First year Biomedical Engineering M. Sc. degree student Ásgeir Bjarnason was awarded the Innovation
prize of the President of Iceland for the year 2010 on Tuesday 2 March in a ceremony held at the president's
house Bessastaðir in Iceland. He received the award for the project “Implantable puls- and
oxygen-saturation meter” that was done for the company Star-Oddi (www.star-oddi.com) during the
summer of 2009. Star-Oddi is a company that specializes in implantable measurement equipment for
animals and Ásgeirs project focused on building a prototype of a product that can be used for laboratory
animals in pharmaceutical industry.

The prize has been awarded annually since 1995 by the President of Iceland to students who have
done exceptional work in a project sponsored by the “innovation students fund”. This year there were 560
applications for the funding. Finally 130 projects lasting from two to three months were sponsored. The fund
is distributed to teachers on a University level, companies, research facilities or individuals that are
considered having special knowledge of a subject that allows them to hire students for work.

Icelandic reports about the prizes:
www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/03/02/fekk_nyskopunarverdlaunin/ - Biggest newspaper in
Iceland
www.ru.is/haskolinn/frettir/nr/24762
www.rannis.is/forsida/frettir/nr/2075/
www.hi.is/is/frettir/nyskopunarverdlaun_forseta_islands_2010