Staffing shortages have cost hospitals $24 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the healthcare industry facing a projected 3.2 million worker deficit by 2026. Operating rooms require a full surgical team, and personnel shortages have led to increased delays and cancellations, compromising patient outcomes. These shortages also contribute to clinician burnout, decreased efficiency, and financial strain on hospitals. For patients, especially in under-resourced areas, delays mean longer wait times, worsened prognoses for time-sensitive conditions, and limited access to quality care. For clinicians, fewer surgeries performed translate to reduced revenue and fewer patients served. Addressing this gap is critical to prevent overworking remaining staff, ensure timely care, and support sustainable operations. The Advanced Surgical Tool Retrieval Arm (ASTRA) robot offers a timely solution by optimizing intraoperative workflows and managing surgical instrumentation. ASTRA reduces the need for human hands in repetitive tasks, enabling surgeries to proceed without unnecessary delays and improving overall outcomes.

In collaboration with the Maryland Zoo, we have developed a tracking device capable of monitoring the amount of animal interaction with enrichment devices. Our Arduino Nano, clock module, and SD Card reader allow for our tracking device to monitor the amount of time animals spend interacting with their enrichment devices per hour. Our TailTagger tracker’s electronics are placed inside a 3D printed encasing and attach to any hanging or ball enrichment device. After our Tailtagger is taken out of the exhibit, the SD Card is removed and its contents are uploaded to our interactive Enrichment Tracker app where zookeepers can visualize the amount of animal interaction per hour for each enrichment device. Our TailTagger tracking device is water resistant, animal-safe, and durable – it offers a solution for zookeepers to accurately detect when an enrichment device is being used, which will allow for an enriched animal quality of life.

BlueHealer is developing a breakthrough implant to prevent major amputations in patients with advanced Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), a chronic condition affecting over 12M Americans. Each year, 150,000 patients lose a limb due to the failure of current revascularization procedures, creating a cycle of repeated interventions, artery damage, and inevitable amputation. BlueHealer offers a new solution: an orthopedic implant that harnesses the body’s natural healing response to grow new blood vessels, restore blood flow, heal chronic wounds, and ultimately save limbs. Our device provides a last-resort limb salvage option for late-stage PAD patients, potentially saving hospital systems up to $38.5 billion while preserving patient mobility and independence.

In high-intensity combat zones, military medics face immense challenges in documenting and transmitting critical patient data. The Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) card, currently used by the US military and NATO, is essential for recording injuries and treatments in the field. However, its paper-based format is prone to loss, damage, and delays in data transmission, leading to inefficiencies in medical response and treatment continuity.

Through interviews with US military personnel, we learned that 8 times out of 10, the TCCC card gets lost during evacuation, resulting in critical medical data not reaching the hospital in time. Our solution digitizes this process to enhance speed, accuracy, and integration with modern medical infrastructure

Our solution is a ruggedized military iPad application that digitizes the TCCC card through AI-powered image recognition and voice-to-text processing eliminating the inefficiencies of paper-based documentation.