Seminar Series: Introduction to UBORA, a New Platform for the Co-Design of Open Source Medical Devices

Open source design can increase access to medical technologies. When device blueprints have open access, they can potentially reduce the costs of design, management, maintenance and repair. Open Source Medical Devices (OSMDs) are already bringing personalized and rapid responses to global healthcare concerns. They have proven fundamental in a rapid, effective, and safe response to the COVID-19 crisis.

When: November 18, 2020, 12 Noon ET

UBORA is a virtual platform for the co-design of OSMDs. Its structured framework guides developers toward compliance with internationally recognized quality standards and regulations for safety and efficacy. In line with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals, UBORA is promoting and strengthening the initiatives of an international community of designers, healthcare providers and policy-makers as they reduce inequalities in the access to medical devices. In this E4C Seminar, Dr. Carmelo de Maria, Assistant Professor in Bioengineering at the University of Pisa (Italy), will present the UBORA platform and Open Source Medical Devices.

E4C’s Seminar Series features academic laboratories researching solutions to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The world’s cutting edge research deserves a platform with a global audience. Join us for presentations of new findings from investigative teams around the globe each month. And researchers, we welcome your applications to take part in the series. Please send an email to research@engineeringforchange.org.

Presenter

Dr. Carmelo De Maria, PhD in Material Engineering MEng in BME, is Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the Department of Information Engineering,  and affiliated with the Research Center “E. Piaggio” of University of Pisa. He is guest professor in bioengineering at Addis Ababa University, and member of the African Biomedical Engineering Consortium secretariat. His research interests are in the field of additive manufacturing/rapid prototyping technologies, with a particular focus in Biofabrication. He has several papers published in international scientific journals (over 50) and in 2016 he received the 1st award as Young Investigator from the International Society for Biofabrication. De Maria is involved in the technical coordination of the UBORA EU project (GA 731053), Biomembrane (M.ERA-net), and KERAPACK (MANUNET). He is co-founder and president of the FabLab Pisa.

Moderator

Dr. Jesse Austin-Breneman is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2014 from MIT. He also holds a S.M. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a B.S. in Ocean Engineering also from MIT. Previous to his academic career, he worked as a development engineer in Peru, working with rural communities on alternative business opportunities and with local doctors’ groups on medical device development. He also spent two years as a high school mathematics teacher in Boston, MA. He currently is the director of the Global Design Laboratory. The group focuses on developing design processes and support tools to help multi-disciplinary design teams think at a systems-level when performing complex system design tasks. This includes investigating the best way to incorporate system-level interactions between stakeholders in emerging markets into the design decision-making process.