Enhancing Undergraduate Bioengineering Education through Engaged Service Learning, Clinical Immersion, and Entrepreneurship

摘要 今天的生物医学工程师需要面对复杂和交叉的培训的独特特点， 学科问题给课程设计带来困难。需要容纳足够强大的 在基础科学和工程以及生物医学工程的不同领域的背景往往 结果是一整套技术性很强的教学课程，在此之前很少有机会进行体验式培训， 顶点高级设计课程。由于缺乏实践经验，生物医学工程专业的毕业生 由于软技能、批判性思维或临床思维欠发达，进入劳动力市场可能会很困难 需要在专业的生物医学团队环境中取得成功。为应付这方面的需要，我们建议加强 通过促进早期接触基于实践的团队设计和临床经验学习， 行业相关实践。我们将专门实现团队服务学习设计的新组件 课程在大二的水平，夏季临床沉浸计划与当地医院和紧急医疗 初级服务，以及由当地行业专家领导的以团队为中心的翻译研讨会， 医疗器械的商业化，以增加高级设计经验。满足学生的需求- 基于服务学习的设计项目将帮助他们开发技术， 公众健康的关注，同时亦会受到市民欢迎，并加深他们对 工程在服务社会中的重要性。在此基础上，通过在拟议的 临床沉浸计划，学生将获得熟练识别和评估未满足的临床需求 并获得与人的因素有关的有意义的观点，以及对优质医疗设计的期望。 设备.学生还将受益于一个设计团队为中心的研讨会系列，将由当地行业领导 专家通过开展活动，增进他们对与工业有关的发展做法的了解， 以及如何通过监管审批流程来翻译和商业化他们的高级设计 技术.通过这三个层次的增强我们的计划，使学生通过完整的 从需求发现到商业化的发展，学生将在早期获得实践经验， 在他们的本科学习中不断重复。通过加强他们在工程、医学、 该计划将帮助我们的毕业生满足生物医学劳动力的需求，并作为 生物医药行业的下一代企业家。

Abstract The unique characteristics of the training needed for today’s biomedical engineers to face complex and cross- disciplinary problems impart difficulties in curriculum design. The need to accommodate a sufficiently strong background in foundational science and engineering as well as the diverse areas of biomedical engineering often results in a full set of technically-heavy didactic courses with little opportunity for experiential training prior to the capstone senior design course. As a result of the lack of practical experience, biomedical engineering graduates entering the workforce may struggle due to under-developed soft skills, critical thinking, or the clinical mindset needed to succeed in a professional biomedical team setting. To address this need, we propose to enhance our curriculum by facilitating earlier exposure to hands-on team based design and experiential learning in clinical and industry relevant practice. We will specifically implement new components of a team service-learning design course at the sophomore level, a summer clinical immersion program with local hospitals and emergency medical services at the junior level, and a team-centered workshop led by local industry experts on the translation and commercialization of medical devices to augment the senior design experience. Providing students with needs- based service-learning design projects will prepare them in developing technologies that will not only address public health concerns but also be welcomed by the community and enhance their understanding of the importance of engineering in service to society. Building upon this through new partnerships in the proposed program for clinical immersion, students will gain proficiency in identifying and evaluating unmet clinical needs as well as gain meaningful perspectives related to human factors and expectations for design of a quality medical device. Students will also benefit from a design team-centered workshop series that will be led by local industry experts through activities that will improve their understanding of the industry-relevant practices for development, and how to navigate the regulatory approval processes to translate and commercialize their senior design technologies. Through this three-tiered enhancement to our program that takes students through the complete progression from needs finding to commercialization, students will gain the practical experience early on and repeatedly throughout their undergraduate studies. By strengthen their skills spanning engineering, medicine, and business this program will help our graduates meet the needs of the biomedical workforce and serve as the next generation of entrepreneurs in the biomedical industry.