[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 244 (Thursday, December 19, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76843-76845]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-30255]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
(NIBIB) Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the 2014
NIBIB Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) Challenge
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
SUMMARY: The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering (NIBIB) DEBUT Challenge is open to teams of
undergraduate students working on projects that develop innovative
solutions to unmet health and clinical problems. NIBIB's mission is to
improve health by leading the development and accelerating the
application of biomedical technologies. The goals of the DEBUT
Challenge are (1) to provide undergraduate students valuable
experiences such as working in teams, identifying unmet clinical needs,
and designing, building and debugging solutions for such open-ended
problems; (2) to generate novel, innovative tools to improve
healthcare, consistent with NIBIB's purpose to support research,
training, the dissemination of health information, and other programs
with respect to
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biomedical imaging and engineering and associated technologies and
modalities with biomedical applications; and (3) to highlight and
acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of undergraduate
students.
DATES: The competition begins December 19, 2013.
Submission Period: January 27, 2014 to May 29, 2014, 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Judging Period: June 10, 2014 to July 25, 2014
Winners announced: August 12, 2014
Award ceremony: October 2014, Biomedical Engineering Society Conference
(exact date to be announced at http://www.nibib.nih.gov/training-careers/undergraduate-graduate/design-biomedical-undergraduate-teams-debut-challenge.)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: [email protected] or (301) 451-4792.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Subject of Challenge Competition: The NIBIB DEBUT Challenge
solicits design projects that develop innovative solutions to unmet
health and clinical problems. Areas of interest for the biomedical
engineering projects include, but are not limited to: diagnostics,
therapeutics, technologies for underserved populations and low resource
settings, point-of-care systems, precision medicine, preventive
medicine, and technologies to aid individuals with disabilities.
Rules
1. Who can win: To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge,
an individual on the Student Team must
(a) Be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States; and
(b) Meet all the conditions below for eligibility to compete under
this challenge.
2. Who can compete: This is a team challenge. To be eligible to
compete in this challenge, an individual must:
(a) Be an undergraduate student enrolled full-time in an
undergraduate curriculum during at least one full semester (or quarter
if the institution is on a quarter system) of the 2013-2014 academic
year;
(b) Have his/her own active Department of Better Technology (DOBT)
account that he/she has created at https://dashboard.dobt.co/sign_in.
(c) Form or join a ``Student Team'' with at least two other
individuals for the purpose of developing an entry for submission to
this challenge. Each student on the Student Team must satisfy all the
requirements for competing in this challenge. While it is expected that
most of the individuals participating in the competition may be
students from biomedical engineering departments, interdisciplinary
teams including students from other fields are welcome and encouraged;
(d) Acknowledge understanding and acceptance of the DEBUT challenge
rules by signing the NIBIB DEBUT Challenge Certification Form found at
https://www.nibib.nih.gov/sites/default/files/NIBIB%20DEBUT%20Certification%20Form.pdf. Each entry must include one
NIBIB DEBUT Challenge Certification Form, completed with: the printed
names of Student Team members, an indication of whether the team member
is either a US citizen or permanent resident (as opposed to a foreign
student on a visa), and be signed and dated by each individual member
of the Student Team. Entries that do not provide a complete
Certification Form will be disqualified from the challenge;
(e) Be 13 years of age or older.
(f) Not be a Federal employee acting within the scope of their
employment. Federal employees seeking to participate in this challenge
outside the scope of their employment should consult their ethics
official prior to developing a submission; and
(g) Comply with all the requirements under this section (Section
2).
3. Foreign students who are studying in the United States on a visa
are eligible to be part of the competing Student Teams. However, they
will not receive a monetary prize or be reimbursed for costs associated
with participation in the award ceremony if they are part of a winning
Student Team. See Prize section below for the distribution of prizes.
As acknowledgement of their participation, however, the names of
foreign students who are part of winning Student Teams will be listed
among the winning team members when results are announced and at the
award ceremony.
4. By participating in this challenge, each individual agrees to
abide by all rules of this challenge and the Terms of Participation
located at https://contests.dobt.co/terms_of_participation.
5. Each entry into this challenge must have been conceived,
designed, and implemented by the Student Team. Student Teams
participating in capstone design projects are especially encouraged to
enter the challenge.
6. Each Student Team may submit only one entry into this challenge
through one member of the Student Team appointed as ``Team Captain'' by
that Student Team. The Team Captain will carry out all correspondence
regarding the Student Team's entry. The Team Captain must be a citizen
or permanent resident of the United States.
7. The Team Captain will submit a Student Team's entry on behalf of
the Student Team by following the links and instructions at https://contests.dobt.co/debut2014/ and certify that the entry meets all the
challenge rules.
8. Each entry must comply with Section 508 standards that require
federal agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible
to people with disabilities, http://www.section508.gov/.
9. Individuals who are younger than 18 must have their parent or
legal guardian complete the Parental Consent Form found at https://www.nibib.nih.gov/sites/default/files/Parental%20Consent%20Form.pdf.
10. Each entry must be submitted as a single pdf file and must
include the following:
Cover letter, on department letterhead, from a faculty
member from the Biomedical Engineering, Bioengineering or similar
department of the institution in which the Student Team members are
enrolled, verifying that the entry was achieved by the named Student
Team, that each member of the team was enrolled full-time in an
undergraduate curriculum during at least one semester or quarter of the
academic year 2013-2014, and describing clearly any contribution from
the advisor or any other individual outside the Student Team.
