BME student in lab

UVM is home to the next generation of biomedical engineering talent.

UVM’s Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI) aspires to be an internationally recognized destination for the development of data supported biomedical device design with a focus on rural medicine as well as the training of future biotechnology inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

CBI brings together students, faculty, and industry through shared programming and an interactive research, development, and educational space that:

  1. Provides a home for biomedical engineering companies, researchers, and students to develop new biomedical technologies, and with particular focus on data-enabled devices for improving health and wellness in rural communities.
  2. Includes physical spaces for team brainstorming/ collaboration, customer focus groups, a maker space, a materials characterization laboratory, offices for visiting industry members, and presentation rooms for showcasing new designs and new venture ideas.
  3. Creates a virtual connection to participating clinicians within the UVM Medical Center, the Larner College of Medicine, and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences as well as off-site industry collaborators and clients for observation of the use of new devices and technologies.
  4. Houses the new vertically-integrated biomedical engineering design sequence, which is a cornerstone of the bachelor of science degree in Biomedical Engineering.

The Bio-design Process

CBI encompasses all aspects of the bio-design process — from customer discovery, problem identification and ideation to prototyping and new product/business development. CBI is housed in the new Discovery Hall. The physical space will foster collaborations bringing together students, clinicians, and industry partners across technology, healthcare and business disciplines, including those who connect virtually, to identify unmet needs and develop new ideas through face-to-face interactions.

Prototyping

Prototyping will occur in a bio-focused maker space complementing our existing fab lab and machine shop. The mock exam room outfitted with standard clinical equipment will span the entire bio-design process by providing clinicians a space to demonstrate an unmet need, students a place to envision prototypes, and collaborative groups a location to test real-life scenarios that simulate accessibility, mobility, and communication challenges for specific populations. Office spaces will provide visiting industry experts an on-site location to work and meet with students and clinicians as they turn their ideas into real products and business ventures.

Investing in relationships → Innovation

CBI integrates bio-design enabled product/business development and student education in partnership with external collaborators. Workshops, Big Problem Hackathons, and Design Charrettes with companies occur every semester, with a focus on choosing projects to move forward either in formal curriculum or as part of interdisciplinary activities in the Center. 

Corporate partners will have the opportunity to invest in student design projects, sponsored research, and product development in a creative ecosystem with our faculty.

CBI is supported by a robust academic, research, and innovation ecosystem spanning four colleges:

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

The B.S. in Biomedical Engineering trains engineers to work at the interface between engineering and the biomedical sciences. The curriculum is structured into two phases. The foundational phase establishes a core of math and science to build a solid foundation in quantitative engineering methods and biomedical sciences and exposes students to opportunities in biomedical engineering. In the specialization phase, students focus their energy on biosensing and instrumentation cell tissue and organ bio mechanics or systems and network biology.

The Larner College of Medicine

The Larner College of Medicine supports CBI through clinical trainees spanning the range of medical disciplines as well as graduate programs in Biomedical Engineering, Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences and Clinical and Translational Sciences. The College provides strong supporting biomedical research courses, including microscopy, the integrative genomics resources, bio informatics, biostatistics, flow cyometry, and MRI bio medical imaging. The College’s Center for Health Services Research supports CBI through real world quantitative health insights.

The College of Nursing and Health Sciences

The College of Nursing and Health Sciences supports the development of emerging technologies focused on health behaviors. Courses in behavioral attitudes and health will focus on new technology that enables the remote activity of physical activity / fitness compliance in rural areas. CNHS faculty can facilitate the development of new devices used in physical therapy and rehabilitation in partnership with CBI. The center will benefit from research internships connected to the College’s interprofessional health sciences PhD program with rotations in engineering medicine and business.

The Grossman School of Business

The Grossman School of Business (GSB) offers courses that support the core mission of CBI, including technology commercialization courses in which teams write commercialization plans for real technologies developed by UVM researchers; courses in social responsibility and business ethics that consider ethical public policy challenges; and marketing courses in product management, new product development, and technology development. Our sustainable innovation MBA program provides three months practicum projects to develop a commercial feasibility and business plans for new businesses. GSB students can engage in CBI through internships or work studies to apply business expertise to research and products in CBI. GSB faculty work with the NIH-funded ITREP Program, which integrates the Larner College of Medicine and the UVM Office of Technology Commercialization to offer biomedical entrepreneurship resources.

The University of Vermont's Center for Biomedical Innovation is committed to fostering entrepreneurial resilience and solving real word problems.