This fall, nonprofit Education2Success will host an Innovate-A-thon™ focusing on low cost and highly effective, above knee prosthetics and sockets for use in developing nations—a critical need for an estimated 13M + individuals globally. 12-18 university students, representing Boise State University and University of Colorado-Boulder, at will participate in a series of two-week Innovate-A-thon sprints to bring solutions to support the mission of “One Leg At A Time” (www.onelegatatime.net).
Innovate-A-thon is seeking sponsorships ranging from $6,000-$7,500 for each of four Innovate-A-thons, 100% of which will go directly to participating university student scholarships.
Innovate-A-thon is a dynamic model that engages students in actionable innovation to create solutions for society, environment, and economy, preparing them with innovation mindset and develop quality connections to post graduation employment with great companies.
Students from all universities are welcome to participate—IAT’s technology platform enables participation by students and mentors from across all regions!
Kevin Falk, Boise State University Engineering Professor shared: “The Innovate-A-thon is a great opportunity for students, educators and sponsor companies to learn, ideate and generate possible solutions for a needed low-cost prosthetics in developing nations. This is a great approach to have new and upcoming engineers/designers look at a real world problem and to design with empathy. Technologies are improving all the time, and Innovate-A-thon is a unique opportunity for students and developers to incorporate technology to change peoples’ lives and make things better for them”.
About Education2Success and the Innovate-A-thon movement
Ed2S is a 501 C3 nonprofit organization that creates and optimizes collaborations among interested partners, educating, rewarding, and empowering participants to produce innovative solutions that solve real world problems.
The Innovate-A-thon program facilitates joint partnerships with educational institutions, sponsor organizations, and meaningful change agents.
Be a sponsoring partner!
Education2Success is seeking student scholarship sponsors totaling $6,000-$7,500 per Innovate-A-thon for four for the 2024/2025 events. Partial sponsorships are welcome!
100% of sponsor dollars go directly to student scholarships following their participation. Every participating student receives a modest scholarship, a rich innovation experience, and access to potential employers who are seeking forward thinking employees.
Sponsors will join organizations key partners, including One Leg at a Time, 3D Printing Mentality, HP 3D Printing, and Quorum Prosthetics—all of whom provide essential materials, supplies, and innovation mentoring.
Participating universities incur no hard or soft expenses—all operational costs and Innovate-A-thon costs and are covered by Education2Success and Innovate-A-thon partners and philanthropists. Innovation outcomes will be shared on an open innovation basis.
Sponsors benefits include acknowledgement in all related Innovate-A-thon materials and media, access to student innovators, and option to participate in judging innovation outcomes.
Innovate-A-thon focus: Prosthetics for developing regions
Some Innovate-A-thon topics are completed within one, two-week sprint. The 2024/25 Innovate-A-thons will build on advances made through prior sprints and continue to advance innovation for this high need area.
As a recurring Innovate-A-thon (IAT), the prosthetics IAT program uses multiple University student groups as resources to establish creative solutions. The project scope includes three phases; 1) resource needs are identified 2) concept components and kits are developed, and 3)an ongoing resource support system is established for the clinics in need. How can traditional, hybrid, or digital workflows best benefit the patients in developing regions, such as east Africa, where components and resources are limited, but need is high?
Developing countries suffer from lack of resources to aid those with varied medical conditions. Amputation from traumatic sources and other medical conditions is an ever-present problem in regions in Africa, Central, and South America. In 2019, there were 13.23 million new cases of traumatic amputation globally, which is 171.23 amputations per 100,000 people. This number continues to rise.
These medical conditions are most generally treated by mission-based groups that are often severely limited in manpower and resources. A solution is needed to accomplish more with less, including training qualified medical staff, support efforts both in person and through virtual/digital means, and to create accessible ways to supply materials for those medical professionals to implement efficiently at their clinics.
Prosthetics Innovate-A-thon Goals and Timeline
One Leg at a Time Phase 2 will build on research done in Phase 1, where teams examined and assessed the traditional, digital, and hybrid alternatives that are used in the Prosthetics industry today. The use-case focused on a clinic located in Tanzania that only has access to limited resources. Local resource partners, materials, and manufacturing methods were compared and presented during the final Phase 1 session. The outcomes from this research will be shared and will help support the conception of kits for Phase 2 and a movement to TRL (technology readiness level) closer to commercialization.
The highest cost and impact items are the prosthetic socket and knee components. In phase 2, the Innovate-A-thon teams will tackle solutions for these components that are 1)Technical feasibility; 2)Economic sustainability; and 3) Reasonable resource accessibility.
The Innovate-A-thon goal is to develop proofs of concept around these criteria and present them to a panel of industry professionals from prosthetic and product innovation backgrounds.
The most promising outcomes from Innovate-A-thon Phase 2 will be used in Phase 3, where the next cohort of students will help prosthetic clinicians implement these concepts in a long-term, sustainable model alongside key partners.
Please join in supporting this amazing Innovate-A-thon opportunity! For more information about the program or to financially support, just reach out to steven@Ed2S.org. We would love to hear from you!
NOTE: 100% of financial support goes to student scholarships!
Please visit us www.IAT1.org
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