The value of practical design experience in biomedical engineering education

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Due to the rapid growth in biomedically related industries, there is a crucial need to provide appropriate training for the emerging workforce that will be responsible for translating new devices and technologies from the bench to the bedside. Students need exposure to research, clinical, and industrial environments to provide a solid foundation and understanding of the complex and diverse nature of biomedical engineering. To meet this need, we propose to expand our 6-credit team-based interdisciplinary senior design program to include clinically motivated projects identified during previous clinical immersion experiences. Within the context of the design project the students will identify the significance o the unmet clinical need and impact of finding a practical solution, outline the design constraints, and generate a working prototype as a solution to the unmet clinical need. The goals of this proposal are to (a) translate the unmet clinical needs into open-ended, team-based senior design projects to provide true bench-to-bedside problem solving opportunities, (b) broaden the students exposure and understanding of challenges that are specific to clinical environments while strengthening communication skills with clinical professionals, and (c) evaluate the effectiveness of the incorporation of clinically driven design projects into the senior design program. Ultimately we hope that exposure to guided but open-ended challenges from clinical professionals will broaden the students' understanding of the biomedical field, create effective engineering solutions to address clinical needs, and prepare students for careers in biomedical engineering.