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) u Students do client-based design projects in teams  Tasks are real-world biomedical engineering design projects, solicited primarily from medicine and life sciences faculty u Juniors and sophomores work together (peer mentoring) for one semester u Seniors do capstone design

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

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 BME Design Course Sequence

Continuity of design process u In 4-person design teams, first semester sophomores are paired with first semester juniors who peer-mentor them. u Second semester juniors begin a pilot project that will lead to a major design implementation in senior year. u First semester seniors complete implementation of their prototype as capstone design project. u Second semester seniors evaluate and document prototype as well as doing an outreach to K-12 students.

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

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

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

One student from each design team participates in: u BSAC (Biomedical Student Advisory Committee) u Discusses design course and general curriculum issues u Provides regular feedback to faculty u BWIG (Biomedical Web Implementation Group) u Responsible for the format and implementation of web sites for each project at: u Trains new students in web techniques

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

BME students and faculty at poster session