The NIBIB DEBUT Challenge Certification Form (downloadable
from https://www.nibib.nih.gov/sites/default/files/NIBIB%20DEBUT%20Certification%20Form.pdf completed with the printed
names, indication of U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, dates,
and signatures of each individual member of the Student Team.
Completed Cover Page (downloadable from https://www.nibib.nih.gov/sites/default/files/NIBIB%20DEBUT%20Cover%20Page.pdf
listing project title and team member information.
Project Description (not to exceed 6 pages using Arial
font and a font size of at least 11 points) that includes the following
4 sections:
(1) Abstract
(2) Description of clinical need or problem, including background and
current methods available
(3) Design, including a discussion of the innovative aspects
(4) Evidence of a working prototype (results/graphics obtained with the
designed solution)
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The 6-page limit includes any graphics, but excludes the cover
page, certification form, parental consent form, and any references.
Submissions exceeding 6 pages for the Project Description will not be
accepted. An optional 2-minute video displaying the operation of the
device/method may be included. However, the 6-page Project Description
must be a stand-alone explanation of the project.
A completed Parental Consent Form, accessible at https://www.nibib.nih.gov/sites/default/files/Parental%20Consent%20Form.pdf,
for each individual on the Student Team who is under the age of 18.
11. NIBIB will claim no rights to intellectual property.
Individuals on the Student Team will retain intellectual property
ownership as applicable arising from their entry. By participating in
this challenge, such individuals grant to NIBIB an irrevocable, paid-
up, royalty-free, nonexclusive worldwide license to post, link to,
share, and display publicly the entry on the Web, newsletters or
pamphlets, and other information products. It is the responsibility of
the individuals on the Student Team to obtain any rights necessary to
use, disclose, or reproduce any intellectual property owned by third
parties and incorporated in the entry for all anticipated uses of the
entry.
12. All entries must be submitted by the challenge deadline, May
29, 2014, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Entries must not infringe upon any copyright
or any other rights of any third party.
13. By participating in this challenge, each individual agrees to
assume any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal
Government and its related entities, except in the case of willful
misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property,
revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential,
arising from participation in this prize challenge, whether the injury,
death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.
14. Based on the subject matter of the challenge, the type of work
that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood
of any claims for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss
potentially resulting from challenge participation, individuals are not
required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial
responsibility in order to participate in this challenge.
15. By participating in this challenge, each individual agrees to
indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damages
arising from or related to challenge activities.
16. An individual shall not be deemed ineligible because the
individual used Federal facilities or consulted with Federal employees
during this challenge if the facilities and employees are made
available to all individuals participating in the challenge on an
equitable basis.
17. NIBIB reserves the right to cancel, suspend, modify the
challenge, and/or not award a prize if no entries are deemed worthy.
Prize: The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes will be $20,000, $15,000,
and $10,000, respectively, to be distributed only among the members of
the winning Student Team eligible to win a prize in this challenge. The
prize will be distributed equally among the prize-eligible Student Team
members, i.e., students who are either citizens or permanent residents
of the United States. Each prize-eligible member of the winning Student
Teams must provide his/her bank information to enable electronic
transfer of funds. Six honorable mentions will also be awarded, without
an accompanying monetary prize or travel reimbursement.
Winning Student Teams will be honored at the NIBIB DEBUT Award
Ceremony during the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering
Society (BMES) in San Antonio, Texas in October 2014. Updated
information on the BMES annual meeting can be found at http://bmes.org/annualmeeting. Each winning Student Team will receive, in addition to
the prize, up to $2,000 toward the travel and registration costs for
the prize-eligible members of the Student Team to attend the award
ceremony. While members of a winning Student Team who are neither
citizens nor permanent residents of the United States are welcome to
attend the award ceremony and their names will be listed among the
winners, they cannot be reimbursed for their travel and related
expenses.
Travel must comply with National Institutes of Health policy and
applicable laws and regulations (http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104790) for example:
--Air travel must be by coach class, unless an alternative is medically
necessary and documented.
--If you choose to drive to the meeting instead of taking a common
carrier (airplane, train or bus), you may be reimbursed at 51 cents per
mile, not to exceed the cost of common carrier.
--Limousine/taxi reimbursements are provided to and from airports as
well as to and from meetings. Receipts are required whenever a fare
exceeds $75 per trip.
--Per diem rates include lodging, and meals and incidental expenses
(M&IE). Reimbursement for these varies by city. The current allowable
room rate and the M&IE for the award ceremony location can be found at
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/21287.
Honorable mention awardees are welcome to attend the award ceremony
with funds from other sources; NIBIB will not provide travel
reimbursement for Student Teams awarded with Honorable Mention.
Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected: The winning entries will
be selected based on the following criteria:
Significance of the problem addressed--Does the entry
address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in
clinical care or research?
Impact on potential users and clinical care--How likely is
it that the entry will exert a sustained, powerful influence on the
problem and medical field addressed?
Innovative design (creativity and originality of
concept)--Does the entry utilize novel theoretical concepts, approaches
or methodologies, or instrumentation?
Working prototype that implements the design concept and
produces targeted results--Has evidence been provided (in the form of
results, graphs, photographs, films, etc.) that a working prototype has
been achieved?
Additional Information: For more information and to submit entries,
visit https://contests.dobt.co/debut2014/.
The NIBIB prize-approving official will be the Director of NIBIB.
Prizes will be paid using electronic funds transfer and may be subject
to federal income taxes. NIH will comply with the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable.
Dated: December 13, 2013.
Belinda Seto,
Deputy Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering.
[FR Doc. 2013-30255 Filed 12-18-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P