Linda Trinh Memorial Award
May 7, 2012

This award is dedicated to the memory of Linda Trinh, Class of 2005, who worked tirelessly through her research and volunteer efforts to improve the human condition. It is awarded to a design team that embodies her spirit, qualities, and accomplishments. Read more here.

Design Team 3: "Therapeutic Hypothermia Device for Management of Birth Asphysxia"
Asphyxia, or oxygen deficiency, globally accounts for 23 percent of the 4 million annual deaths of newborns. Brain Asphyxia occurs in three of 1,000 live births, causing death of 60 percent of affected infants, and disability to at least 25 percent of the survivors. Therapeutic hypothermia, which is the lowering of a patient's core temperature by 6 degrees Fahrenheit, is the only proven method to slow down metabolic rates and protect a patient's brain from oxygen deficiency. Currently, several hypothermia products are available and used in the developed world. However, because of limited funding and resources, hypothermia treatment is unavailable in developing countries, where 98 percent of the deaths occur per year. Therefore, we developed a device called Cooling Cure, which is energy-efficient, under $70, easy to operate, and all-inclusive: a cooling, control, and warming system. Working with KKI (Kennedy Krieger Institute) and Jhpiego (a nonprofit organization for reproductive health care in developing countries), we hope to implement this therapeutic hypothermia device in developing countries within the upcoming year.

Neil O'Donnell is a graduating senior majoring in biomedical engineering, with a minor in entrepreneurship and management, from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He working in the Spinal Cord Injury lab, collecting and analyzing data on stem cell treatments to treat spinal cord injuries in animal studies using the Basso Beattie Bresnahan locomotor rating scale. Neil also working in the Biomaterials Lab, utilizing green fluorescent protein chromatography to measure the rates of gene transfection using biomaterials. He worked as a teaching assistant for Biomaterials I, Biomaterials II, Business Law I, and Business Law II. He is also an executive member of the Marshal Salant Investment Team and the distribution editor of the JHU Politik. Neil worked as an intern at Merrill Lynch and looks forward to working as an intern at Synaptic Capital. He is vice president of Save the Future, a financial literacy group that teaches Baltimore high school students the fundamentals of business and economics. Neil enjoys golfing and reading biographies about scientific visionaries and business magnates. He also spends his time following politics and debating his friends.