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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.
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Design Throughout the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum Willis J. Tompkins Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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 Junior 1 BME 300 Sophomore 2 BME 201 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