From operating room to innovation sprint: Convergence Neuroscience and da Vinci Center drive collaboration with design jam
On April 16, the VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation, in collaboration with VCU Convergence Neuroscience and VCU TechTransfer, hosted the inaugural Neuroscience Design Jam. The two-hour event challenged interdisciplinary teams to translate real-world clinical problems into early-stage medical device concepts with clear pathways for prototyping and commercialization.
Neurosurgery faculty presented clinical challenges while teams worked through a rapid design thinking process, defining problems, generating ideas and pitching early concepts. The concepts selected are eligible for further development through VCU TechTransfer, offering participants a direct pathway to protect intellectual property and explore commercialization.
“This is about creating a bridge between discovery and impact,” said Lloyd Young, executive director of the da Vinci Center. “We’re bringing students into the earliest stages of innovation, working alongside clinicians, understanding real problems and learning how ideas can move beyond the classroom into prototypes, patents and, ultimately, the market.”
The Neuroscience Design Jam is part of VCU’s broader Convergence initiative, which brings together disciplines to tackle complex, real-world problems. “Neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disorders don’t live in a single discipline and neither should the solutions,” said Provost Arturo Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D. “This collaboration reflects what VCU Convergence is all about: connecting expertise across medicine, engineering, business and design to accelerate discovery and amplify impact.”
“Every day in the operating room, we encounter challenges that could be solved with new tools or technologies,” said David D. Limbrick Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neurosurgery chair and leader of VCU Convergence Neuroscience. “What’s exciting about this Design Jam is the opportunity to bring fresh perspectives into those challenges.”
Following the event, promising concepts will continue development through a Vertically Integrated Project team, where interdisciplinary student teams work alongside faculty and clinicians to advance prototypes, business models and clinical applications.
“This is just the beginning,” Young said. “We’re building a model where students, faculty and partners can collaborate across disciplines to solve real problems, and where those solutions don’t stop at ideas, but continue all the way to impact.”
Categories VCU Convergence