Faculty startup sponsors at Design Day Open House 2025
(From left) Biosystems engineering seniors Kaden Thomas and Petrea Houska with mining engineering senior Michael Bass meet 111 sponsors representing 38 companies at the 2025 Craig M. Berge Design Day Open House.
The Craig M. Berge Design Day Open House is an opportunity for College of Engineering seniors to match with sponsors and subjects that will inform their capstone project. But sometimes those sponsors and research projects stem from their very own campus.
One first-time sponsor is looking to get FDA approval and commercialize its design. Startup Senphonix is advancing a wearable sleeve sensor that monitors heart rate, respiration and temperature. The company launched with a wearable health device licensed from Philipp Gutruf, associate department head and associate professor of BME.
By working with companies, students get first-hand experience testing devices and examining the full pipeline of product development.
“This project is important right now because these measurements are done manually,” said Mike Haldane, cofounder and CEO of Senphonix. “It takes about 20 percent of a nurse’s time to do that, so it will be a huge time saver and especially important because of the current nursing shortage across the country.”