Integrated Engineering and Rehabilitation Training

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案描述了我们的“综合工程和康复训练”项目，培养生物医学博士毕业生，他们在神经刺激和一般康复工程方面拥有毋庸置疑的专业知识，并对临床康复的实践和挑战有真正的认识。该项目以凯斯西储大学生物医学工程系为中心，但也包括我们当地几家医疗中心的大力参与。我们的项目专注于博士前培训，自1999年以来，我们培养了约25名学生。我们要求在五年内每年为总共8个培训职位提供资金，这将维持我们目前的支持水平。学员通常由该计划资助两年，因此我们预计在拟议的五年内共培训20名BME博士学生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal describes our "Integrated Engineering and Rehabilitation Training" program that produces biomedical Ph.D. graduates who combine an unquestioned expertise in neural stimulation and general rehabilitation engineering with a genuine appreciation of the practice and challenges of clinical rehabilitation. This program is centered in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, but also includes the strong participation of several of our local medical centers. Our program is focused exclusively on predoctoral training and we have trained ~25 students since 1999. We are requesting funding for a total of 8 training positions per year for five years, which would maintain our current level of support. Trainees are typically funded by the program for two years each, so we expect to train a total of 20 BME Ph.D. students over the proposed five years. The specific objectives of our training program are: (1) Prepare our trainees for productive careers in rehabilitation and neural engineering; (2) Provide a rigorous engineering education that forms the basis for future innovation; (3) Provide specific expertise in the development and application of neural stimulation for overcoming neurological disorders; (4) Provide specific expertise in modeling and simulation (musculoskeletal and/or neural); (5) Provide an extensive, hands-on clinical experience that prepares each trainee for a translational career; and (6) Provide real-world professional development training to enhance post-graduation success. RELEVANCE: Disability due to neurological disorders is a major medical challenge that can often mitigated by application of electrical stimulation to specific neural structures. Research and commercial applications related to neural stimulation are growing almost exponentially, leading to a real need for highly qualified, Ph.D.-level engineers who have the technical and clinical backgrounds provided by this program.