Lisbon student on NDSU team

Bison Micro-Venture, a team of 15 North Dakota State University students, won first place and $5,000 for their novel dental implant in the Innovation Challenge ’12 competition on Jan. 26.

The team is developing a porous ceramic dental implant for people who cannot use traditional titanium implants. Because the implant is made from a type of inexpensive ceramic that has bone-like properties, it has the potential to reduce rejection rates, help patients heal faster, be more cost-effective and change using titanium as the standard material in dental implants and other biomedical devices.

The team includes student engineers who build the implants and student scientists who grow cells on the implants and analyze that growth. Derek Hiam, a zoology major from Lisbon, N.D., was one of the student scientists on the team.

The Innovation Challenge ‘12 was a new component of the third annual Innovation Week held by NDSU and the NDSU Research and Technology Park.

Tags: community, education