Collaborating with biomedical devices community

Bjorn Millang, CEO of Swedish company Avancee, demonstrates the SEM™ Glove, developed as both a strengthening aid and for rehabilitation purposes. The device is designed to help people with weakened grips gain new strength in their hands

Irvine, February 10, 2015  —

Launching Calit2's first International Symposium on Technology for Biomedical Devices

Innovators, entrepreneurs, members of academia, and industry professionals interested in bringing new technology to the medical device market met at Calit2 Monday for the International Symposium on Technology for Biomedical Devices.

“Our innovation ecosystem here is to focus on university research. Upon successful demonstration of university research,  development and deployment, we collaborate with industry, and this is what the event is for,” Calit2 Irvine Director G.P. Li said. The symposium is a way to bring medical device companies and UCI faculty together, he explained.

The event began with experts from around the globe discussing regulatory issues for medical products, aspects regarding transferring technology from the university to the private sector and updates for intellectual property protection in the life sciences.

Calit2 Irvine Director, G.P. Li (white shirt) with Japanese attendees at the International Symposium on Technology in Medical Devices held Feb. 9 at UCI.

(Left) Michelle Khine, UCI associate professor of biomedical engineering and CSO of TinyKicks, makes her 8-minute presentation on TinyKicks, a wireless flexible health-monitoring smart sensor that captures fetal movement. (Right) Brett Noblitt, senior partner at Noblitt & Rueland, discusses regulatory issues for medical products at Calit2 International Symposium on Technology for Medical Devices

 
Ryan Smith, UCI staff researcher, offers information to symposium attendees about medical device prototypes developed at Calit2’s eHealth Collaboratory

A fast-paced program for tech startups followed. Invited UCI faculty members and companies from Japan, Sweden and the U.S. were limited to mere 8-minute presentations to showcase their most advanced technology and devices.

At the end of the day, attendees had the opportunity to spend more time with presenters and UCI faculty at a reception in the Calit2 atrium.
“Through the collaboration we can team up, to really bring the innovation to the market. We are here to really promote the collaboration and partnership. By working together we will be able to make a difference,” Li said.

Calit2 plans to make the International Symposium an annual event, held each February – the day before the start of the Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center. MD&M describes its trade show as delivering “key decision makers in general corporate management, research and development, and design engineering whose primary interests include manufacturing and production machinery, contract R&D, and medical grade materials.”