ASME NEWS
ISHOW Africa Winners, SDOs Reach Out to Congress
A roundup of recent Society events.
THREE VENTURES IN AFRICA EARN PLACES IN ANNUAL ASME ISHOW
In June, ASME announced the latest regional cohort ventures joining the 2025 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW). These 2025 ASME ISHOW African ventures provide innovations that offer affordable, sustainable hardware technology solutions to agricultural, energy, and healthcare challenges.
Three ventures were selected to join the 2025 ISHOW cohort. One is the “CIST-Second Generation Bioethanol Fuel Micro Distillery System.” This solution is capable of converting waste cellulose biomass including sugar cane bagasse and water hyacinth into 95 percent ethanol. Another is the “I-Dress” solution. This is an affordable, sterile wound dressing made from gauze infused with honey and olive oil, designed to prevent infection and accelerate healing. Finally, “MariTest” is a non-invasive, AI-powered diagnostic device for rapid malaria detection and monitoring designed for frontline health workers in remote settings.
The 2025 ISHOW cohort will be invited to participate in the annual ISHOW Bootcamp in the winter to receive an extensive and customized design and engineering review by experts curated to guide them as they scale to market. They will also receive design services to support their product development. They become part of the ISHOW alumni network, an international community of hardware innovators and stakeholders with exclusive access to experts and resources.
ENGINEERING SOCIETIES URGE CONGRESS TO STOP PRO CODES ACT
ASME and a coalition of other leading standards development organizations (SDOs) have sent a letter to the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary urging its members to oppose H.R. 4072, the Pro Codes Act.
“ASME strongly opposes the Pro Codes Act and urges Congress to reject this misguided legislation,” said ASME Executive Director/CEO Tom Costabile. “We join a broad coalition of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) representing over two million engineering and technical professionals across all 50 states to express our deep concern that this bill is being advanced without stakeholder consensus, expert input, or proper legislative scrutiny. The Pro Codes Act poses serious risks to the proven public-private standards system that underpins safety, innovation, and U.S. technological leadership. It would impose sweeping mandates that destabilize copyright protections and penalize the very organizations that develop the voluntary standards our industries and infrastructure rely on. This bill has already failed in previous Congresses, and we urge Congress to reject it again.”
The coalition includes ASME, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), ASTM International, SAE International, the American Welding Society (AWS), the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors (NBBI), and the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB).
SENIOR PROJECT DEVOTED TO 3D PRINTED PROSTHETIC
As a student at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., Vitaliy Bondarchuk pursued a bachelor’s degree, served as an ASME Student Section Leader, and to complete his senior project requirement, designed a 3D printed prosthetic arm for his younger sister.
Faced with delivering a compelling plan for his senior mechanical engineering project, Bondarchuk sought a solution to a real-world problem. His sister, 7-year-old Bella, lives with a disability—born without her left arm below her elbow. “The challenge I tried to solve is helping her complete simple tasks, simple things she enjoys,” the new graduate explained. The young engineer credits creativity, perseverance, and learning from mistakes to finally achieving a workable design.
Bondarchuk ultimately got involved with ASME by reviving a long-neglected ASME Student Section. When ASME approval finally came through, Bondarchuk became the Chair of the Bob Jones ASME Student Section in Greenville. The experience of building the section has been invaluable, he said. And what began as simply reaching out to students continued with a bit of “trial and error.”
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