Congratulations to Team Tech who won second place at the Society for Women Engineers (SWE) Conference, the world’s largest conference for women in engineering and technology. The winning project is entitled, “Spinal Fusion Interbody Spacer.”

Cassandra Frisch, BME senior, was part of the interdisciplinary team of nine Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering students who entered the competition for the first time this year. The team worked with BME industry partner RTI Surgical to design an innovative spinal interbody spacer for fusion surgery. Since Frisch has the best knowledge of biomedical devices, she took the initiative to prepare over the summer and present the project at the conference.

Judging was based on team reports, advisor evaluations and oral presentations.

Teams were evaluated in the following five areas:
•    Ability of the team to work together
•    Use of engineering process
•    Product
•    The quality of the results
•    The ability of the team to work with industry

Danelle Amsellem, BME junior, will lead the team next year for the 2018 SWE Conference.