WSU bioengineering students develop prototype of needle sterilizing device

The prototype of SafeShot, a needle sterilizing device (photo by Shawn Hutchinson)

By Shawn Hutchinson

The device that senior engineering students Emily Willard and Katy Brandenstein made for their senior project has the potential to change medicine in developing nations. Based on numbers from the World Health Organization, this could mean as many as 1.3 million lives could be saved, all because they received medical injections with a sterile needle.

“We knew we wanted to work together, and we knew we wanted to do a social impact project,” Brandenstein said of her partnership with Willard, which created a startup company called Engage.

The device, pictured above, is very simple to produce, and they made their prototype on a 3D printer. Engage named the device SafeShot.

Such a device comes at a time when blood-borne diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C are spreading as a silent epidemic across many developing nations. One of the causes for the spread of these diseases is unsafe injection practices.

“There are 16 billion injections given every year in developing countries, and about seven billion of those are with contaminated needles,” Willard said.

The idea for SafeShot has led Willard and Brandenstein into both health and business challenges. On March 3, they won first prize at the University of Washington’s Health Innovation Challenge. Of the 18 teams involved, Engage was the only team not from UW. Their win earned them 10 thousand dollars. According to reporting by Clare McGrane of GeekWire, the team received more ideas for where they could market SafeShot outside of their intended area of humanitarian medical facilities.

Engage will also be competing Washington State University’s Business Plan Competition in April, where they could receive an additional 15 thousand dollars if they can take first prize again.

There is sometimes a stereotype that women are not as good in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Willard and Brandenstein both said they have faced some challenges in being accepted, but more in entry-level courses than in senior classes that they are in now.

“We have definitely gotten some comments in some of the larger classes, like circuits and physics,” Brandenstein said.

Willard said the classes for bioengineering are smaller, with 20 to 25 students, and that allowed people to get to know each other more and judge each other less.

Brandenstein also said that her sorority is happy to have an engineer in the house, which illustrates that she’s had positive reactions to being in the sciences as well.

Another typically male-dominated field is business, which is what Engage could become if they choose to take it there. Willard said her mother has provided her with inspiration.

“My mom is an executive of a company, and she’s used to being the only female in the room, so she’s definitely helped with that,” Willard said.

Both women mentioned a long-time interest in math and science as another reason they chose to study bioengineering.

“My dad has worked in biotech for over 25 years, and his dad was an engineer,” Brandenstein said. “He told me I should be a bioengineer, and it really stuck with me. We both get a lot of support from our parents.”

As for any criticism based on their gender, the teammates and friends have a simple response.

“We just ignore them,” said Willard.