Students working on a project with chaperone.

Inspire Conference 2025: Wearable Devices

|
Aithanh Nguyen
2 minutes
Inspiring the next generation of STEM

On November 19, IEM hosted 210+ students from 27 Minnesota high schools at its Annual Inspire Conference. This year’s theme was “Wearable Devices” and included speakers and presentations from Abbott, Medtronic, Solventum, and Starkey. The Conference also highlighted the wide variety of medtech disciplines and STEM career pathways in the wearable device field.

Yoji Shimizu holding microphone for students to present at the Inspire Conference.

The industry collaborators hosted interactive breakout sessions that showcased some of their latest wearable devices: 

  • Abbott explained the history and engineering behind their Abbott Freestyle Libre Continuous Glucose Monitor, one of the most widely used glucose monitors in the world.
  • Medtronic introduced students to the BioButton®, a wearable device that provides key vital signs and biometrics, serving as early indicators of patient decline.
  • Solventum featured products from their patient warming system that help monitor patient temperature throughout surgical recovery. Students were able to measure their hand temperature with IR cameras and thermal arrays.
  • Starkey introduced students to the latest self-adjusting hearing aids that also make continuous measurements of key vitals such as heart rate and temperature.
Students listening to a presentation at the Inspire Conference.

The Inspire Conference concluded with a hands-on Invention Session, giving students the opportunity to use what they’ve learned in the morning talks and breakout sessions to invent their own medical device. This year, the Invention Session was led by Dr. Carlye Lauff from the College of Design, leading students through the product development and design process for a wearable device.

Yoji Shimizu holding microphone for students to present at the Inspire Conference.

The lunch plenary talk was given by Aneela Idnani, Habitaware Co-founder and President, who spoke about her personal and career journey with trichotillomania, a hair-pulling disorder. Other plenary speakers included Dawn Muyres from Solventum and Jason Case from Medtronic.

Aneela Idnani presenting at the Inspire Conference.

The Conference continued to provide opportunities for students to explore the field of STEM beyond the event. This year, IEM launched a resource page, MN MedTech Pathways, that provides students with academic and industry opportunities. Medtronic also announced their new Spark Scholarship that supports students from low-income households pursuing education related to health tech.

Learn more about Inspire Conference 2025.

Students listening to a presentation at the Inspire Conference.