The University of South Carolina and medical technology company Siemens Healthineers have opened their Innovation Think Tank (ITT) Lab, designed to be an innovation hub where stakeholders can solve issues in healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, and information technology.
The ITT Lab, housed in Columbia, S.C., is the first Innovation Think Tank Lab affiliated with a U.S. university, as part of the Germany-based Siemens Healthineers' global network of Innovation Think Tank Labs led by adjunct professor Sultan Haider, according to university officials.
Computer science professor Neset Hikmet, Ph.D., who oversaw the lab's creation, said his vision for the lab is to host workshops with participants from diverse academic backgrounds and to provide them with mentorship and resources to solve pressing issues in healthcare and beyond. "These are all opportunities that have participants getting out of their boundaries, meeting different people, and experiencing different cultures and ways of doing things," Hikmet said. The idea, according to officials, is that the space will be an innovation hub where participants including researchers, faculty members, and students can think outside the box to solve these critical healthcare problems.
"Centers like this are so important because they bring technology and use it to create something new and do things differently," added Elizabeth Regan, the chair of Integrated Information Technology at the College of Engineering and Computing. "That involves opening your mind, moving yourself out of your comfort zone, innovative thinking, and collaborating."
What’s more, because the UofSC ITT Lab is affiliated with Siemens Healthineers' global ITT infrastructure worldwide, the participants will be able to share knowhow with other ITT members and participate at its various locations in Germany, the U.K., China, Turkey, India, and the U.S. “This global network will allow participants to collaborate with other innovators worldwide,” officials believe.
In conjunction with the opening of the ITT Lab, 20 participants from academic institutions such as South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Benedict College, and the University of Florida participated in a two-day healthcare workshop in which participants were challenged to identify a problem in the healthcare industry and then develop and present a real-world solution to that problem. From there, ideas around innovation emerged, such as an app for stroke detection and monitoring in real-time, an implant that holds patients' medical history, and a smart pill that treats obesity, university officials stated.