A business plan for a robotic neurosurgical device invented by Vanderbilt University engineers won top honors last week at the sixth annual TechVenture Challenge.

The competition teaches students how to turn patented ideas developed by Vanderbilt faculty members into marketable products.

The device, called MERLIN, for MRI-Enabled Robotic non-Linear Incisionless Neurosurgery, was invented by Eric Barth, Ph.D., and Robert Webster, Ph.D., associate professors of Mechanical Engineering, and their colleagues.

Members of the winning MERLIN team were, from left, Bryn Pitt, graduate student in Barth’s lab, Vanderbilt MBA student Martin Wiegand, Rebekah Griesenauer, graduate student in Biomedical Engineering, Alice Leach, graduate student in Interdisciplinary Materials Science, Pooja Gaur, graduate student in Chemical and Physical Biology, and local business mentor Lauren Logue Helton.