Thursday evening, the Biomedical Engineering Capstone Design course (ENGN 0930L/1930L: Biomedical Engineering Design and Innovation) paired up with Design + Health, a collaboration between Brown Alpert Medical School and RISD students, in the first annual Design + Health speed dating event. Groups from each course gathered in the RISD Apparel Building at 189 Canal Street and were paired up to discuss their projects focused on improving healthcare. They were able to share the motivation behind their design projects, as well as pitch their current design ideas and prototypes and receive feedback to help them progress. Mentors from engineering, design, medical, and entrepreneurial backgrounds also offered their time and expertise to the students including Kathleen Bellicchi (Hope & Main), Barrett Bready (Nabsys), Michael Kofron (Bay Computer Associates), Johnny Luo (Doctor's Choice), Rosa (Hyo Jin) Park (RISD ID), Ravi D'Cruz (Women & Infants), Jay Baruch (Alpert Medical School), Kathleen Grevers (RISD Apparel), and Celinda Kofron (Brown BME).

Both courses form groups of 3-5 students and select a clinical advisor in the Providence area to team up with and identify a problem in medicine. These semester-long courses have students work closely with clinicians to identify client and clinical needs and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to present a prototype in December. Projects are focused on improving the workflow of the medical system, designing to improvements to current devices, and creating new devices that can improve healthcare.