Work in Progress: Providing Diverse Opportunities for Capstone Projects in Biomedical Engineering

A survey of 19 Biomedical Engineering (BME) senior projects, over a period of five years at Lawrence Technological University, shows a range of projects from applied research to design based. To provide uniformity in course instruction and assessment of these different types of projects, the process of taking an idea from inception to implementation is emphasized. All student teams follow a similar process of opportunity recognition, customer interaction, market analysis and design proposal. Direct and indirect assessments are used for a variety of individual and team based assignments and provide the statistical data for analysis of student performance and progress. Teams are required to remain in contact with project advisors who provide guidance in the discovery phase and help with resource gathering during the implementation of proposed ideas. The distributed course model, described in this paper, can be implemented in any project-based course to provide the necessary flexibility in dealing with different types of projects while adhering to a uniform method of course instruction and assessment. Capstone Senior Projects in Biomedical Engineering The importance and methodology for offering design1 or research-based2 approaches to capstone senior projects have been discussed previously in the literature. By providing the students with an array of options to look for unmet biomedical needs and then relying heavily on mentorship and guidance from project advisors during the ideation phase, we have had success in developing a flexible yet unified process to simultaneously run applied research and design projects within the same capstone series. Results have been encouraging with many projects resulting in intellectual property and/or scientific publications, while meeting the learning outcomes for the course. There are two points relative to this discussion that are worth mentioning: I. Qualitative assessment of the senior projects led to the realization that seniors were not properly prepared to seek their own project ideas, which is a critical component of the whole process. This prompted us to revisit the overall BME curriculum and several changes were instituted in the freshman, sophomore and junior level courses that lead up to the senior design. II. In our experience, pure research projects, although possible, work better as (individual) directed research since only a few students are inclined to spend the time needed to conduct an in-depth literature review of the topic area of interest. Students also find it more difficult to define team responsibilities and self-assign tasks in a curiosity and P ge 26756.2 knowledge driven research project. Therefore, applied research is more beneficial at the undergraduate level. Ideation Process in Senior Project Figure 1 shows all the resources that are used by the students to work on four major milestones during the semester. The first two enable the students to gather necessary information to find ideas to work on as well as find peers who are willing to collaborate in a team. The last two target the development of concepts and then choosing one that is most appropriate. Students are encouraged to develop design and research ideas which may stem from the need to: a. Improve existing technology and methods b. Find new methods and processes c. Repurpose existing non-medical technology for a biomedical applications d. Modify a biomedical technology for use in environments with fewer resources e. Modify a biomedical technology for use by a different customer base Figure 1: The general layout of the senior project course with the type of assessment tools used. The rationale behind repeatedly requiring the students to find/create many options and then choosing one/few, is to give them practice in developing and using a selection criterion based on real-world constraints like feasibility, availability of resources and time constraints. Team dynamics, collaboration and effective communication are also essential for best outcomes. The students are required to communicate with the developers and users of biomedical technologies and use this interaction to assist them in forming ideas for all projects. Client meeting are a critical part of the process and are most effective in generating ideas for projects. Depending on students’ interests and professional goals, they may choose to meet and interview researchers (academic and industrial), clinicians, nurses and even patients. In order to help students in this process, we organize seminars by Lawrence Tech faculty, collaborators and clinicians. Students are given the opportunity to visit local hospitals, clinics and senior care P ge 26756.3 centers for direct observation of medical facilities. Through a collaboration with School of Nursing and Mechanical Engineering at University of Detroit, Mercy and a local VA hospital, BME students also interact with patients/clients with physical disabilities. In general, the students who are interested in research or are considering graduate schools, gravitate towards faculty in BME, other engineering and science departments to find research projects. To prevent the students from simply asking the faculty for ideas for research projects, we advise the faculty to only direct students towards general topics and relevant scientific literature. The ideas for specific research projects must still stem from an unmet need that is recognized by the students and is within the research interests of the appropriate faculty member. Students identify their interests and then create a questionnaire for an interview with the appropriate person, with the goal of finding unmet biomedical needs. The questionnaire and the responses are assigned as homework that is individually submitted by all students. Students meet with the instructor and discuss the progress towards generation of ideas based on the interview. Grade Distribution for Different Activities Table 1 shows the grade distribution for various activities in the course syllabus during the semester. Initial group presentations and written assignments are worth 10% each. This is designed to give the students enough time to recognize their individual responsibilities and develop good team dynamics. Individual presentations allow students to learn about different ideas and spur student interaction and conversation that is necessary for team formation. Meetings with advisors and periodic assessment of personal and group notebooks is an excellent indicator of individual and group progress. It also emphasizes good record keeping habits. Table 1: Course assignment, timeline and grade distribution for the first semester capstone project Assignments Percentages Time Frame Attendance and in-class participation 5% Whole Semester Personal logbook 5% Weeks 3, 7, 11, 14 Group lab notebook 5% Weeks 6, 11, 15 Homework 5% Mostly Weeks: 1-5 Individual Need Statements Presentation 10% ~ Week 4-5 Written Need Statement Report 10% ~ Week 6-7 Group Concept Presentation 10% ~ Week 9-10 Final Proposed Design Presentation 30% ~ Week 15 Final Written Report 20% ~ Finals Week