Enhancing Undergraduate Bioengineering Education through Engaged Service Learning, Clinical Immersion, and Entrepreneurship

摘要 当今生物医学工程师所需要的培训具有面对复杂性和交叉性的独特特点。 学科问题给课程设计带来困难。需要容纳足够强大的 具有基础科学和工程以及生物医学工程不同领域的背景 结果产生了一整套技术含量高的教学课程，几乎没有机会在 卡普斯通高级设计课程。由于缺乏实践经验，生物医学工程专业毕业生 由于软技能、批判性思维或临床思维的不足，进入职场可能会遇到困难 需要在专业的生物医疗团队中取得成功。为了满足这一需求，我们建议加强我们的 课程通过促进更早地接触基于实践的团队设计和临床体验式学习 和行业相关的实践。我们将具体实现团队服务-学习设计的新组件 二年级的课程，与当地医院和急救医疗人员一起进行的暑期临床沉浸课程 初级服务，以及由当地行业专家领导的以团队为中心的翻译和 医疗器械的商业化，以增强高级设计体验。为学生提供需求- 基于服务学习的设计项目将为他们开发技术做好准备，这些技术不仅将解决 公众卫生关注的同时，也受到社会的欢迎，并加强他们对 工程在服务社会中的重要性。在此基础上，通过拟议的 临床沉浸计划，学生将获得在识别和评估未满足的临床需求方面的熟练程度 以及获得与人的因素有关的有意义的观点和对设计高质量医疗的期望 设备。学生还将受益于由当地行业领导的以设计团队为中心的系列研讨会 通过开展活动增进专家对与行业相关的发展做法的了解， 以及如何驾驭监管审批流程以翻译其高级设计并将其商业化 技术。通过对我们计划的这三个层次的增强，引导学生完成 从需求发现到商业化的过程中，学生将在早期和 在他们的本科学习中反复出现。通过加强他们在工程、医学、 商业这项计划将帮助我们的毕业生满足生物医学劳动力的需求，并作为 生物医药行业的下一代企业家。

Abstract The unique characteristics of the training needed for today’s biomedical engineers to face complex and cross- disciplinary problems impart difficulties in curriculum design. The need to accommodate a sufficiently strong background in foundational science and engineering as well as the diverse areas of biomedical engineering often results in a full set of technically-heavy didactic courses with little opportunity for experiential training prior to the capstone senior design course. As a result of the lack of practical experience, biomedical engineering graduates entering the workforce may struggle due to under-developed soft skills, critical thinking, or the clinical mindset needed to succeed in a professional biomedical team setting. To address this need, we propose to enhance our curriculum by facilitating earlier exposure to hands-on team based design and experiential learning in clinical and industry relevant practice. We will specifically implement new components of a team service-learning design course at the sophomore level, a summer clinical immersion program with local hospitals and emergency medical services at the junior level, and a team-centered workshop led by local industry experts on the translation and commercialization of medical devices to augment the senior design experience. Providing students with needs- based service-learning design projects will prepare them in developing technologies that will not only address public health concerns but also be welcomed by the community and enhance their understanding of the importance of engineering in service to society. Building upon this through new partnerships in the proposed program for clinical immersion, students will gain proficiency in identifying and evaluating unmet clinical needs as well as gain meaningful perspectives related to human factors and expectations for design of a quality medical device. Students will also benefit from a design team-centered workshop series that will be led by local industry experts through activities that will improve their understanding of the industry-relevant practices for development, and how to navigate the regulatory approval processes to translate and commercialize their senior design technologies. Through this three-tiered enhancement to our program that takes students through the complete progression from needs finding to commercialization, students will gain the practical experience early on and repeatedly throughout their undergraduate studies. By strengthen their skills spanning engineering, medicine, and business this program will help our graduates meet the needs of the biomedical workforce and serve as the next generation of entrepreneurs in the biomedical industry.