Pitt Team Attends Showcase of Nation's Top Student Inventors

PITTSBURGH— At the ninth-annual March Madness for the Mind, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, Calif., will spotlight exciting new work by a team of student inventors from the University of Pittsburgh and 13 other teams from across the country.

From 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 19, Pitt's Blink Right E-Team's invention, which employs silicon chips and radio frequency technology to facilitate blinking with both eyes in people with Bell's palsy (facial paralysis thought to be caused by virally induced swelling of the seventh optical nerve) and other facial nerve damage, will be on display at the Fleet Center. Team members will be available to discuss their product with the public.

"People with damage to the seventh optic nerve typically lose the ability to blink with one of their eyes," noted Marlin H. Mickle, the Nicholas A. DeCecco Professor in Pitt's Department of Electrical Engineering and a faculty advisor to the team. "If you can't blink an eye, that eye is likely to go blind simply because it can't protect itself against dust and other irritants in the air."

The Blink Right invention involves implanting a tiny silicon chip in the lid of the good eye that can detect nerve function or muscle movement whenever that eye blinks. In response, it transmits a radio signal to another chip in the lid of the bad eye, telling it to blink as well. The signal is transmitted via two other chips embedded in the frame of a pair of eyeglasses. The project was developed at Pitt's John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation, of which Mickle is executive director.

Members of the Pitt team are Steven Hackworth (BSEE '04), who is pursuing the Master of Electrical Engineering degree at Pitt; Doreen Jacob (MSME '04); and Abhiram Bhashyam, a junior at Bethel Park High School who has been working with the team since last summer. In addition to Mickle, faculty advisors to the team include Michael Lovell, Pitt associate professor of industrial and mechanical engineering who is also the School of Engineering's associate dean for research, and Susan Tonya Stefko, assistant professor in the Pitt medical school's Department of Ophthalmology.

Development of this project was supported by a grant from the NCIIA, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in higher education.

"These exceptional teams of young innovators represent the future of technology innovation," said Phil Weilerstein, executive director of the NCIIA. "They're taking exciting ideas from lab to market as part of their education—they are benefiting from a new orientation in higher education that gives students the opportunity to be successful innovators in today's dynamic, collaborative workplace."

March Madness for the Mind is presented in conjunction with the NCIIA's Ninth-Annual Meeting, "Dynamic Learning: Changing Models for Changing Times," which will bring engineering, science, and business faculty together in San Diego for three days of papers, panels, workshops, plenaries, and networking opportunities.

Pitt's John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation gives industry and entrepreneurs access to the University's state-of-the-art product development technology through the consulting services of its talented students, world-class faculty, and dedicated technical staff members. While students receive hands-on experience that spans all phases of product development, clients connect with a high-quality, one-stop job shop that provides efficient turnaround for product design, rapid prototyping and reverse engineering, plastic and injection molding applications, microelectromechanical systems fabrication, and business development and marketing. Through its dedication to education and industry, the Swanson Center for Product Innovation strives to be a vital force in the re-engineering and revitalization of the Pittsburgh region.

The NCIIA is an initiative of the Lemelson Foundation, a private philanthropy established by one of the country's most prolific inventors, Jerome Lemelson (1923-1997), and his family, supporting faculty and students who believe that invention and innovation are critical to American higher education. The NCIIA provides grant support to colleges around the country for the creation of E-Team courses, projects, networking opportunities, and resources for faculty and student innovators. The NCIIA funds E-Teams whose work is likely to result in the licensing of new products or technologies, or the start up of entrepreneurial ventures. There are currently 175 colleges and universities with membership in the NCIIA. For more information about the NCIIA meeting, call Bette Abrams-Esche at 413-587-2172 or visit www.nciia.org.

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