The award-winning UC Davis student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society has come up with a unique way to give students hand-on experience hacking a solution to a real world problem: Make it a competition and make it fun!

Make-a-thon is a hackathon competition between multiple student teams to learn the design process. Using resources available in the TEAM Design, Prototyping, and Fabrication Facilities, and guidance from faculty and industry professionals, student teams will have 30 hours to design a medical device that solves a challenge presented at the beginning of the event, and produce a working prototype.

On the first day, teams will receive the problem, and spend the day coming up with ideas. Faculty judges will evaluate each design and advance four or five of the most feasible projects to the next phase of the competition. These projects will have full access to the TEAM Design, Prototyping, and Fabrication Facilities to produce working prototypes of their designs. Designs will be tested by the clients who have requested them, and a winner will be chosen. The winning team will receive a trophy.

The event will occur January 17-18, 2015, and take place in the TEAM Design, Prototyping, and Fabrication Facilities, in the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility, at UC Davis. Registration is limited to 100 participants.

For more information, and to register: http://bmes.bme.ucdavis.edumakeathon/