BME-designed limb warmer for para-athletes heats up the national stage
From left to right: Matteo Coscia, David Debretsion, Nathan Day, Anna Sallee, Cassie Eisen, Sara Wissner, Alyssa Radman
Last spring, a group of seniors in theBiomedical Engineering Program (BME) worked with and 2026 US Para Bobsled National Champion Doc Jacobs in the program’scapstone senior design course to create a residual limb warmer for winter para-athletes.
Their residual limb warming device, inspired by the ruggedness of winter jackets and ski boots, uses an integrated, multilayered system to prevent discomfort and long-term complications in cold-exposed residual limbs.
But months after graduation, the project is “heating up” in a whole new way.
In October, the team took home the Rehabilitative and Assistive Technologies Prize in the Design by Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) Challenge. Presented by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), the competition recognizes undergraduate student teams working on innovative solutions for unmet health and clinical problems.
As part of the recognition, the team, otherwise known as Buffalo H.I.D.E. (Heated Integrated Device for Extremities), received $15,000 for their novel approach to assistive technology. The award will help them expand their project scope and raise awareness for para-athletes and prosthetic users.
“It’s an honor to have our work recognized on a national level and highlighted as a project with real potential to make a difference,” said team member Cassie Eisenon behalf of the team. “We see this as an opportunity not only to continue developing similar projects, but also to encourage more innovation and education in this space.”
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), this year’s challenge was one of the most competitive ones to date. The competition received 119 applications from 64 different universities in 29 states, with nearly 500 students participating in total for over $190,000 in total prizes.
Buffalo H.I.D.E. was one of only 14 winning projects and five honorable mentions to receive an award. The project was praised by competition judges for its ability to address a “uniquely vulnerable population of amputees who are susceptible to cold-related injury during extended outdoor exposure.”
But the group says it could not have won without the support of the team around them.
“We would not have reached this point without the help of Doc Jacobs, Project S.E.R.V.E. and the BME Program,” Eisen said on behalf of the team. “They gave us the resources, mentorship and engineering foundation we needed to turn a need into a working solution.”