OUR HISTORY & MISSION
IDEA Labs is a bioengineering design and entrepreneurship incubator founded in 2013 at Washington University in St. Louis. Students, faculty, staff, and St. Louis entrepreneurs team up to tackle unmet needs in healthcare delivery and clinical medicine.
Our group's objectives include:
- To make medical entrepreneurship attainable for students
- To develop a culture of innovation throughout the St. Louis region and around the country
- To teach engineering, medical, and business students the skills and processes needed to invent and implement new biomedical technologies
- To develop novel devices and software applications targeting unmet clinical needs
Innovation in
Healthcare Technology
Our Goal
Clinical Need
Market
Opportunity
de-risked
Technology
Clinical Advisors
Technical Advisors
Industry Advisors
Budget of $500+ per team
Shared prototyping resources
Hospital Acces, IRB support
Optional
Curriculum
With the guidance of a clinician mentor and technical advisors, teams of engineering, medical, business, and other students work towards 5 milestones
- 1.) Develop a deep understanding of one or more clinical problems by shadowing in local clinics and academic medical centers
- 2.) Brainstorm and vet a panel of designs based on patient and physician needs, but also on the intellectual property and regulatory environments
- 3.) Develop a specific design implementation on paper and on engineering software
- 4.) Prototype, test, and redesign a series of increasingly realistic prototypes
- 5.) Protect intellectual property and commercialize technology
TIMELINE OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR
