Advancing Medical Innovation: The Innovation Fellows Program for Training Early-Career Engineers and Scientists Advancing Novel Technologies
- Conference
- Location
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Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2025
- Start Date
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June 22, 2025
- End Date
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August 15, 2025
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP)
- Page Count
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10
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/57579
Paper Authors
Erika Swift The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Erika Swift is a Professor of Practice and Center for Medical Innovation Director at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. Before joining Penn State University in 2015, she worked in various industry sectors, including medical devices, dental equipment, and consumer goods. She has over 25 years of experience in regional economic development, technology commercialization, new business development, entrepreneurial coaching, and startups. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing with a Concentration in International Business from Bloomsburg University, an MBA from York College of Pennsylvania, and an MHA from Penn State University.
Anne K DeChant Penn State University Hershey College of Medicine
Anne DeChant is the Associate Director for the Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) at Penn State University Hershey College of Medicine. Ms DeChant leads education and training programs for CMI, providing specialized programming for healthcare innovation and commercialization. Ms DeChant also manages a portfolio of therapeutics and diagnostic technologies, and provides expertise and support for translational research development, strategic planning, and implementation of major projects. Ms DeChant is a dynamic leader with 20+ years of experience in higher education, and earned her MBA at Case Western Reserve University, her MS in Cell Biology at Cleveland State University, and her BS at Ohio State University.
Alyson Grace Eggleston
Pennsylvania State University
orcid.org/0009-0007-1163-7444
Dr. Eggleston is an Associate Research Professor with Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and Director of Evaluation for the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute. A graduate of Purdue University, she earned a PhD in Language Science with a focus on language effects in spatial cognition, large language datasets, and conducted community-driven research with indigenous communities in Nicaragua. As a social scientist, she was tenured faculty at The Citadel – Military College of South Carolina and served for 8 years in advisory accreditation and evaluation roles at the pleasure of the Provost. Her research and teaching background focus on program assessment, STEM technical communication, industry-informed curricula, and educational outcomes for Veteran and active duty students.
Robert J. Rabb P.E. Pennsylvania State University
Robert Rabb is the associate dean for education in the College of Engineering at Penn State. He previously served as a professor and the Mechanical Engineering Department Chair at The Citadel. He previously taught mechanical engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United Military Academy and his M.S. and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching interests are in mechatronics, regenerative power, and multidisciplinary engineering.
Mark Daniel Pacey Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
The Center for Medical Innovation - Innovation Fellows Program is designed to support early-career engineers and scientists with supplemental training to advance translational research and novel medical and life science technologies to address real-world needs. This year-long, non-clinical program offers sequential education on key market readiness topics to increase the fellow’s understanding of their translational research or technology’s commercialization potential. These topics include intellectual property, customer segmentation, market analysis, market adoption, regulatory pathways, reimbursement strategies, commercialization funding mechanisms, and manufacturability. A critical element of the Innovation Fellows (IF) Program is pairing fellows with three mentors: an experienced SME, an innovation-focused academic liaison, and an industry-embedded mentor, resulting in a tri-directional mentoring pathway. Mentors provide technology- and industry-specific guidance to accelerate technology and business development, building the fellow’s entrepreneurial acumen. Through structured training, customer discovery requirements, flipped classroom presentations, and industry mentorship, participants gain the necessary skills to navigate the complex commercialization landscape. Several goals of the programs include the Innovation Fellows' ability to improve their networking and customer discovery interviewing skills, including developing market-focused hypotheses and formulating interview questions; assessing and improving their capability to collaborate across research areas and professions; and assessing their level of interest in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. Initial outcomes from the program show increased market readiness of participant technologies and expanded network with industry stakeholders.
Swift, E., & DeChant, A. K., & Eggleston, A. G., & Rabb, R. J., & Pacey, M. D. (2025, June), Advancing Medical Innovation: The Innovation Fellows Program for Training Early-Career Engineers and Scientists Advancing Novel Technologies Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/57579
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