Pitt engineering students take innovative fertility device to ACC InVenture Prize competition
An entrepreneurial student team developing a new IVF needle guide is taking their invention to South Bend, Indiana, this month to represent the University of Pittsburgh at the 2026 ACC InVenture Prize innovation competition.
Sydney Barber, Arshia Cyrus Shams, Ashlyn Odenwald, Ishan Patel, Colby Shores, and Lyric Zimmermann, bioengineering undergraduate students at the Swanson School of Engineering, will showcase abdOguide, a first-of-its-kind device designed to improve IVF egg retrieval for patients whose ovaries cannot be accessed through the standard transvaginal approach. At the competition, teams of undergraduates representing each ACC university will pitch their inventions before a live audience and a panel of judges and compete for $30,000 in prizes.
“Our team members are very entrepreneurial, and this competition presented itself just as our device began showing some promise in the clinic,” Shores said. “There was just a perfect storm of hard work and opportunity that led us to this moment.”
abdOguide mounts directly onto an abdominal ultrasound probe and guides the needle along a fixed, aligned trajectory. The design allows a single fertility specialist to perform a procedure that typically requires two clinicians. By transforming a complex two-operator procedure into a single-clinician workflow, the team hopes that abdOguide can create a more streamlined path to parenthood by expanding fertility access for underserved patients while reducing procedural costs for hospitals nationwide.
Support the team:
The Pitt community can show their support by voting for abdOguide in the People’s Choice competition. Voting opens on Monday, March 23, and closes following the final team presentations on Friday, March 27. To cast a vote, text “Pitt” to 415-965-7445.
The final event will be broadcast live on PBS at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on March 27.
