The University of Minnesota’s new state-of-the-art Medical Devices Center, which is expected to facilitate new relationships with government agencies and the Twin Cities’ vibrant medical device industry, opened in June.
Housed in the Shepherd Labs building on the University’s East Bank, the center is part of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, a collaboration of the Institute of Technology and the Medical School.
The Medical Devices Center allows researchers to design and test medical device prototypes and features a computer-aided design and precision-instruments area, high-tech equipment that lets researchers view live surgeries in 3-D, and mechanical and electronics fabrication tools.
Training the next generation of medical device innovators is another of the center’s goals. The University allocated seed money to fund 16 graduate student projects involving students and their advisers from both the Institute of Technology and the Academic Health Center.
