Immersive Team-Based Design in Undergraduate Bioengineering Education

描述（由申请人提供）：加州大学伯克利分校生物工程系（BioE）已经确定了在具有挑战性的医疗技术领域培养下一代伯克利生物工程师的迫切社会需求。由于最近的课程和项目开发，对加州大学伯克利分校即将毕业的生物工程师以及更广泛地说，对美国产生实质性和可扩展的积极培训影响的时机已经成熟。我们建议加强并显著扩展现有的（新的）核心项目课程，并让即将毕业的大四学生参与课程前的“临床沉浸”和课程后的“翻译沉浸”阶段。拟议的教学和体验相结合的培训将提供一个全面的介绍，在转化医学领域的创新-以补充理论知识与实践临床工作的目的。我们利用现有的以项目为基础的课程作为教育计划的核心，通过新提议的(a)课前（夏季）“临床浸入”期，让高年级生物工程本科生接触转化医学，以确定加州大学旧金山分校医学中心未满足的临床需求；(b)在与加州大学旧金山分校临床“客户”一起扩大的高年级设计项目课程中，增加团队项目机会和导师。(c)一个项目后的“翻译沉浸”学期，在这个学期中，学生们利用他们新获得的工程设计技能和对翻译挑战的欣赏，与一系列临床专家和行业领导者接触，了解工程在医学中的作用。通过R25，我们将通过三个具体目标培养本科生理解、从事和引领医疗技术创新：1)挑战我们的学生识别和定义生物医学问题，以实现有意义的生物工程解决方案；2)引入开放式生物医学问题的工程设计方法，同时营造一个促进和鼓励跨学科和团队创新的环境；3)提供一个受保护的培训期，在此期间，我们的学生通过发明、原型设计和新技术、诊断、测试来围绕开放式生物医学问题进行创新。和治疗，以满足真正的临床需要，咨询临床和商业领袖。

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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Increasing the number of new bioengineers with didactic & experiential training in translational medicine will increase and improve needs-centered innovation in medicine. Engineering students face challenges in translational medicine training, namely in gaining clinical experience and mentoring. In collaboration with UCSF and surrounding medical programs, UC Berkeley's proposed R25 will introduce a 'translational training' pipeline program in the culminating year of the BioE B.S. curriculum.