UT BMES Hosts 2026 National Medical Device Make-A-Thon 

More than 150 undergraduates from across the country came to the Forty Acres to participate in this year’s National Medical Device Make-a-thon.

This past March, The University of Texas at Austin Biomedical Engineering Society student chapter hosted the 2026 National Medical Device Makeathon (MDM). The annual student-led event brought together more than 150 undergraduate students from across the country for a 48-hour competition.

They were tasked with conceptualizing, designing and pitching a prototype of a medical device to address a problem within the neonatal/NICU field. MDM co-directors and UT BME students Amrita Amrora and Aethyr Villela likened the event to a hyper-speed version of BME’s senior design course. 

“We like to call it a ‘capstone in a weekend’,” Amrora said, noting that MDM is unique in the fact that it is open to all undergraduate students, regardless of level or major, providing opportunity for early exposure to mentorship, collaboration and skill-sharing.  

Participants received advice from innovation experts throughout the weekend and  real-time feedback on their devices, similar to the experience of fourth-year capstone students. The winning teams received prize money and further mentorship from Austin Technology Incubator and Dell Medical School’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, supported the event, creating a pipeline for students into the local technology ecosystem.  

Hosting this year’s event was a full-circle moment for Amrora, a fourth-year BME student who has participated in the competition since her first year at UT. 

Following her second Make-a-Thon, Amrora began a training program for the event through B-SEED, an NSF Broadening Participation seed grant. The funding allowed her to cover student attendance fees for future Make-a-thons and lay the groundwork for a successful proposal to host the competition in Austin.

Her co-director, Villela, is one of many students who was impacted by the grant. 

“As a first-generation engineering student, I always felt very behind in comparison to my peers in terms of my experience. Being able to compete in MDM through the Biomedical Engineering Society’s B-SEED program dramatically and positively impacted my career trajectory, while also reinforcing my confidence as an engineer, student and person,” Vilella said.  

Together, the pair led record-breaking fundraising efforts to host the event, providing more students with opportunities to grow their design skills and receive mentorship in the clinical biodesign field.  

These efforts, in culmination with the entire chapter’s demonstration of exceptional growth and impact as a student organization last year, resulted in UT BMES being selected as the 2026 BMES Outstanding Achievement Student Chapter, the highest honor awarded to a Biomedical Engineering Society student chapter. The group will be recognized at the annual BMES meeting this fall.