Erdman named director of University’s new Medical Devices Center

Art Erdman, a long-time University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and medical device design expert, has been appointed as the director of the University’s new Medical Devices Center. The 40 percent-time appointment is effective July 1, 2007.

As director of the new center, Erdman will work to strengthen interdisciplinary research among faculty in the health sciences and engineering specifically related to medical devices. The Medical Devices Center is part of the new Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM), which is jointly sponsored by the University’s Institute of Technology and Medical School. IEM replaces the former Biomedical Engineering Institute. Researchers within IEM will use existing facilities and develop new relationships with industry.

Erdman has been a faculty member at the University since 1971. He holds more than 30 patents, many for medical devices, and has more than 10 patents pending. Erdman has collaborated with faculty in ophthalmology, neuroscience, epidemiology, orthopedics, surgery, dentistry, sport biomechanics and more. Recently, Erdman and his research colleagues developed a device for improving retinal surgery and gained media attention for developing a device that is intended to help people with macular degeneration. He is involved in redesigning medical devices used in urology and has co-developed a system to automatically digitize and manufacture dental restorations such as caps and crowns.

Erdman and his colleagues developed the Linkage Interactive Computer Analysis and Graphically Enhanced Synthesis (LINCAGES) software package for mechanical design and analysis. LINCAGES has been licensed to more than 80 universities and companies and has generated more than a half million dollars in revenue for the University.

In addition, Erdman leads the University’s new Minimally Invasive Medical Technologies Center (MIMTeC), a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center providing translational research that will enable medical device companies to bring the next generation of minimally invasive medical technologies to market. Erdman also has served as chair of six successful University of Minnesota Design of Medical Conferences that bring together hundreds of medical device designers, manufacturers and researchers to share perspectives on medical devices.

Erdman has written more than 275 technical papers and three books, served on numerous University and department committees, and presented at conferences around the world. He has consulted in mechanical and product design at more than 50 companies, including Xerox, 3M, Andersen Windows, Proctor and Gamble, HP, Rollerblade, and Yamaha.

He has received numerous awards and is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Founding Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He has held key leadership roles in ASME where he currently serves as editor of the ASME Journal of Medical Devices.

Erdman teaches classes in product design and is a University of Minnesota Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor. Erdman also serves as a member of the graduate faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Erdman received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1967 from Rutgers University. He received his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1968 and 1971, respectively.