Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. Prognoses are often tragic and social costs exceed $2 million (U.S. and EU) in the first five years of care. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. Dr. Yohannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field,...

Patients are more likely to adhere to their treatment plans when drug-delivery devices are user-friendly. So, what can device developers do to ensure safety but also provide a positive user experience? Using human factors engineering, developers can design features to prevent errors and contribute to the successful use of the device. On this episode of Here's an Idea™, talking Jeff Morang, Director of Human Factors Engineering at BlackHägen Design, explains what designers need to know about...

Advances in integrated microelectronics have enabled a revolution in ever smaller and more powerful medical sensors. One such use is for detecting pressure in the eye. InjectSense has invented an implantable sensor that detects direct dynamic pressure in the eye and transmits high-fidelity data from inside the eye of a patient to their physician.   On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Ariel Cao, founder and CEO of InjectSense and Dave Fromm, chief operating officer and vice president of...

On Nov. 2nd, the Department of Defense (DoD) published its 2023 Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy, outlining how the agency will acquire and deploy AI-enabled systems in the future. David Mazar, Vice President of Strategy and Growth, Spark Cognition Government Systems is the guest on this episode of Here’s an Idea. Ahead of his participation as a panelist and speaker at the 2023 Dubai Air Show, he explains how his company’s AI-enabled digital maintenance tool is...

Treatments for neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, dystonia, and other related neurological disorders often include invasive surgery to implant electrodes in specific brain regions to help control motor symptoms. But what if there were technologies that offered minimally invasive options while improving patient outcomes and reducing costs? On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Dave Rosa, CEO of NeuroOne, discusses a system that has the potential for transformative...

Ahead of his participation in the 2023 Global MilSatCom conference and exhibition, Dr. Brendan Mulvaney joins the podcast to discuss China’s latest military space and satellite technology related developments. Dr. Mulvaney is the Director of the China Aerospace Studies Institute at National Defense University. He also served several tours in California, Iraq, Japan, and the Western Pacific. He served as the first Director of the Commandant’s Red Team, and supervised the implementation of...

The Gripen E is the latest variant of Saab's fighter jet that first achieved certification for military use and entry into service in December 2022. The Swedish aerospace manufacturer recently awarded a new design and development contract for a 24 volt lithium-ion battery to be developed by EaglePicher, a St. Louis, Missouri-based supplier of mission critical systems. Frank Puglia, EaglePicher's Director of Research and Development is the guest on this episode of Here's an Idea to explain...

The medical device industry landscape is becoming increasingly complex with an evolving regulatory environment. The focus is now data-centric systems vs. equipment-centric, creating a fundamentally different business model. What does this new normal look like and how can medical device and life sciences businesses best address it? On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Matt Eisendrath, president of Full Spectrum, discusses how the medtech companies can adapt to change and stay at the...

Rapid and effective control of bleeding can be the difference between life and death in surgery, on the battlefield, and in emergency situations. Excessive bleeding can lead to a rapid drop in blood volume, causing hypovolemic shock, which can be fatal if not addressed promptly. By stopping bleeding quickly, medical personnel can prevent shock and increase the chances of survival.   On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Joe Landolina, CEO and co-founder of Cresilon, discusses a plant-based...

A California-based startup named Kraus Hamdani Aerospace has emerged as a unique entrant into the market for new commercial and military drone technologies with its K1000ULE fully electric autonomous unmanned aircraft system. The solar-powered glider has demonstrated its ability to fly non-stop for 26 hours, longer than any electric unmanned aircraft in its category

On this episode of Here's an Idea™, James F. Jordan, Healthcare & Life Sciences Expert, President of StraTactic, and the National Co-Chairman of the BIO Bootcamp, discusses where AI can have the greatest impact in medical technology and what medical device developers should consider as they integrate AI.

Efficient inventory management is crucial for manufacturing companies to maintain smooth operations. Pittsburgh-based Gather AI is using drones to automate inventory monitoring processes for warehouse operators to decrease the cost of inventory, improve productivity, and boost revenue. Sankalp Arora, CEO and Co-Founder of Gather AI, discusses how the idea of using drones to find and fix inventory errors in warehouses originated as well as the design challenges the team faced while developing...

Clinicians today are hampered by insufficient and delayed lab diagnostics. Nutromics has created a breakthrough technology that combines multiple DNA sensors with microneedles. The diagnostic platform does everything a blood test does and more: it is a lab-on-a-patch. On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Peter Vranes, CEO and Co-Founder of Nutromics, discusses how the patch will track multiple, crucial targets continuously and in real-time, giving clinicians critical, personalized insights.

