S. and Canada. In the Invent Now, Inc. press release announcing the winners, David Koppos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, stated “The inventions chosen for this year’s Collegiate Invention Competition are a testament to our nation’s bright, young innovators. These students embody a true spirit of entrepreneurship and continue to strengthen our belief in America’s future.”