Design Throughout the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum Willis J. Tompkins Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Transcript Design Throughout the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum Willis J. Tompkins Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Design Throughout the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum Willis J. Tompkins Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Design Backbone

Biomedical engineering emphasizes design   Design course required every semester beginning the first semester sophomore year (6 sequential courses) Students do client-based design projects in teams    Tasks are real-world biomedical engineering design projects, solicited primarily from medicine and life sciences faculty Juniors and sophomores work together (peer mentoring) for one semester Seniors do capstone design

Why integrate design throughout the curriculum?

 Design is the essence of engineering  Design transforms knowledge into reality producing new medical tools, devices, and technologies  Biomedical engineering practitioners of the future will need a strong command of design  Design experiences prepare students for unforeseen challenges

BME Design Course Sequence

Sophomore 1 BME 200 Sophomore 2 BME 201 Junior 1 BME 300 Junior 2 BME 301 Senior 1 (Capstone) BME 400 Senior 2 BME 402

Continuity of design process

 In 4-person design teams, first semester sophomores are paired with first semester juniors who peer-mentor them.

 Second semester juniors begin a pilot project that will lead to a major design implementation in senior year.  First semester seniors complete implementation of their prototype as capstone design project.  Second semester seniors evaluate and document prototype as well as doing an outreach to K-12 students.

Students learn to:

 Interact with clients to define the specifications for their projects  Use basic design principles for finding a variety of possible solutions and selecting the best solution  Find information from the web and other sources  Implement physical prototypes

The client-based design experiences help students to:

 Apply the knowledge learned in traditional courses to real-world problems and understand its relevance  Learn to solve real-world problems  Learn to work with others in teams  Develop leadership and communication skills  Acquire a sense of professionalism  Learn engineering skills and adopt innovative engineering attitudes  Gain confidence in their ability to solve increasingly challenging design problems

Design course deliverables

 Weekly e-mail team progress reports to advisor  Weekly two-hour lecture/lab meetings with advisor  Mid-semester PowerPoint presentations and end-of semester poster presentations  Written project reports  Engineering notebook  Web site for project  Prototype

One student from each design team participates in:

 BSAC (Biomedical Student Advisory Committee)  Discusses design course and general curriculum issues  Provides regular feedback to faculty  BWIG (Biomedical Web Implementation Group)  Responsible for the format and implementation of web sites for each project at: www.cae.wisc.edu/~bmedesgn/  Trains new students in web techniques

Sample design projects

 Valve for bodily fluid drainage for paralyzed individual  Thermal warm/heat probe for neurological examination  Instrumentation to study the startle response in primates  Sensor for vestibular feedback system  Device for rapid freezing of fruit flies  Device to quantify swallowing behavior