The Heart of Minnesota Med Tech Innovation

Earlier this month, IEM attended Advanced Manufacturing Minneapolis 2024 (MD&M), the largest annual end-to-end design and manufacturing event in the Midwest. IEM hosted the conference’s Innovation Zone alongside 8 other departments/centers for the University, including IEM’s own Visible Heart® Laboratories and Bakken Medical Devices Center.
 

Visible Heart® Laboratories table at MD&M with Goldy the Gopher

With 530+ exhibitors, MD&M attracted thousands of students, researchers, scientists, innovators, engineers, and entrepreneurs from all over the world. With a large and diverse attendee demographic, MD&M was a place of outreach STEM exposure, career and education opportunities, and business collaborations all at once. Local high school students and teachers attended, allowing them the opportunity to see real-life applications of math, science, and engineering. For one high school science teacher, “it was exciting to have live engineering applications and demos for students to see beyond what we learn in the classroom.” Students and faculty from universities and colleges around Minnesota also attended, finding MD&M a place to explore career paths through the Innovation Zone, have one-on-one interactions with industry professionals, and gain exposure to what the medtech manufacturing process looks like.

For IEM, MD&M opened a path to build deeper industry relationships with industry and to make new connections and explore potential collaborations – all furthering our mission of building a stronger ecosystem between academia and industry at the University and in Minnesota.
 

IEM admin team at MD&M

Mark your calendar! MD&M 2025 will take place on October 21 and 22 in 2025.