In 2021 David, Simon and Kwang proudly received the Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence in Educational Programs on behalf of the BioDesign Melbourne Program. The Norman Curry Award is only one of five University-level Teaching Excellence awards and we are really honoured to receive it.

In addition, in late 2020 we were named one of three finalists for the Excellence in Student Engagement Award by Engagement Australia.

Thank you to everyone who helped make BioDesign a success.

BioDesign Awards

This year, two teams received prizes thanks to the Stephen Ho Innovation Awards, while another team won the prize for Best Business Approach awarded by the MBS SEMBA Class of 2003.

The BioDesign 2021 Cohort

The 2021 cohort consists of six teams, working on topics relating to patient monitoring, ultrasound, vision and neonatal care.

Team Vysum

Isaac Ho, David Lin, Aryan Motevali, Darren Tan and Lorace Zhang are the members of Team Vysum. They address glaucoma, an eye disease resulting in vision loss. Team Vysum developed The Occumate, a hardware-software solution transforming the way eye drops are delivered.

The team won one of two prestigious Stephen Ho Innovation Awards to help them commercialise their invention beyond the BioDesign course.

Team Vysum is a finalist in the 2021 Medtech Actuator Origin competition.

Team InCinta

Team InCinta consists of Monisha Gunawardana, Carol Gee, Tom Lee, Hansel Winarta and Tiasha Fernando. They offer accurate remote monitoring of foetal health, which helps expecting couples overcome anxiety and reduce hospital visits.

They won the Peoples’ Choice Award at the 2021 Endeavour Showcase.

Team Vause

Team Vause consists of Michelle Callow, Amanda Druk, Shelby Holland, Mara Quach and Alexandra Wigley. They are using machine learning to improve meningitis diagnosis. This guidance tool makes spinal taps more accurate, ensuring meningitis diagnosis is less error-prone in a tool that is both portable and low-cost.

Team Vause made it into the semi-finals of the Ericsson Innovation Awards 2021 and will be representing Australia in the competition this December.

At the Endeavour showcase, they won the MBS SEMBA Class of 2003 BioDesign Award.

Team Vause is a semi-finalist of the 2021 Medtech Actuator Origin competition.

Team spOsense

Thomas Clarke, Anna Eades, Mitchell Legg, Warne Lewis and Wenn Lynn are team spOsense. They have developed an innovative way to mesaure blood oxygen saturation in children, using a wireless sensor that is both child-friendly and helps clinicians streamline the monitoring process.

At the Endeavour showcase, they won the Telstra Digital Innovation Award.

Team Venosense

Team Venosense consists of Chun Yau Gan, Shanna Lam, Olivia Lang, Song Li and Michelle Waugh.

Their team is making great strides in transforming peripheral intravenenous visualisation, through the use of a 3d imaging system that will help improve the accuracy of cannulation procedures. Cannulation is one of the most widely performed invasive procedures in medicine, and their invention has the potential to make a significant difference to the patient experience and quality of healthcare.

Team Anura

Anura consists of Jessica Anderson, Rebecca McCormick, Phoebe Lewis, William Symington and Ela Venugopal. Their invention, CAHM, aims at keeping respiratory patients out of hospital through at-home monitoring of lung function.

At the Endeavour 2021 Showcase, they won an impressive number of awards:

• The QinetiQ Endeavour Award,
• The Endeavour Research Innovation and Commercialisation Prize,
• Telstra Customer and Community Impact Award,
• Telstra Excellence in Learning and Application Award,
• One of two Stephen Ho Innovation Awards with significant funding to help them commercialise their project idea.

Anura is a semi-finalist of the 2021 Medtech Actuator Origin competition.