A team of NTU graduate students proudly accepted the 2014 Red Dot Design Concept Award on September 26 for the design of a novel vascular stent that significantly enhances the efficacy of drug distribution. Called the Superior Stent, the team's invention stood out from a field of 4,791 entries submitted by teams from 63 countries in this year's competition, exemplifying NTU's achievements in both academic research as well as practical applications.

The Superior Stent is the world's first depot stent to make use of a rhombus-shaped design concept. While providing an extended clinical lifespan compared to previous models, the stent's unique shape also creates a larger storage capacity that enables the stent to become a possible vehicle for delivering such therapeutic cargo as drugs and cells. Last year, the team's stent design earned it the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Light Metal Award. The recent addition of the internationally-recognized Red Dot Award serves as further validation of the innovative concept's commercial potential.

The Superior Stent was designed by NTU graduate students Bor-Hann Huang, Dian-Ru Li, and Cheng-Han Lin, under the guidance of Prof. Hao-Ming Hsiao of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Prof. Hsiao's Advanced Medical Device Laboratory is dedicated to the research as well as the practical development of advanced medical equipment intended for implantation into the human body. Potential applications of the team's device include vascular stents, cardiac catheterization, drug delivery, and heart valves. Research and development of the Superior Stent was made possible due to the support of Taiwan's Metal Industries Research and Development Center as well as the NTU Department of Mechanical Engineering.