Transforming the BME Design Experience from Freshman to Senior Year

项目总结/摘要 生物医学工程（BME）的大多数高级设计课程都要求学生完成创建 为未解决的临床问题提供工程解决方案。然而，这种经历往往是第一次在 课程，学生接触到需要发现，与临床医生沟通，以下工程 过程中产生创新的解决方案，并纳入用户的反馈。通过拟议的活动，我们 将在课程的早期引入临床创新经验，以便BME学生进入他们的顶峰 作为经验丰富的创新者。我们将充分利用医学、工程和 商业设计，创新和创业，形成一个早期的跨学科BME教育， 培养更有经验和创造力的生物医学工程师进入21世纪世纪。三个具体 在UAB的BME本科经验的战略增强的机会已经确定。 首先，有必要为BME低年级学生创造一种有凝聚力的体验， 前两年的师资和内容有限。其次，前期设计与现在的时间差距较大 课程和高级顶点，在此期间，接触临床问题是稀疏的，设计/创新 没有强调。第三，在顶点需要更高水平的工程设计活动 体验.本提案的目标将通过三个目标实现。第一个目的是介绍 临床创新和设计思维，以新生和新生提供需求发现的机会， 一个临床环境，并引导他们对解决方案的发展，以临床问题在课堂上设置。 在第二个目标中，10名正在上升的BME大三学生将参加为期10周的夏季临床沉浸式学习， 将围绕医疗/辅助设备或流程进行需求调查和客户发现，开发 初步设计/原型，并创建商业模式。一个教师团队将筛选他们的输出， 即将到来的高级设计课程。第三个目标是通过以下方式增强高级顶点体验 加快项目选择过程，并在第一学期教授最佳设计实践。在 第二学期，涵盖商业主题的新在线模块将为高级课程腾出宝贵的课堂时间。 工程主题和设计活动，将提高学生的学习成果，并增加潜力 新颖的可申请专利的设计。此外，我们还将与UAB残疾人支助办公室一起开展一项新的工作， 服务（DSS）招收残疾学生进入我们的本科课程。残疾人 代表一个强大的利益相关者，并考虑到我们在这一领域的产品开发成就记录， 这项活动将有助于提高总体成功率，并使工程方面服务不足的人员参与进来。

Project Summary/Abstract Most senior design courses in Biomedical Engineering (BME) challenge students with the task of creating engineered solutions to unsolved clinical problems. This experience, however, is often the first time in the curriculum that students are exposed to needs finding, communicating with clinicians, following an engineering process to generate innovative solutions, and incorporating user feedback. Through the proposed activities, we will introduce clinical innovation experiences earlier in the curriculum so that BME students enter their capstone year as experienced innovators. We will capitalize on existing partnerships between medicine, engineering and business in design, innovation, and entrepreneurship to form an early interdisciplinary BME education that fosters more experienced and creative biomedical engineers well into the 21st century. Three specific opportunities for strategic enhancement of the BME undergraduate experience at UAB have been identified. First, there is a need to create a cohesive experience for BME underclassmen, as student exposure to BME faculty and content is limited in the first two years. Secondly, there is a large gap in time between the early design courses and the senior capstone, during which exposure to clinical problems is sparse, and design/innovation are not emphasized. Thirdly, there is a need for higher level engineering design activities in the capstone experience. The objective of the present proposal will be met through three aims. The first aim is to introduce to clinical innovation and design thinking to freshmen and sophomores by providing needs finding opportunities in a clinical setting and guiding them toward development of solutions to clinical problems in a classroom setting. In the second aim, ten rising BME juniors will take part in a 10-week summer clinical immersion in which they will perform needs finding and customer discovery surrounding medical/assistive devices or processes, develop a preliminary design/prototype, and create a business model. A faculty team will screen their output for use in the upcoming senior design course. The third aim is to enhancement the senior capstone experience by accelerating the project selection process and teaching best design practices during the first semester. In the second semester, new online modules covering business topics will free up valuable class time for advanced engineering topics and design activities that will improve student learning outcomes and increase the potential for novel, patentable designs. In addition, we will launch a new effort with the UAB Office of Disability Support Services (DSS) to recruit students with disabilities into our undergraduate program. People with disabilities represent a powerful stakeholder and given our record of accomplishment for product development in this space, this activity will serve to improve overall success and involve an underserved constituent in engineering.