Integrated Engineering and Rehabilitation Training

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案描述了我们的“综合工程和康复训练”计划，该计划培养生物医学博士毕业生，他们将神经工程（生物医学工程的一个领域）的最先进专业知识与临床康复的实践和挑战相结合。该项目以凯斯西储大学生物医学工程系为中心，但也包括我们当地几家医疗中心的大力参与。我们的项目专注于博士前培训，自1999年以来，我们已经培养了37名学生。我们要求资助共8个培训职位，每年5年。学员通常由该计划资助两年，因此我们预计在拟议的5年内共培养20名BME博士生。受训者进入工程或密切相关学科（如物理学）的本科培训。他们满足BME博士项目的严格要求，并从其现有的功能中受益，而我们的T32项目通过高度协作和跨学科的研究项目，临床沉浸式体验以及访问研讨会演讲者（包括期刊俱乐部）的独特途径增加了价值。在未来的5年里，我们将为神经工程师增加一门正式的职业发展课程，包括一系列关于多样性和正式多样性培训的研讨会，并组建一个由康复和神经工程领域的学术领袖、刺激和康复商业领域的大小公司代表、神经/康复执业医生和学生多样性专家组成的外部咨询委员会。的具体目标

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal describes our "Integrated Engineering and Rehabilitation Training" program that produces biomedical Ph.D. graduates who combine state-of-the-art expertise in neural engineering (an area of biomedical engineering) with a genuine appreciation of the practice and challenges of clinical rehabilitation. This program is centered in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, but also includes the strong participation of several of our local medical centers. Our program is focused exclusively on predoctoral training and we have trained 37 students since 1999. We are requesting funding for a total of 8 training positions per year for five years. Trainees are typicaly funded by the program for two years each, so we expect to train a total of 20 BME Ph.D. students over the proposed 5 years. Trainees enter with undergraduate training in engineering or a closely related discipline (e.g., physics). They satisfy the rigorous requirements of the BME Ph.D. program and benefit from its existing features, while our T32 program adds value through highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects, a clinical immersion experience, and unique access to visiting seminar speakers (including a journal club). Over the next 5 years, we will add a formal course on Career Development for Neural Engineers, include a seminar series on diversity and formal diversity training, and form an external Advisory Committee comprised of academic leaders in rehabilitation and neural engineering, representatives of large and small companies in the stimulation and rehabilitation commercial space, practicing neural/rehabilitation physicians, and a student diversity professional. The specific objectives of our training program are: (1) Prepare our trainees for productive careers in rehabilitation and neural engineering; (2) Provide a rigorous engineering education that forms the basis for future innovation; (3) Provide specific expertise in the development and application of neural stimulation and complementary interventions for overcoming neurological disorders; (4) Provide specific expertise in modeling and simulation (musculoskeletal and/or neural); (5) Provide an extensive, hands-on clinical immersion experience that prepares each trainee for a translational career; and (6) Provide real-world professional development training to enhance post-graduation success. We have assembled a distinguished group of mentors who serve in one of three roles: Research Training mentors (14) who are the primary research advisors of the trainees, Associate Research Training Mentors (7) who are content experts on T32 trainee committees, and Clinical Training Mentors (14) from rehabilitation and surgical disciplines who insure the clinical relevance of each trainee research project. Trainee project topics include electrode development; stimulation pattern design; neural motor control mechanisms; neural biomaterials, protection, and repair; deployment of interventions to individuals with neurological disorders; neuroreahabilitation; modeling and simulation; and brain-computer interfacing.