Congratulations to the Vascular Visionaries, a team of undergraduate students from Dr. Andrew DiMeo’s senior design class, on their NCEES Engineering Award for Connecting Professional Practice and Education! The
team was one of five selected for awards in a national competition by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.
NCEES recognized the Vascular Visionaries 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.
Vascular Visionaries is comprised of Jordan Hjelmquist, Shannon Robinson, Colleen McGuire, Daniel Long, and Michael Baporis. Congratulations again to the entire team on this well-deserved recognition and award.
To see all the departments selected for NCEES awards, please see the NCEES winners page, which links to PDFs with detailed information about each of the five winners.