Marquette Today

Campus News and Events

Submit news

Menu

  • Campus News
    • Top News for Students
    • Top News for Faculty & Staff
    • Magazines at Marquette
    • Campus Alerts
  • Archives
  • Submit news
    • Editorial Guidelines
    • Contacts
  • @MarquetteToday
  • Events Calendar
  • Topics
    • Community Engagement
    • Diversity
    • Innovation
    • Master Planning
    • Marquette Momentum
    • Research
    • Strategic Planning
  • March 31, 2023

PT faculty member wins inaugural Emerging Company award from CTSI

October 31, 2022

By Alex Nemec, marketing communication specialist, Office of University Relations

Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Dr. Shelia Schindler-Ivens holds her Emerging Company award from the 2022 Healthcare Innovation Pitch competition.

Marquette University-based startup Venus Rehabilitation Technologies, LLC, founded and led by Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Dr. Sheila Schindler-Ivens, has been honored with the inaugural Emerging Company award from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Accelerating Medical Product Development group at the 2022 Healthcare Innovation Pitch competition.

The competition was a part of Milwaukee Tech Week and Wisconsin Tech Month and attracted entrepreneurs and investors from the Midwest to network and hear pitches from startups as they competed for $50,000 in prizes.

Venus Rehabilitation Technologies invented and earned patents in China, Europe and the United States for “CUped,” its assistive lower limb rehabilitation device that assists stroke patients.

“Having earned the first every Emerging Company award, the group of judges saw promise in Venus Rehabilitation Technologies and are encouraging movement along the path to bringing CUped to market,” Schindler-Ivens says. “It means a lot that the judges — who were mostly venture capitalists and angel investors — saw the value in what we are trying to do.”

Schindler-Ivens discovered in her research that stroke survivors tend not to use their paretic limb — the weaker or more heavily affected limb — in harmony with their healthy limb because of a lack of coordination rather than a lack of strength. CUped’s split-crank mechanism requires patients to maintain coordination between their legs to move the device’s pedals in rhythm.

Schindler-Ivens’ collaborators on developing CUped included Dr. Brian Schmit, professor of and Hammes Family Chair of the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering; former graduate student Domenic Busa; and Ph.D. candidate Tom Ruopp.

Dr. Shelia Schindler-Ivens and the Office of Economic Engagement’s Executive Director of Technology Transfer Kalpa Vithalani.

The Emerging Company award earned Venus Rehabilitation Technologies $5,000, which will go toward optimizing the algorithms that control CUped’s motors, Schindler-Ivens says.

“CUped works but it still allows for stroke survivors to cheat a little,” Schindler-Ivens says. “When we allow stroke survivors to cheat, we deprive them of opportunities for use-dependent recovery. My team has identified methods to fix this problem and the prize money will go toward implementing that fix.”

Marquette College of Health Sciences Dean Dr. William E. Cullinan says Schindler-Ivens is one of many faculty members within the college who exemplify the Jesuit tenet of cura personalis, or care for the whole person.    

“Dr. Schindler-Ivens’ work and invention have the potential to transform stroke rehabilitation by helping patients use their paretic limb and ultimately regain the ability to walk,” Cullinan says. “The recognition that comes with the first ever Emerging Company award moves Venus  Rehabilitation Technologies closer to realizing that potential.”

Would you like to bring your research to life? Have an idea for an impactful product or service that can benefit society?  Dr. Kalpa Vithalani, executive director of technology transfer, helps connect your ideas and inventions with an ecosystem of corporate, entrepreneurial, legal and investment resources to create the partnerships needed to create value and to benefit the public.  It all begins with your Marquette idea or invention. Contact Dr. Vithalani to discuss your idea at 414-288-0668 or kalpa.vithalani@marquette.edu.  Please tell us about your idea/invention early to allow time to assess options that will allow for optimal intellectual property protection and leverage the commercial potential of your work.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

More news

St. Joan of Arc Chapel honored in 2022 Faith & Form Awards for Religious Architecture & Art

March 30, 2023

Kate Trevey named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable Women in STEM

March 30, 2023

Spring General Election Day, April 4

March 30, 2023

Marquette designated ‘Voter Friendly Campus’

March 29, 2023

Strategic Planning Core Team seeks campus input at open forum, April 13

March 29, 2023

Photo gallery: Blue sworn in to Marquette University Police Department

March 29, 2023

Philosophy Friday Seminar series on Socratic midwifery, March 31

March 29, 2023

Unity Graduation for graduating seniors and graduate students of color, May 19

March 29, 2023

More news

Quick Links

  • Faculty/Staff News
  • Student News
  • Magazines at Marquette
Submit news

Featured Stories

Student-Made Marquette gives student entrepreneurs an e-tail platform

Student-Made Marquette gives student entrepreneurs an e-tail platform

By Kevin Keenan, communication intern in the Office of University Relations  In the same vein as other popular online marketplaces, Marquette students can now showcase their entrepreneurial spirit on Student-Made Marquette, a largely student-led arts collective made up of creators and innovators within the campus community. It officially launched on Feb. 1, 2023. Kelsey Otero, senior […]

Page, stage and beyond

Page, stage and beyond

When a production of “Les Misérables” came to Milwaukee in late 2022, Dr. Ben Pladek extended the reach of Romantic Studies by leading the community in conversations about the musical’s 19th century origins and contemporary relevance. Illustration by Robert Neubecker By Laura Bengs Like one of Victor Hugo’s characteristically ludicrous coincidences woven through his classic novel […]

World-class alliance

World-class alliance

Membership in the Newberry Library’s Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium opens doors — and valuable funding and fellowship opportunities — for Marquette scholars. Illustration by Stephanie Dalton Cowan By Jennifer Walter To better understand the present, sometimes it helps to look to the past. “When I read about the social worlds depicted in 18th-century literature, […]

Read more featured stories.

Safety

Free steering wheel locks available from MUPD; new software available for Hyundai vehicles

Safety Task Force efforts help lead to reduced crime on campus

Marquette University makes safety a top priority

Human Resources News

The importance of dental health – Access services at Marquette’s School of Dentistry

Register for upcoming GROW classes 

GROW courses on performance review process 

Research

Page, stage and beyond

World-class alliance

Apply for NMDSI mini-grants by April 7

Awards & Accomplishments

St. Joan of Arc Chapel honored in 2022 Faith & Form Awards for Religious Architecture & Art

Kate Trevey named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable Women in STEM

Nursing professor honored with Vel R. Phillips Trailblazer Award from Milwaukee Common Council

Marquette UniversityCopyright 2022 by Marquette University
MARQUETTE.EDU // A TO Z