Center for Medical Innovation
Student Competitors
The Bench to Bedside competition is open to undergraduate, graduate, and professional-degree (e.g. MD, JD, DDS) students from the U.S.. Students are encouraged to form multidisciplinary teams to develop their projects throughout the academic year.
Interested students do not necessarily need an idea or a team, there will be numerous opportunities for you to meet others and develop ideas as the competition gets underway. More information on how to get started, resources available to teams, and competitions specifics can be found on the B2B Canvas Course.
Student Ambassadors
Becoming an ambassador for B2B is a great way to get more involved in the B2B program and provides you with future B2B leadership opportunities. Responsibilities as an ambassador include attending in-person events to help with setup and organization (including Competition Night), on-campus and digital outreach for upcoming events, and assisting the student leadership team.
If you're interested, please fill out click the link below to complete the brief application process.
Reverse Pitch
The Reverse Pitch event is at the core of B2B's success giving students a chance to meet directly from health care providers and learn about the pain points they face in their day-to-day roles. The level of involvement after the Reverse Pitch is up to the presenter - students may work directly with the health care provider to better understand the problem and identify the opportunities for innovation. Interested in presenting about your experiences as a health care professional? Click the link below to learn more.
Mentors
Mentors help guide our teams throughout the competition, sharing valuable expertise along the path of medical device development. We welcome any commitment you are able to provide our teams. This can range from
- being an ad-hoc mentor available to meet with various teams on an as-needed basis for specific topics
- being a long-term mentor working with a team throughout the competition.
Serving as a mentor is optional and requires you opt-in. If you are interested,If you would like to mentor our student teams, have an idea and are looking for a student team to develop it, or would like to judge the competition, please contact us directly via email.
Bench to Bedside: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Join us at any of our B2B events! We'll hold several networking and launch events during the fall semester. You can get signed up and begin looking for a team and finding medical problems that need to be solved. And, you can always contact a member of the B2B Student Leadership team at b2b@utah.edu
Not necessarily. Our Launch & Team Building social will help you learn why the most successful teams are built with a diversity of backgrounds and skillsets, and allow you to meet fellow student innovators looking for teammates.
Not necessarily. There will be multiple opportunities to hear about ideas
throughout the year. We also encourage students to talk to physicians and
engineers to find problems that exist in the clinics and hospitals. Device
innovation typically starts by identifying a problem and then finding ways to
solve the problem.
No. Engineering is only one piece of device innovation. To create a successful device, teams often collaborate with people from multiple areas of expertise. It is even better to have these people from multiple areas of expertise on your team.
Bench to Bedside will have multiple events where you can collaborate with other students. In addition, B2B will have events dedicated to helping people find teams. If you still feel that you cannot find a team, Bench to Bedside leadership can help you get in contact with more people.
Bench to Bedside is designed specifically for students who do not have a background in device innovation. There will be workshops throughout the year teaching students how to create a successful device and create a medical device company.
Bench to Bedside is designed specifically for students who do not have a background in device innovation. There will be workshops throughout the year teaching students how to create a successful device and create a medical device company.
As long as you join before competition night, it is never too late to enter. Keep in mind that participants who enter late will not have as much time to design their device as those who enter early.
This is not a requirement but creating a prototype shows judges that you have developed an idea to the point where you can create a working prototype. It is also much easier to pitch an idea and show judges your vision if you have a working prototype.
Yes. There is not a limit to the number of teams you can join. Keep in mind that it is often better to fully develop an idea in one area than to have a lot of scattered projects that never materialize into a functional prototype.
Yes.