Launchpad Liftoff

Congratulations to Brook T. Smith Launchpad Liftoff 2024 campuswide competition winners!

1st Place: Bloom Speculum

Bloom Speculum, an innovative four-blade extendable vaginal speculum designed to enhance safety, efficiency, and comfort during LEEP. The goal is to create a better speculum to visualize the cervix to improve LEEP procedures and treat cervical precancer. This speculum has two lateral and two vertical blades to hold back vaginal tissue. The sideblades fold down for comfortable insertion. Once the gynecologist examines the patient's sidewalls, these blades can be flipped up and locked into place. These blades are extendable, so they can be adjusted to fit various vaginal cavity lengths. The contoured top blade is modeled to fit patient anatomy and allows for variable expansion sizes. The Bloom Speculum includes all the features necessary for LEEP, including a smoke evacuation tube, and it is made of a nonconductive, sterilizable nylon polymer to prevent electrical current from transferring to the patient. Finally, the Bloom Speculum’s ergonomic handle increases clinician comfort and allows for efficient one-handed operation during the procedure.

Bloom Speculum Team Members

Karen De Guzman, Vaishnavi Kanduri, Elizabeth Dods, Angeline Chen

2nd Place: Filter Fox

Filter Fox is device that sits in your vent, measures differential pressure behind your filter and notifies you when it’s time to replace it. No device on the market does this, this device works on all HVAC systems compatible with all market filters. Some companies make "smart filters" which are filters that tell you when they need to be replaced but they are expensive and only give you data when you're using their specific filters.

Filter Fox Team Member

Henry Putney

3rd Place: NephroGuard

NephroGuard addresses the late diagnosis of acute kidney injury in post-cardiac surgery patients with the hope of reducing hospital costs for the patients and downstream complications associated with kidney injury. Currently, AKI is diagnosed based on drops in serum creatinine. However, this is an imperfect diagnostic method as detectable changes in serum creatinine don't occur for 2-3 days after the onset of injury. Our solution is a novel electrochemical biosensor that fits in line with the catheter to continuously monitor post-cardiac surgery patients for a specific kidney damage biomarker, NGAL, associated with acute kidney injury. This biomarker has been shown to increase 15-fold in the presence of kidney injury, especially in cardiac surgery patients.

NephroGuard Team Members

Nicholas Stiebler, Aaron Spearman, Omar Aguilar, Alex Bowie, Calvin Chernyatinskiy

Congratulations to Spiro's 2023 campuswide competition winners!

1st Place: Better Board

The Better Board addresses problems with the existing backboards used for prehospital transport of patients with suspected spinal injuries, which are inadequate and unsafe for larger patients. Current EMS backboards do not work for the 42% of people that are obese and the 16% of people that are over 6 feet tall. The Better Board is an emergency transport board that expands to accommodate taller patients. The Better Board maximizes space in the ambulance by only expanding when needed. It maximizes functionality by allowing for different configurations of restraints, displaying durability to carry weights up to 650 lbs, and ensuring safety for patients of all sizes.

2nd Place: SeaTree

SeaTree solves the annoyance of sand getting in your bags and belongings at the beach. Currently, beachgoers typically put their bags on the sand and have no place to store personal belongings such as wet towels or clothing. SeaTree is an organization device that is easily inserted into the ground and can hold your belongings elevated over the sand.

3rd Place: Simplify

Simplify helps students with issues taking quality notes and retaining class material adequately. It is a SaaS product that allows users to record lectures, get summaries and access study tools based on the material. Simplify is better than other platforms like Chegg because the information can be tailored to the classes and specific material being learned.

Allen Martin Prize: Girlslovelace
Girlslovelace offers hair loss solutions for those suffering from hair loss. These unique solutions feature glueless capabilities that allow wigs to be worn without glue and fit the specific customer.

Spiro Board Members from left to right: John Hannon, Stan Clifford, Edward Giard, Frank Blake, Allison Conrad, Keith Hudgins. Not pictured: Peter Markham, Woody Bryan, Matt Given, Andy Monin, Greg Smith, Mark Weidick