UMass Amherst to Establish Nurse-Engineering Graduate Training Program With Nearly $3M NSF Grant

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Frank Sup and Karen Giuliano

This story was first published by the UMass News Office.

A UMass Amherst research team led by faculty from the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation (EMCNEI) has been awarded nearly $3 million to establish the nation’s first graduate training program designed to combine nursing’s hands-on patient care with engineering’s technical knowledge.

The five-year U.S. National Science Foundation award will create SHINE: Strengthening Healthcare Innovation through Nursing and Engineering. In partnership with Baystate Health, this program will tackle some of healthcare’s toughest challenges around the realities of patient care.

Its four main focal areas of work include: streamlining healthcare workflow to ensure continuous, quality patient care; leveraging automation and robotics; improving the safety and usability of intravenous (IV) infusion pumps and developing innovative healthcare products.

Nurses are experts in patient care, but too often they are required to adapt to products and tools designed without their input. “Most of what nurses have been given are engineered tools,” explains SHINE principal investigator Frank Sup, co-director of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation and professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. “Nearly everything nurses rely on for patient care has been engineered, yet as the primary end-users, they have rarely been included in the design process, leading to workflow inefficiencies and equipment that does not address the realities of clinical practice. We intend to change that.”

The EMCNEI has a successful track record of breaking down barriers between nursing and engineering. Established in January 2021 out of a long history of campuswide nurse–engineer collaboration, the center is now poised to expand its impact, says Sup. With support from the NSF grant, the center will further develop its interdisciplinary training program, with plans to recruit 28 doctoral students from both nursing and engineering over the next five years, with the first cohort beginning in fall 2026. Graduates of the program will earn a Certificate in Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship, equipping them for careers at the intersection of clinical care, technology and industry.

A fundamental part of SHINE is the partnership between the EMCNEI Amherst and Nursing Research at Baystate Health. By uniting frontline clinical expertise with the world-class interdisciplinary academic resources and research at UMass, the collaboration ensures that new technologies are designed around the realities of patient care. 

“This unique nurse–engineer partnership not only drives practical solutions for healthcare challenges in Western Massachusetts but also serves as a blueprint for healthcare innovation nationwide,” says Karen Giuliano, EMCNEI co-director and joint professor at the Institute for Applied Life Sciences and the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing. “With its focus on usability, safety and patient-centered design, the partnership has the potential to shape national standards, accelerate the translation of innovation into practice, and improve outcomes for both patients and providers.”

To achieve SHINE’s goals, the program includes a core group of nursing and engineering faculty with expertise spanning healthcare delivery, robotics and medical device development. This diversity of backgrounds reflects the interdisciplinary strength of SHINE. From mechanical and industrial engineering, the core faculty include Professor Hari Balasubramanian, Assistant Professor Muge Capan and Associate Professor Govind Srimathveeravalli. From the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing, faculty members include Associate Professors Joohyun Chung and Carrie-Ellen Briere, along with Assistant Professor Jeannine Blake. In addition, Assistant Professor Yeonsik Noh holds a joint appointment in nursing and electrical and computer engineering, further bridging the two disciplines.

“By combining the breadth of UMass’s academic resources with Baystate’s clinical expertise and real-world practicality, we can accelerate the development and implementation of meaningful, practical innovations and bring them to the point of patient care as quickly as possible,” says Giuliano.

For additional information on the program, contact nurse-engineer [at] umass [dot] edu (nurse-engineer[at]umass[dot]edu).