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BMEplanet : “Professional networking” for bioengineering

BMEplanet—a consortium of over 300 universities, corporations, governments, non- profits, and investment firms spanning 52 nations on six continents—launched a first-of-its- kind “professional networking” website for the bioengineering community in September 2009 (see www.bmeplanet.org). Since then, over 500 faculty, students, corporate representatives, entrepreneurs, and investors have signed onto the site to access a free collaboration suite, including an opportunity bank, collaborative project workspaces, and idea box. By leveraging these social media, including crowd-sourcing and open innovation, BMEplanet is accelerating education, research, and innovation in bioengineering. This effort is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. BMEplanet was founded by Dr. Tom Skalak, longtime Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia and now UVa’s Vice President for Research, in hopes of establishing a global collaboration network providing experiential education of new talent for the bioengineering workforce as well as enhanced translation of new bioengineering knowledge to products and services. Comprised initially of 27 charter organizations, BMEplanet has seen exponential growth—particularly during the past The new professional networking website (www.bmeplanet.org) is enabling: Innovation: An idea box is stimulating free exchange and discussion of new ideas or discoveries, including non-confidential summaries of patent filings as well as corporate design challenges. Collaboration: Collaborative project workspaces are allowing research teams to share files among team members, blog or vlog about research progress, and track upcoming milestones. BMEplanet will soon launch live chatting, videoconferencing, and “whiteboarding” capabilities as well, to enhance the virtual collaboration experience and transcend traditional barriers to innovation. Networking: Users are connecting with new and existing contacts, and they are exploring job, internship, and funding opportunities. Soon they will be able to share news, event notifications, and technical articles. Taken together, BMEplanet is facilitating international corporate internships; multi-university design projects; student design incubators for translational technologies; and enhanced corporate access for new markets. Ultimately, the person-to-person links emerging through this website will raise the fabric of the field and encourage enhanced productivity and improved human health. In addition, by bringing together bioengineering faculty, students, corporate representatives, small business owners, entrepreneurs, etc., and having them create personalized profiles summarizing their backgrounds, expertise areas, and research interests, BMEplanet is quickly becoming the world’s largest repository of medical and biological engineers. Early indications suggest BMEplanet is being well-received by the community. “It is [a] pleasure to support … efforts in creating a collaborative, global network that services biomedical engineers from the time they are students through the time they continue to develop innovative technologies in improving health,” wrote one biomedical engineering department head upon joining. Another described how BMEplanet could help raise the standing of emerging academic pro-grams. One student remarked, “[The site is] just awesome. We can find so much information here. It is a great platform for … [bioengineers] all around the world.” If successful, the model employed by BMEplanet—applying Web 2.0 tools to a targeted discipline, all the while involving a global audience—will be extendable to other fields.