Stevens Institute of Technology’s Innovation Expo Showcases Student Inventions

(Hoboken, N.J – May 5, 2021) – The “Hip Tip” – a surgical planning tool for hip replacement surgery – and “TuLip” – an anatomically correct breastfeeding trainer that teaches proper latching techniques – are just two of the dozens of inventions developed by students at Stevens Institute of Technology for the school’s annual Innovation Expo.  

Stevens’ Innovation Expo, organized by the school’s Office of the Provost, looked a bit different this year in its hybrid virtual and in-person setting, but its mission remains the same: showcase how Stevens’ students leverage scientific research to create technologies that benefit both industry and society.  

Showcasing more than 700 students completing 210 student-led design projects, the expo kicked off with welcoming remarks from Nariman Farvardin, president of Stevens Institute of Technology and David Zeng, vice provost for academic innovation and faculty affairs, both of whom noted that the Innovation Expo is a chance to show the world how Stevens is helping to maintain American competitive advantage technologically.

Although the pandemic forced Stevens to hold the main portion of the expo virtually, the in-person portion represented the first on-campus event in more than a year, providing some members of the Stevens community the opportunity to interact with student teams from the School of Engineering and Science, the School of Systems and Enterprises and the College of Arts and Letters.

“Innovation and entrepreneurship are integral to a Stevens education, and the Innovation Expo is an opportunity for students to showcase the intersection of creativity, ingeneuity, and passion through technology,” said Christophe Pierre, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “This is a proud Stevens tradition and, even during the pandemic, our students proved that innovation not only never stops, but can be fueled by adversity.”  

The Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition, a student pitch competition featuring project teams, continues to be the highlight of the Expo, pitting 12 teams of Stevens’ students who advanced in the final round in a battle for investment funding to support their Senior Design Projects, with prizes totaling $17,500. Prizes for the competition are provided by the Cy and Jan Ansary Foundation, which supports education, entrepreneurship and other philanthropic causes.

This year, a distinguished panel of judges, including chief executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from companies inlcuding Pinterest, Pegasus Partners and Sitetracker, selected this year’s winners, which include:

• First Place: HipTip ($10,000)

  Created by: Faizah Chowdhury and Jake Fiore
  The Hip Tip is a surgical planning tool for hip replacement surgery, created by modifying a 3D dental scanner and building an analysis algorithm to determine femoral offset, which is crucial to a patient’s maintenance of center of rotation of the hip joint and leg length in hip replacement procedures. 

• Second Place: TuLip ($5,000)

  Created by: Bora Bibe, Cyrus Merchant, Hannah Percely and Concetta Specta
  Designed by a team of engineers with experience in breastfeeding, TuLip is for soon-to-be first time moms who are dissatisfied with current breastfeeding trainers. The solution is a flexible, anatomically correct breastfeeding trainer that provides the ability to practice proper latching techniques.

• Third Place: Livelog ($2,500)

  Created by: Izy Engel, Regan Tarasewicz and Hayley Tovey
  To assess concussions objectively, Livelog identifies vision deficiencies through an accessible, laptop-based assessment. Players can complete this examination on their own time while their athletic trainers rely on machine learning to measure functional vision. Livelog records eye movements using a webcam which could easily be missed by a human observer.

For more information about Stevens Innovation Expo, please visit https://www.stevens.edu/research-entrepreneurship/annual-innovation-expo.

 -- Stevens --

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Stevens Institute of Technology is a premier, private research university situated in Hoboken, New Jersey. Since our founding in 1870, technological innovation has been the hallmark of Stevens’ education and research. Within the university’s three schools and one college, 7,300 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate closely with faculty in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment. Academic and research programs spanning business, computing, engineering, the arts and other disciplines actively advance the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront our most pressing global challenges. As Stevens celebrates its 150th anniversary, the university continues to be consistently ranked among the nation’s leaders in career services, post-graduation salaries of alumni, and return on tuition investment.  

Stevens’ media contact: Thania Benios, Director of Public Relations, [email protected], 917-930-5988