The Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh) has announced its award winners for 2022.

The program designed to support diverse teams who generate innovative solutions to challenging health problems. PInCh provides funding and project management to help develop high-quality health science research that serves people and communities outside of the University.

Bonus awards for Engineering Good Health were available for PInCh 2022 teams with Pitt faculty leads from both the School of Engineering and Schools of Health Sciences. Bonus award qualification is separate from selection for PInCh awards; bonus-eligible projects received additional funding, but did not otherwise have a competitive advantage.

$100,000 awardees:

Actin Against ALS (Christi Kolarcik, research assistant professor in pathology at the School of Medicine; Partha Roy, bioengineering professor). $15,000 bonus award recipient

Micro-shield: Abdominal Adhesion Prevention (Steven Little, professor and chair of chemical and petroleum engineering; Thiagarajan Meyyappan, general surgery resident, School of Medicine; Matthew Rosengart, professor of surgery and critical care medicine). $15,000 bonus award recipient

Vanish Bioresorbable Stimulator (Trent Emerick, associate professor, anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and bioengineering; Tracy Cui, bioengineering professor). $15,000 bonus award recipient

$35,000 awardees:

Biocarpet (Jonathan Vande Geest, bioengineering professor; John Pacella, associate professor of medicine, cardiology). $15,000 bonus award recipient

Engaging Together for Healthy Relationships (Maya Ragavan, assistant professor of pediatrics)

Nephro-Safe (Sunder Sims-Lucas, assistant professor of pediatrics)

Elevator Pitch competition $25,000 awardees:

3D Printed Filters (Markus Chmielus, associate professor in mechanical engineering and materials science)

BIONIC: Naloxone Biofeedback Patch (Gaurav Chauhan, assistant professor, anesthesiology and perioperative medicine; Alexander Star, professor of chemistry and bioengineering). $5,000 bonus award recipient

CREAM Depression: Augmented Reality BCI (Mary Woody, assistant professor of psychiatry, and Murat Akcakaya, associate professor of electrical & computer engineering) $5,000 bonus award recipient

See videos about each of the winning projects and other details on the PInCH website.