This morning, Hardware Park—Birmingham’s hub for physical product development—has announced the launch of the “MedTech Device Experience”, a cutting-edge master class for medical device prototyping. The program officially began on July 10th and is designed to shape the future generation of medical device designers and engineers.

Meet new MedTech Design Experience

Around the turn of the 20th century, Birmingham rapidly grew into the thriving industrial city. The growth was fueled by the city’s iron industry, made possible by the fact that Jones Valley is one of the few places in the world to have all three ingredients needed to make iron and steel: coal, limestone and iron ore.

Now, thanks to three new “ingredients”—Birmingham’s strength in medical care, the city’s burgeoning tech scene and Hardware Park’s proven ability to design and engineer state-of-the-art medical devices—The Magic City is uniquely positioned to become a national destination for medical device manufacturing.

In order to establish Birmingham’s presence in the national medical device creation landscape, Hardware Park’s new MedTech Design Experience is designed to shape the future generations of medical device designers and engineers.

“Our goal has been to create the introductory experience into design and engineering that we wish we had had when we were in high school! While this program has been carefully tailored for a 2 week student experience, it builds off the same best practice models we use here at Hardware Park for our medical device clients.”
Lloyd Cooper, Principal of Push Design

Over the two-week experience, students from a mix of Birmingham metro high schools will participate in intensive morning and afternoon sessions, helping them gain hands-on experience in medical device design and prototyping. Eight students have been selected to participate in the initial run of the program, each of whom have a deep interest in engineering and come highly recommended by their school’s faculty:

Jeremy Harper (Ramsay)
Enoch Booher (Vestavia)
Brooks Denson (Homewood)
Caren Smith (Woodlawn)
Joseph Drake (Carver)
Matthew Eligwe (Hoover)
Molly Elmore (Vestavia)
Isaiah Williams-Scott (Restoration Academy)

The MedTech Design Experience will be led by:

Lloyd Cooper, Principal at PUSH Product Design and a veteran design leader with a strong track record in crafting cutting-edge medical devices. Cooper has worked with medical professionals to create groundbreaking medical innovations, such as Rampart—a radiation shielding device that garnered worldwide acclaim with a Core77 Commercial Equipment Design Award nomination.
Mark Conner, Executive Director at Hardware Park and an experienced educator with a mechanical engineering background. Previously, Conner created a comprehensive four-year engineering curriculum for The Engineering Academy at Hoover High School and leveraged e-learning technologies to extend this learning opportunity to students across the nation.

“It’s exciting to be working with students again as they develop their own medical device ideas under the guidance of a team of award-winning designers and engineers. Birmingham is already recognized for exceptional medical care and research, and the expertise and experience of this team uniquely positions Hardware Park to make Birmingham a home for world class medical devices.”
Mark Connor, Executive Director, Hardware Park

About Hardware Park

Hardware Park: Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn
Address: 811 5th Ave N, Birmingham, AL 35203

The MedTech Device Experience will be held at Hardware Park—a hub for engineering, innovation, product development, and manufacturing on a campus in downtown Birmingham. Hardware Park’s two-block campus provides a wide array of resources for its tenants, including tools, equipment, workshops and much more.

Learn more about Hardware Park.

Excited to see the new MedTech Device Experience kick off at Hardware Park? Tag us @bhamnow to let us know your thoughts!