Biotransport in Biomedical Engineering Course at UPRM

1. Biotransport in Biomedical Engineering Course at UPRM Rubén E. Díaz-Rivera, Ph.D. Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez

2. Course Info • INME 5015/6065: Principles of Biomedical Engineering • 3 credit hours, professional elective in ME • Advanced undergraduate/graduate level course • Popular with student in ME, EE, & ChemE • Typical enrollment: 15-20 students

3. Course Objectives • Describe several sub-areas of Biomedical Engineering and the principles and applications that drive these sub-areas • Recognize the challenges and directions of the most dynamic core areas in Biomedical Engineering • Apply mechanics concepts (e.g. transport phenomena) to biological or medical problems

4. Course Textbook • Multiple textbooks • “Introduction to Biomedical Engineering”, J. Enderle et al. • “Biomaterials: The intersection of Biology and Material Science”, J.S. Temenoff & A.G. Mikos • “Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems”, G.A. Truskey et al. • “Bioimpedance and Bioelectricity”, S. Grimmes & Ø.G. Martinsen • “Introduction to Bioengineering”, S.A. Berger et al. • “Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer”, F.P. Incropera et al. • “Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach”, Y.A. Çengel& M.A. Boles

5. Topics • History of biomedical engineering • FDA and ethical issues • Basic biology • Biomaterials • Biomechanics • Biofluid mechanics • Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics in Bio-systems • Mass Transfer in Bio-systems • Bioelectric Phenomena

6. Educational Strategy • Lectures • Homework • Plant tours • Zimmer, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Life Scan • Group Project

7. Educational Strategy • Group Project • The purpose of the group project is to select a product from a recognized Biomedical Engineering company, compare it against similar products on the market, and develop an improved device based on the students engineering background and the engineering fundamentals learned in class. • The project is divided into several tasks

8. Improvement of Drug Eluting Stents • Objectives • Analyze the of mass transport of the Drug Eluting Stent manufactured by Cordis (CYPHER) • Improve mass transport by proposing polymeric nanoparticles as an alternative for drug release M. Alvarez-Berríos, M. García-Jiménez, Chemical Engineering at UPRM

9. Improvement of Drug Eluting Stents Release rate concentration as a function of radius and length Concentration profile for the drug in the blood a function of time when using the stent (Co = 0.0226 g/cm3) M. Alvarez-Berríos, M. García-Jiménez, Chemical Engineering at UPRM

10. Outcomes Positive Negative • This course puts the students right outside their comfort zone, which stimulates their creativity • The students get to tackle real life problems (or close to it) • Students realize that they can solve biological/medical related problems w/ their engineering background • Some students are not used to have such freedom in selecting the appropriate problem to solve and end up missing the relevance of the assignment • Most of the biotransport material is covered late in the semester • Undergrads feel they don’t have the appropriate tools (e.g. COMSOL Multiphysics) to solve some of the proposed problems

11. Thanks!