​STA Engineering Challenge

CLICK HERE to Submit an Application for the 2027 Engineering Challenge

 

The Engineering Challenge is a regular feature of the Annual Meeting, and will be held during the 2027 Annual Meeting. As always, the intent of the Challenge is to educate the membership on an area of technology. We are pleased to announce this year's Challenge: 

Anesthesiologists are often dragged into the issue of whether jewelry needs to be removed prior to anesthetic induction to avoid thermal injury. While there is some evidence regarding orthopedic implants[1,2], this may not be applicable to metal on the surface of the body, particularly when the item is remote from the surgical field. The 2027 Engineering Challenge is to demonstrate a method to quickly identify a hazard by monitoring some change in the item of interest. Possible approaches might include a change in temperature, measurement of induced current, or change in dimension, but this is not an exhaustive list. The system should be demonstrated with a real ESU or equivalent; testing should be on some biologic material, although it is not necessary that this be a team member.

The rules:
  1. At least one member of the team should be a trainee – student, resident, fellow, etc. 
  2. Presentations may be in person or remote. A member of the team must contact Dr. Mandel prior to the start of the meeting to confirm intent to present. It is not necessary to bring an ESU to the meeting.
  3. Up to $100 per team will be available to cover hardware expenses to all teams that present (keep those receipts!)
  4. The winners will be decided by vote of the attendees. The goal is to educate and entertain the audience, who are the final arbiters of the competition.  
The Prizes:

First Prize: $500*

Second Prize: $250*

*A completed w9 is required for award acceptance
 
STA Engineering Challenge Contact Information:

For questions on the challenge specifications contact:

Jeff E. Mandel, MD, MS
Chair, STA Engineering Challenge 
jemandel@verizon.net

 

1. Martinsen T, Pettersen FJ, Kalvøy H, Tronstad C, Kvarstein G, Bakken A, Høgetveit JO, Martinsen ØG, Grimnes S, Frich L. Electrosurgery and Temperature Increase in Tissue With a Passive Metal Implant. Front Surg. 2019 Mar 12;6:8. doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2019.00008. PMID: 30915337; PMCID: PMC6422872.
2. Du M, Shen A, Xu Y, Chen X, Chen J. Numerical and experimental assessment of implant-induced thermal risks during electrosurgical procedures. Biomed Phys Eng Express. 2026 Jun 26;12(3). doi: 10.1088/2057-1976/ae7f27. PMID: 42314706.

 

2026 Engineering Challenge Recap

From the Interface newsletter

Jeff E. Mandel, MS, MS

A problem anesthesia providers frequently encounter when entering a new location is that there are medical devices we’ve never seen before. What are they? What capabilities do they have? How can I interact with them with my smart phone? While there are certainly examples of this in the real world, and every gadget we buy now has a QR code that allows you to access the manual, anesthesiologists don’t typically get to unbox the new monitor, don’t want to download a new app on their phone to deal with that monitor, and don’t want to call hospital IT for support for this. We need solutions that just work with the phone we already have. The Challenge for 2026 is to demonstrate a simple system for medical device discovery. 

 

Two groups presented their projects. The first was from University of Utah. Ali Ramanzani presented Medistant, a clinician-facing, browser-based system that addresses the growing complexity of modern operating rooms by making device identification and guidance faster and less disruptive. Medistant pairs multi-modal device identification (BLE beacons, NFC tap, QR codes, and lightweight in-browser image recognition) with a device-specific page that aggregates manuals, quick-start checklists, alarm references, and troubleshooting content. We also highlighted alarm intelligence via continuous audio monitoring/classification. notification and a conversational AI component (retrieval-augmented, grounded in device manuals/metadata) to provide stepwise answers for tasks like setup, alarm silencing, and common troubleshooting; bench testing demonstrated rapid performance and strong identification accuracy across modalities.

 

The second presentation was from Carle Illinois College of Medicine (consisting of current medical students Anvita Mishra, Gaurang Amonkar, Kanch Sridhar, and Preethi Prem). Anvita Mishra presented Halo, an AI-powered platform created to help anesthesiologists quickly find reliable information about the complex medical devices they rely on every day in the operating room, including anesthesia machines, infusion pumps, and patient monitors. Halo uses a constrained AI model that draws information only from official manufacturer device manuals. Every response includes direct, in-text citations so users can immediately see the source and feel confident relying on the information in clinical practice.

 

The platform works through a simple chatbot interface. An anesthesiologist can snap a photo of a device with a smartphone and ask questions such as, “How do I troubleshoot error code E5?” or “What does this alarm mean?” and receive accurate, source-backed answers within seconds. Our goal is for Halo to fit naturally into existing workflows, reduce frustration and device-related errors, and make it easier for clinicians to stay focused on what matters most: caring for patients. The system includes an online demo: Halo - Medical Device Assistant

 

A new feature of this year’s Challenge was an online poll to determine the winner (we are a technology society, after all); The group from Carle was selected as the winner and the Utah group was runner up. There was an animated discussion on the utility of the approaches. Once again the Challenge has fulfilled its mission to attract new talent to the Society and to educate the membership.

Annual Meeting