BME Seminar
Room 145, Mount Hall
1050 Carmack Road
Columbus, OH 43210
United States
The goal of the Social Innovation and Commercialization (SIAC) initiative is to provide an educational experience in both product design and commercialization for a broad range of engineering students working in interdisciplinary teams. SIAC is pioneering a relatively new concept of social entrepreneurship and represents one of the only product commercialization programs in the country built on the foundation of providing financial sustainability for both the program and its non-profit partners. It strives to meet two of the University's strategy goals: (1) collaboration between university programs and (2) outreach and engagement with community partners. It does both. We currently have five projects underway in various stages employing students from ME, BME, and ECE supplemented with business students (MBAs) and industrial designers. We are actively engaged with six local non-profit organizations and one commercial design firm and are beginning the search for our first manufacturing partner.
Relative to BME, the focus of the SIAC program is the design and commercialization of products for a broad range of people with disabilities. This focal point brings to bear the critical nature of BME students playing an integral role in these projects and this inaugural year of BME capstone, we have engaged three senior BME pioneers on two SIAC projects.