Clinical and Entrepreneurial Immersion to Enhance Bioengineering Senior Design at North Carolina A&T State University

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of the proposed work is to create a clinical and entrepreneurial immersion program to provide engineers with an interdisciplinary and innovative senior design experience. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T), a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) with a rich history and legacy of producing the largest number of African Americans with degrees in engineering. Unfortunately, access to clinical resources like translational researchers has been limited. In thi proposal, we will leverage the strengths of NC A&T, and the educational resources of the Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS), at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), to equip future engineers with the outstanding clinical, entrepreneurial, and research skills necessary to identify and develop clinically relevant advances in biomedical engineering. Successful implementation of the proposed work will increase the pool of talented minority engineers in the fields of biomedical sciences and engineering, and create a sustainable model for preparing future engineering students for entrepreneurship in the biomedical sciences. This proposal will combine the Chemical and Bioengineering students in their final year of training into one year-long (9 month) course to create interdisciplinary capstone design teams. The Senior Capstone design classes will include didactic lectures on student project management, communication, and problem solving skills. The investigators have significant experience in biomedical engineering design and innovation, and in senior design instruction. Students will also benefit from NCA&T's institutional environment that fosters team work and complete student development, and from perspectives gained during immersion in the UNC Hospitals. It is expected that 20-30 students will participate in this experience annually. The specific aims for the proposed work are to: 1. Provide a team-based interdisciplinary design experience that addresses clinically- and industrially relevant problems. 2. Develop a clinical immersion experience (CIE) with colleagues at NC TraCS that will inform identification of potential projects and prepare students to consider clinical and