Immersive Team-Based Design in Undergraduate Bioengineering Education

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): UC Berkeley's Department of Bioengineering (BioE) has identified a compelling societal need to educate the next cadre of Berkeley's bioengineers in the challenging area of medical technology. Owing to recent course and program development, the timing is right for a substantial and scalable positive training impact on UC Berkeley's graduating bioengineers and, more broadly, the US. We propose to enhance and significantly extend an existing (new) core project-based course and engage our graduating seniors in both a pre-course 'Clinical Immersion' and post-course 'Translational Immersion' periods. The proposed combined didactic and experiential training will provide a comprehensive introduction to innovating in the arena of translational medicine -- with the aim of supplementing theoretical knowledge with hands-on clincial work. We leverage an existing project-based course as the kernel for a educational program that will expose senior bioengineering undergraduates to translational medicine through newly proposed (a) pre-course (summer) 'Clinical Immersion' periods to identify unmet clinical needs at UC San Francisco Medical Centers, (b) enhanced team-project opportunities and mentors during an expanded senior design project course with UCSF clinical 'clients', and (c) a post-project 'Translational Immersion' semester in which students use their newly acquired engineering design skills & appreciation for translational challenges to engage a spectrum of clinical experts & industry leaders to understand the role of engineering in medicine. Through the R25, we will train undergraduates to understand, engage in, and lead medical technology innovation through three Specific Aims: 1) Challenge our students to identify and define biomedical problems to achieve meaningful bioengineering solutions, 2) Introduce engineering design approaches using open-ended biomedical problems, while fostering an environment in which interdisciplinary and team-based innovation are promoted & encouraged, 3) Provide a protected training period during which our students innovate around open biomedical problems through invention, prototyping, and testing of new technologies, diagnostics, and therapies which meet a true clinical need in consultation with clinical and business leaders.