congrats to the portable ultrasound group! this project started as a hcde/cse class concept and has grown into a great demonstration of what university wide collaborations can accomplish. the press release and project descriptions at the bottom have a ton more information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A team of University of Washington undergraduate students were among 65 research groups that today learned they had won one of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grants. This is the fifth round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. To receive funding, applicants show in a two-page application how their idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. Grantees, chosen from more than 2,400 proposals, represent 16 countries on five continents. “I am a huge believer in the creativity of undergraduates,”said faculty adviser Beth Kolko, a UW professor of human centered design and engineering. “This grant really validates that belief.” The UW students and faculty are testing a low-cost ultrasound system this month on pregnant women at the UW Medical Center and Harborview. They will use the grant to travel to Africa to test their system in its ultimate capacity as a tool to increase access to ultrasound and lower childbirth-related mortality, which kills an estimated 1,000 women each day, almost entirely in the developing world... Press Release: http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=61198 Project Description: http://change.washington.edu/projects/mobile-midwives-ultrasound