Learn, Think, Do

SSB's long-running Launchpad team is at the forefront of Biodesign education. Its goal is to educate the Stanford community about medical device design, and in the process, help to incubate and 'launch' new potential biotech startups out of Stanford. In collaboration with Stanford Medical School and the Byers Center for Biodesign, Launchpad organizes (and then co-teaches!) Stanford's annual Biodesign Fundamentals class, MED 175B/275B for undergrad and grad students. This year, it also aims to expand its work into connecting new projects from the class with funding and support from venture capital.

Students in MED175B/275B are given a project-based interdisciplinary dive into medical device design and prototyping. Student teams develop novel medical devices and healthcare technologies from ideation to physical realization and take part in a weekly seminar series with high-profile speakers in the industry from groups such as IDEO Health and Google X. The course ends with final presentations to local medical device professionals and venture capitalists, and teams can carry forward projects into startups after the conclusion of the quarter. Previous years' projects have included noninvasive monitoring of patient blood count, 3D-printed custom-fit neck braces from patient CT scans, low-cost prosthetics, and more! 

Applications for the course will go out winter quarter

Check out MED 275B: Biodesign Fundamentals!