Bioengineering center signs four industry partners

The Vanderbilt-led Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Educational Technologies has signed four new industry partners in developing innovative and effective education and training programs in bioengineering.

The companies, two of which are in Middle Tennessee, will help the center produce instructional materials that efficiently teach the vast body of knowledge that bioengineers will need to create the biomedical equipment and systems of the future. A fifth contributing organization will provide financial support to the center, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

"We need the partners from business and industry involved in this rapidly growing field to give us feedback on the educational materials we are developing, to provide internship experiences for our students, and to help fund our research," said Professor Thomas R. Harris, center director and chair of Vanderbilt's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

He announced that the new industrial partners to help in the enterprise include Nova Bionics Inc., N*Tara, DigiScript Inc. and Datex-Ohmeda.

Nova Bionics, Inc., a Nashville-based company that makes microelectronic semiconductor products for health care and medical research clients, will help the center financially and will provide internships for Vanderbilt bioengineering students. The company will also consult with center researchers on course content.

N*Tara, based in Johnson City, Tenn., produces digital video, 3D animation and interactive programming for advanced-learning and corporate communications. The company will create computer models to help students visualize principles and techniques used in biomechanics and biotechnology. The company will also make a financial contribution to the center.

DigiScript Inc., which records, archives and presents conferences and workshops for clients to access through the Internet, CD ROM recordings and printed material, has agreed to make a monetary donation to the center as well as to record and archive center workshops, seminars and conferences. The company is based in Franklin, Tenn.

Datex-Ohmeda, a manufacturer of anesthesia-delivery systems based in Madison, Wis., will donate equipment and discounted textbooks to the center and will provide consultation on coursework. The company is a division of medical-technology firm Instrumentarium Corp. of Helsinki, Finland.

The new industrial partners join original partner National Instruments of Austin, Texas, a manufacturer in acquisition, digitization and processing of analog data. National Instruments is providing LabVIEW software, which is widely used in engineering research, production and education.

Awarding the center with a grant that provides non-project-specific financial support is Abbott Laboratories Fund, an Illinois not-for-profit, philanthropic corporation established by Abbott Laboratories, a leading worldwide health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of health care products and services.

"Our industrial partners are an integral part of the center's mission," says Professor Jerry C. Collins, the center's industrial liaison and research associate professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt. "Bioengineering students need real-world experience, and our partners' financial support and consultation on the coursework we're developing help us ensure that the new educational materials will provide students the knowledge and skills they will need in their future careers."

The center was founded in 1999 to provide the courses and educational resources in physics, mathematics, engineering science and biology that bioengineers need to keep pace with the bioengineering field's rapid evolution. The center, which teams Vanderbilt researchers with faculty of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University and the University of Texas, works to integrate and synthesize the bioengineering knowledge base as well as develop effective educational materials to teach the complex range of skills and understanding required.