Natilus was first established a startup in San Diego, California in 2016 with the goal of developing a blended wing body (BWB) autonomous air cargo carrying aircraft. In April, the startup completed the first flight of the sub scale prototype of its Kona aircraft. On this episode of Here's an Idea, Natilus CEO Aleksey Matyushev discusses their vision for enabling autonomous air cargo operations with a blended wing body aircraft. Early in his career, Matyushev was the Lead Aerodynamicist at...

Biotricity is connecting cardiologists to real-time patient data while empowering patients to help prevent and manage various heart diseases — which is the leading cause of death in the United States. On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Waqaas Al-Siddiq, CEO and Founder of Biotricity, discuss how the company is bridging the gap in remote monitoring and chronic care management with innovative, remote biometric monitoring solutions. One such device, Bioheart, continuously records ECG...

University of Arizona engineers have developed a new system that allows autonomous vehicles to scout out underground habitats for astronauts. On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Wolfgang Fink, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer engineering at UArizona, discusses how the approach could help address one of NASA’s Space Technology Grand Challenges by helping overcome the limited ability of current technology to safely traverse environments on comets, asteroids, moons, and planetary...

Amprius Technologies has achieved a new battery energy density breakthrough of 500 Wh/kg with its lithium-ion cell, the Silicon Anode Platform. Mobile Power Solutions, an independent testing house offering battery regulatory compliance and performance testing, verified the Silicon Anode Platform's energy density performance. The results indicate that this cell model provides >504 Wh/kg and >1321 Wh/l at 25°C. Check out the recent announcement from Amprius here and the results of the...

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transitioning from future-facing buzzwords to a near term possibility for commercial and military aircraft avionics systems.  In February, Intel published a jointly written white paper with Daedalean, a Switzerland-based startup and developer of artificial intelligence and machine learning software for avionics systems. The white paper proposes a reference architecture for addressing future certifiable machine-learned avionics systems...

Effective lubrication is essential to any mechanical system. For example, it is responsible for providing a continuous flow of oil to the engine of the aircraft. As aircrafts have evolved, so have lubrication systems. Now, a Florida-based startup Zulu Pods, has developed the ZPod, a self-contained, sealed, oil tank and pump that can be installed into existing low-cost expendable jet engines. The ZPod is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and is produced with 3D printing. Daniella...

Fabrics haven’t changed all that much. For years, a shirt has quite simply been a shirt. But a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wants to add function to the fibers. What if your shirt, for example, contained electronics that could track your heartbeat or the heartbeat of your unborn child? A team from MIT and the Rhode Island School of Design created a fabric microphone, quite literally turning your clothing into a detector of sound. And the integration of electronics is...

Pharma industries, transportation services, the energy sector, and mining companies are looking for a new place to do business, and it’s more than 200,000 miles from Earth. The private sector is heading to the Moon – a world of potential resources like metal, water, and solar power, according to our guest on this week’s Here’s an Idea: Blair DeWitt, CEO and Co-founder of the Massachusetts-based Lunar Station Corporation. “When you look at how private enterprise globally is starting to see...

For some people, a critical link – the one sending signals from brain to body, the one connecting thought to action – does not work properly, or in some cases, has been severed entirely. Marcus Gerhardt, CEO and co-founder of the Salt Lake City, UT-based company Blackrock Neurotech, is creating a technology called a brain-computer interface. The tiny implant aims at restoring the connection between mind and motion. On this episode of Here’s an Idea, Gerhardt explains how a millimeter-sized...

Over 145 million electric vehicles are set to take the road by 2030 and a major component of the new class of electric vehicles – lithium-ion batteries – is rarely recycled.  Canadian battery recycling company Li-Cycle is aiming to change that through its sustainable process to provide an end-of-life solution for lithium-ion batteries, while creating a secondary supply of critical battery materials. On this episode of Here's an Idea™, Kunal Phalpher, Chief Strategy Officer at Li-Cycle,...

Luge is one of the three sliding sports on the program at the 2022 Winter Olympics being held in Beijing this month. The sport requires athletes to barrel down an ice track on small sleds accelerating to speeds of nearly 90 mph. Traditionally, lugers design and build their own sleds, often through trial and error. Now, Clarkson Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Professors Doug Bohl and Brian Helenbrook, in collaboration with Colby Mazzuca of Aeroworks, are using advanced computational...