A virtual innovation bootcamp to remotely connect and empower students to solve COVID-19-related medical problems

Funding

An educational orientation guide describing the overall goals, with details about program milestones, served as the backbone of this learning experience (Supplementary Note, Appendix ). In partnership with the Entrepreneurship for Biomedicine program funded by the US National Institutes of Health, instructional videos were curated to explain innovation and entrepreneurship concepts to support students without a background in the field. Additional lectures from experts in healthcare, venture capital and startup accelerators, and entrepreneurship were curated from YouTube and prepared students for their next steps after the bootcamp (Supplementary Note, Appendix ). The bootcamp also provided in-kind and financial services to support the projects. Teams could apply for support for up to $500 in prototyping expenses per week, awarded based on merit and development needs determined using an online application (Supplementary Note, Appendix ). Additionally, over $2,000 in prize money was awarded to the top three teams to support development after the bootcamp. In partnership with a cooperative that connects patients with healthcare innovators, teams could conduct patient surveys to gain first-hand insights on their problem of focus. Partnerships with a law firm and a startup company that facilitated automated prior-art searches provided teams free provisional patent submissions and understanding of the patent landscape, respectively.