ISPE hosts Ideathon to bring student projects to life

By Melissa Hernandez

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering student chapter at UC San Diego is dedicated to advancing pharmaceutical manufacturing professionals, and educating interested students about the field and career opportunities. The student organization provides opportunities for members to connect with industry professionals and further develop their skills, and the group found a way to do both simultaneously through their first Ideathon.

Participants at the first ISPE Ideathon

Anahid Foroughishafiei, a bioengineering student and ISPE project team chair, was inspired to develop the Ideathon event after her experience creating a student project team based on research she was conducting in the field of metastasis. Foroughishafiei thought that those types of opportunities should be shared with the broader student community at UC San Diego.

“I was working on a project where I wanted to make a computer model of what I was working on in the lab at Moores Cancer Center, and I thought it would be cool to work on something similar with other students,” Foroughishafiei said. “I didn’t want to be the only student who makes their own projects, so I thought ‘How do we make interdisciplinary projects with other undergraduate students?’ That is how the Ideathon first came to be.”

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering recently held their first Ideathon where students, no matter their field of study, were encouraged to create projects within the pharmaceutical field while taking into account sustainability and socioeconomic factors. 

“We asked students to submit a proposal of a project they wanted to work on, and they could apply as a team or individuals that would be paired together based on preferences on the application,” Foroughishafiei said. “We had judges from different fields of engineering industry, and after the competition, three teams are now being supported and the upcoming board will help pair them with faculty.”

Foroughishafiei and the Ideathon team arranged for three industry judges from Nova Engineering, BD BioSciences and D&K Engineering, to determine the top three teams who will receive funding through the next school year for their projects.

One of the three winning projects was a 
telemedicine booth for patients from
low-resource settings.

Ultimately, the judges selected three winning project proposals: a telemedicine booth for patients from low-resource settings to virtually visit and have a private setting to receive medical care and guidance; a sensor that identifies pollutants in the air to help guide the user’s behavior outside based on air quality; and a wearable device to monitor the user’s health powered by using their body heat.

The organization is actively pairing each finalist team with a faculty member who will serve as a mentor, to begin working on their projects during the upcoming summer and school year. After a successful Ideathon--held virtually on Zoom-- Foroughishafiei hopes to continue this competition next year in person.

“Currently we are working on getting more funding for the team’s projects so that is the focus, but once we get the ball rolling and the projects started we can move forward,” Foroughishafiei said. “ISPE is really all about collaboration. I want the future to hold more opportunities like Ideathon, but to be very interactive and collaborative across campus.”

The Ideathon competition is a prime example of how ISPE provides opportunities for its members to be a part of a project and connect with industry professionals. Not only does the Ideathon do that, but it allows ISPE members to share these opportunities with students from across campus as well.