Purdue retirees encouraged to register for Sept. 30 Westwood Lecture on accelerating pediatric medical device innovation

Matthew Waninger, managing director of the Crossroads Pediatric Device Consortium, will present “Accelerating Pediatric Medical Device Innovation Through Collaboration” on Sept. 30 from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Westwood, the Purdue president’s residence.

The Westwood Lecture Series is an opportunity for Purdue faculty and staff members engaged in the research topic to interact with colleagues on scholarly work. The program is aimed at enhancing the intellectual vibrancy of the West Lafayette campus.

This lecture will be open exclusively to members of the Purdue University Retirees Association (PURA), reflecting Purdue’s commitment to offering meaningful educational and social opportunities for retirees who remain closely connected to the university.

Registration will be limited to the first 50 PURA members who sign up using an email invitation sent exclusively to members. For questions about this event, please contact presevents@purdue.edu.

“Accelerating Pediatric Medical Device Innovation Through Collaboration”
Matthew Waninger
Managing Director
Crossroads Pediatric Device Consortium

Abstract: The creation and innovation of medical devices to treat sick infants and children lags behind that of adults by at least 10 years. More effectively addressing the ongoing national shortage of new technologies and therapeutics for these children requires a new approach. The Crossroads Pediatric Device Consortium — a collaborative partnership among Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, Riley Hospital for Children, and industry partners Cook Medical and OrthoPediatrics — is working to bring the latest in medical technologies to the youngest patients. In this lecture, Waninger will discuss his role and the work of the consortium in bringing together world-class engineering, clinical expertise and industry leadership to accelerate the development of life-changing pediatric medical devices.

Bio: Matthew Waninger has more than 25 years of experience in medical device research and product development, spanning early concept development, in vitro and in vivo verification testing, clinical studies, regulatory approvals, and scientific publications. Before joining the Crossroads Pediatric Device Consortium as the managing director in 2024, he held leadership roles at Cook Medical and founded the MED Institute in 2015, a contract research organization supporting medical device entrepreneurs.

A recognized leader in the field, Waninger has served on several international medical device standards committees and was an industry advisor to the Food and Drug Administration’s Characterization of Human Aortic Anatomy Project and MRI safety research. He previously served on Greenberg Stent Summit’s scientific advisory board, the Purdue Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering’s advisory board, and the Indiana Health Industry Forum’s board of directors, and he was a Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship fellowship mentor. He was recently named an adjunct clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Waninger is a three-time Purdue graduate, earning his bachelor’s (1989), master’s (1994) and PhD (1998) in electrical engineering from the university.

Upcoming fall 2025 Westwood Lecture Series events

Oct. 21: Cathie Aime, professor of botany and plant pathology in the College of Agriculture, will discuss a One Health approach to studying fungal biodiversity and disease.

Aime leads a pioneering research lab that uses a One Health framework to study the systematics, biodiversity and evolution of fungi to better understand their broader impact on ecosystems and health. She also directs the Purdue University Herbaria, which examines and hosts some of the world’s most important rust fungal specimens, lichens and nonvascular plants. In this lecture, Aime will discuss her innovative work sequencing the coffee leaf rust genome to aid in disease resistance efforts.

Nov. 11: Michelle Thompson, associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences in the College of Science, will present findings from the analysis of asteroid Bennu samples returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

Thompson’s research focuses on the alteration of airless planetary surfaces caused by exposure to the space environment, a process known as space weathering. She served as a science team member of JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission, is deputy lead of the Contact Pad Working Group on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission and is the principal investigator of the PRECISE NASA Planetary Science Enabling Facility. In this lecture, Thompson will highlight her team’s analysis of asteroid Bennu samples to better understand the evolution of airless planetary bodies in our solar system.