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A new episode of SURROUND Presents brings together Aurie founder Souvik Paul and SVA’s Sinclair Smith to discuss why product design involves more than creating a compelling prototype. Their conversation considers how business planning, manufacturing, marketing and regulation shape whether a design can reach the people it is intended to help.
SURROUND Presents has featured a discussion on why product designers need to understand business and implementation as well as form and function. In the episode, METROPOLIS Editor-in-Chief Avi Rajagopal speaks with Souvik Paul, founder of medical device startup Aurie, and Sinclair Smith of the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Products of Design program about moving ideas from a design problem toward a viable product.
Paul’s experience with Aurie is a central example in the conversation. The startup is developing a reusable catheter system for people living with spinal cord injuries, spina bifida and multiple sclerosis. According to the source report, the catheter can be reused up to 100 times, while a compact system cleans, disinfects and lubricates it between uses. The report describes this as a design that addresses both the physical product and the economics of continued catheter use.
Paul did not begin his career in industrial design. He worked in finance on Wall Street before deciding to study design. Two weeks before he began graduate school at SVA, his future sister-in-law sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident. The experience redirected his studies toward products and services for people with disabilities, according to the report.
After graduating, Paul worked as a design strategist at Johnson & Johnson, where he encountered the challenges of taking medical technologies to market. He concluded that bringing Aurie into existence would require building the company behind the product, not just designing the device. Smith, meanwhile, has brought business modeling and entrepreneurship more directly into SVA’s Products of Design curriculum, drawing on his experience running the school’s Ground Floor Incubator. The report says students can develop commercial frameworks alongside their thesis products.
Design Skills Beyond the Prototype
The conversation focuses on a practical gap between a product that works as a concept and one that can reach its intended users. A prototype alone does not settle questions about manufacturing, distribution, funding, marketing or regulation. For products in health care, those challenges can shape whether a proposed solution is feasible and how it could be delivered.
For students and working designers, the discussion frames entrepreneurship as a way to account for those constraints earlier in the design process. Smith’s curriculum changes, as described in the report, connect a product’s design to a plan for sustaining and delivering it. Paul’s experience offers one example of a designer taking on that broader work to advance a medical device concept. The episode does not establish that every designer must become a founder; it highlights that understanding the systems around a product can affect whether the design has a path beyond the studio.
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From Disability-Focused Design to Aurie
Paul’s path into medical device design began with a personal experience shortly before graduate school. His future sister-in-law’s spinal cord injury led him to focus his studies on how products and services could support people living with disabilities. The work later contributed to the development of Aurie, whose catheter system is intended for people with several conditions that can affect catheter use.
The report places that work within a broader change in design education and practice. It says designers are increasingly being asked to consider the business models and production systems around their work, in addition to a product’s appearance and function. At SVA, Smith has responded by integrating entrepreneurship and business modeling into the Products of Design program. The source is a Design Milk report about the SURROUND Presents episode, rather than a technical evaluation of Aurie’s device or a study measuring the outcomes of the curriculum.
““If I believe that this product could—and should—exist in the world, I’m gonna have to do the legwork. I’m gonna have to take it across the finish line.””
— Souvik Paul, founder of Aurie, speaking on SURROUND Presents
Device Status and Evidence Still Unclear
The source material does not specify when the episode was published, whether Aurie’s catheter system is commercially available, or where it stands in development or regulatory review. It also does not provide clinical trial results, independent testing, pricing, manufacturing details or evidence comparing the reusable system with conventional single-use catheters. The claim that the catheter can be reused up to 100 times is presented in the report, but no testing method or supporting data is supplied there.
The report also offers an account of SVA’s curriculum changes but does not provide program-wide outcomes or evidence that entrepreneurship coursework leads to more products reaching the market. Those questions cannot be resolved from the episode summary alone.
Listen for the Full Discussion
The source directs readers to the full SURROUND Presents episode, presented by SVA, for Rajagopal’s conversation with Paul and Smith. It does not announce a follow-up episode, a product launch date or a regulatory milestone for Aurie. Further details about the device’s development and availability would need to come from the company or relevant regulatory disclosures; the report does not provide a timeline for those updates.
Key Questions
What is the SURROUND Presents episode about?
It examines why product design can require skills beyond creating a product concept, including business modeling, manufacturing, marketing and regulatory planning. The conversation features Avi Rajagopal, Souvik Paul and Sinclair Smith.
What is Aurie developing?
Aurie is developing a reusable catheter system for people living with spinal cord injuries, spina bifida and multiple sclerosis. The source report says its catheter can be reused up to 100 times and that the system cleans, disinfects and lubricates it between uses.
Is Aurie’s catheter available to buy?
The source material does not say whether the device is commercially available or provide a launch date. Its development and regulatory status are also not specified in the report.
How is SVA changing its product design program?
Sinclair Smith has integrated business modeling and entrepreneurship more directly into SVA’s MFA Products of Design curriculum. The report says students can work on commercial frameworks alongside their thesis products.
Where can readers hear the full conversation?
The source report points readers to the full SURROUND Presents episode, presented by the School of Visual Arts, featuring Rajagopal’s conversation with Paul and Smith.
Source: design-milk.com
