For Immediate Release
Carle Illinois College of Medicine Health Make-a-Thon to award $10,000 in idea support to 10 area innovators April 13
Champaign, Ill. – An initiative of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the Health Make-a-Thon is a countywide health innovation competition that aims to help Champaign County residents bring their ideas for improving human health to life through the Health Maker Lab—a network of maker labs, design spaces, and fabrication facilities across the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. Out of 140 idea submissions from people ages 8-86, 20 finalists have been selected to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges and a live audience. Ten will win $10,000 in Health Maker Lab resources to create a prototype of their idea.
On Saturday, April 13, 2019, at 6 p.m., at Beckman Institute Auditorium, the public is invited to attend a “dolphin tank” style event and participate in the selection of 10 winners. Judges and the live audience will hear two-minute pitches from each of the 20 finalists and will vote for the 10 best ideas. Attendees are invited to a post-event reception to meet the Health Make-a-Thon participants and the people behind the Health Maker Lab.
In March, the engineering-based college of medicine kicked off the Health Make-a-Thon by issuing a call to Champaign County residents to submit their ideas for improving human health. Submitters were asked to answer three questions: 1. What is the health-related problem you are trying to solve? 2. How do you propose to solve it? 3. How will your solution improve the well-being of society? The college received 140 idea submissions from individuals and teams ranging from Carle physicians to Illinois students to stay-at-home parents to elementary school classes. Twenty finalists were selected after review by judges from the university, Carle and industry. The 20 finalists receive mentor support from experts involved in the Health Maker Lab to prepare for the upcoming pitch event.
“Please join us as together we take this very exciting first step toward the global democratization of health innovation. We want to involve as many people from the community as possible to help us choose 10 future health innovators,” said Marty Burke, associate dean for research at Carle Illinois.
Information about the event can be found at: https://healthmakerlab.medicine.illinois.edu/health-make-a-thon-event/
The Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the first college of medicine in the nation specifically designed at the intersection of engineering and medicine. A partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health System, the college integrates the university’s unparalleled assets in engineering, technology and supercomputing with Carle’s nationally recognized, comprehensive health care system.
