Multidisciplinary Team-Based Design Education to Create Biomedical Engineering Innovators

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a critical need to improve biomedical engineering education and the ability of biomedical engineers and project teams to translate new ideas into innovative, new medical devices and technologies that better meet healthcare needs in the United States. Biomedical engineers must be able to work on diverse, multidisciplinary project teams, communicate with team members and other personnel, and understand the economic, legal, regulatory, environmental, and social constraints of medical device design. They also must be able to carry out all phases of the design process from needs finding to commercialization of new products. The goal of the proposed project is to continue to improve the preparation of biomedical engineering graduates to design, develop, and commercialize new medical devices and technologies that will significantly impact public health. This will be accomplished by building upon the successful results of the first four years of the currently funded program (R25 EB013070) and implementing additional enhancements to the undergraduate biomedical engineering design curriculum at Marquette University (MU). These enhancements will build upon existing collaborations with new and established partners, and result in students' improved understanding of how to translate new devices and technologies from the laboratory to the bedside. The Specific Aims of the proposed new project include 1) expand students' knowledge of clinical procedures and the clinical environment, and develop their problem identification and needs finding skills, 2) improve the preparation of students to successfully translate and commercialize their design ideas for established or start-up medical device companies by developing their knowledge of current product development practices and design transfer and commercialization activities as part of multidisciplinary project teams, 3) expand students' experience with the entire product development process by adding value proposition creation and lean methods to the currently required design activities, 4) continue to expand students' knowledge of legal and ethical issues by providing them with strategies for dealing with unethical behavior in the work place, and 5) provide students with opportunities to develop design solutions to open- ended problems that can significantly improve health care in underserved populations or help a single client with unmet needs (assistive technology projects) to show students how their work as biomedical engineers can directly improve public health and the lives of others.