The Vascular Visionaries, a team of undergraduate students from Dr. Andrew DiMeo’s senior design class, were honored at an awards ceremony and reception in the fall for their National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying’s Engineering Award for Connecting Professional Practice and Education. As an added bonus, Willy Stewarts, a member of the NCEES board and NC State alum, came from the national office to present this award at the ceremony. Vascular Visionaries is comprised of Jordan Hjelmquist, Shannon Robinson, Colleen McGuire, Daniel Long, and Michael Baporis. They were honored for their development of a novel ointment to aid in placing IVs. The ointment helps paramedics to visualize vasculature by both changing the color of blood and increasing the size of veins suitable for IV placement. This innovative
solution would help EMTs and other medical professionals reduce the failure rate of initial IV placement, currently estimated at 28%. With over one quarter of IVs failing to be established correctly, typically due to lack of visualization of the vasculature, patients are exposed to multiple needle sticks, discomfort, an increased risk of infection, and delays in medical treatment.
BME is proud of these students’ accomplishments and honored to have had Willy Stewarts present the award at the ceremony. The award ceremony and reception were well-attended by current students, faculty, and alums of the program. Congratulations to these students for this well-deserved award!