Innovative Minds Partnering to Advance Curative Therapies (IMPACT) is an exciting undergraduate program that has engaged more than 500 students from 30 Minnesota colleges and universities since its launch in 2014. The IMPACT Program encourages creative solutions to critical health questions through collaboration between undergraduate students and Mayo Clinic. In the program, Minnesota undergraduates engage in novel hypothesis generation to solve real-world health questions alongside Mayo scientists and physicians.
By involving students from traditional science majors, as well as non-science backgrounds, this program forges multidisciplinary partnerships toward the common goal of meeting patient needs.
This year’s IMPACT challenge topic is in cardiology. All participants will present a poster at the Mayo Clinic 2018 IMPACT Symposium. In addition to the poster, top teams will give oral presentations. There will be networking opportunities with physicians, scientists, and students at Mayo Clinic. Winning teams will be awarded a cash prize.
Eligibility: Teams of two to four undergraduate students are invited to participate in the IMPACT competition. Students from all years of undergraduate education and all academic majors are encouraged to submit hypotheses, and multidisciplinary teams are encouraged. There is no limit to the number of teams from a single institution. Each team will require one faculty mentor, and all faculty mentors are invited to attend the symposium as well.
Location and Dates: Each team participating in the IMPACT competition is invited to Mayo Clinic to present its ideas at the IMPACT Symposium on Saturday, March 10, 2018. The symposium includes poster presentations from every IMPACT team and oral presentations from the top teams.
In addition, the symposium provides a chance for undergraduate students and their faculty sponsors to network with other students and faculty members across the state of Minnesota. Participants also learn about graduate and medical education programs within the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
Each team must register for the IMPACT challenge question by Nov. 24, 2017.
Award: The IMPACT Program celebrates high-quality student participation with financial awards. A prize of $1,000 per student is awarded to the winning team.
More information: Please visit the IMPACT website (http://www.mayo.edu/research/centers-programs/center-regenerative-medicine/education/impact) for more details on the challenge topic, deadline information, and submission guidelines. Each team must register online by November 24, 2017 at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQa_ILAPUujBiFL2VkA7grqCOqPHvcCPeJMsuO3_4Hx5Asuw/viewform.
Here is a 2-minute video from previous participants, highlighting some of the benefits of this program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkjbywl7uko&feature=youtu.be
Further questions can be directed to the IMPACT Program Associate directors at IMPACT@mayo.edu.