Engineering pedagogy centered narrowly on technical competence alone has well-known limitations; this is particularly profound in the intrinsically interdisciplinary field of biomedical engineering. Over the past two decades, the emphasis on redesigned curricula and practice-oriented activity have fostered successful team based activity in and around the classroom, reflecting the changing paradigm of design for today's ?new economy? biomedical engineer. The dialectic nature of the Senior Design Capstone Experience is central to forging students into engineers through a transformative leap in critical and applied thinking, but the approach is often ?too much, too late.? Entrenched academic traditions of ?jam-packed? technical curricula are not aligned with today's professional practice. The Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) approach to this challenging educational task involves four research aims, two of which leverage the outcomes of a prior NIH R25 award:
Aim 1 is to enable and promote interactive and hands-on learning; new research will include the development of an extra- curricular training workshop to help boost skills, the establishment of a managed, stocked, lab space, and the introduction of a ?moot court? series for interactive learning about legal cases, encouraging informal learning through experimentation.
Aim 2 provides an inter-professional team environment. Translating biomedical engineering knowledge into practice involves not only an understanding of a highly interdisciplinary science, but also draws on an inter-professional team environment. We will expand our prior success with the involvement of external clinical and industrial design stakeholders through the inclusion of commercialization experts and mentors for legal and regulatory affairs.
Aim 3 centers on the development of non-technical skills. We propose to further enhance our already strong emphasis on non-technical skill development by employing a competitive proposal process for selecting projects as well as expanding the course in the fall from 2 to 3 hours per week. This expansion will allow for more small-group discussions with their TA (project manager) as well as explore a greater range of ethical and liability case studies in a recitation format.
Aim 4 establishes concrete outcomes to disseminate the results of the training. Commensurate with the idea that engineers do not work in isolation, as part of this work, we will develop a series of standardized case studies to share with other institutions. With these aims we seek to build upon the foundation of our current success in transforming student into engineers and further enrich the Senior Design capstone experience not only for the curriculum at our institution, but the capabilities of Biomedical Engineers across the field as well.
Project Summary Engineering pedagogy centered narrowly on technical competence alone has well-known limitations; this is particularly profound in the intrinsically interdisciplinary field of biomedical engineering that also has entrenched an academic tradition of ?jam-packed? technical curricula, not aligned with today's professional practice. The Case Western Reserve University approach to this challenging educational task involves four research aims, two of which leverage the outcomes of a prior NIH R25 award. In this research program we will (a) to enable and promote interactive and hands-on learning, (b) provide an inter-professional team environment, and (c) expand our prior team-based-learning success with the involvement of external clinical and industrial design stakeholders through the inclusion of commercialization experts and mentors for legal and regulatory affairs.
