Capstone Design Courses: Producing Industry-Ready Biomedical Engineers
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Description
The biomedical engineering senior capstone design course is probably the most important course taken by undergraduate biomedical engineering students. It provides them with the opportunity to apply what they have learned in previous years; develop their communication (written, oral, and graphical), interpersonal (teamwork, conflict management, and negotiation), project management, and design skills; and learn about the product development process. It also provides students with an understanding of the economic, financial, legal, and regulatory aspects of the design, development, and commercialization of medical technology.
The capstone design experience can change the way engineering students think about technology, society, themselves, and the world around them. It gives them a short preview of what it will be like to work as an engineer. It can make them aware of their potential to make a positive contribution to health care throughout the world and generate excitement for and pride in the engineering profession. Working on teams helps students develop an appreciation for the many ways team members, with different educational, political, ethnic, social, cultural, and religious backgrounds, look at problems. They learn to value diversity and become more willing to listen to different opinions and perspectives. Finally, they learn to value the contributions of nontechnical members of multidisciplinary project teams. Ideas for how to organize, structure, and manage a senior capstone design course for biomedical and other engineering students are presented here. These ideas will be helpful to faculty who are creating a new design course, expanding a current design program to more than the senior year, or just looking for some ideas for improving an existing course.
ISBN
9781598292923
Publication Date
2007
Publisher
Morgan & Claypool Publishers
City
San Rafael, CA
Keywords
capstone design courses, career preparation, biomedical engineering design education, design projects, new product development process
Disciplines
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering | Engineering Education
Comments
Introduction
Purpose, Goals, and Benefits
1. Why Our Students Need a Senior Capstone Design Course
2. Desired Learning Outcomes
3. Changing Student Attitudes, Perceptions, and Awareness
4. Senior Capstone Design Courses and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Outcomes
II Designing a Course to Meet Student Needs
5. Course Management and Required Deliverables
5.1 Duration of Capstone Course
5.2 Structure and Sequence of Capstone Course
5.3 Faculty Involvement
5.4 Grading
5.5 Required Course Deliverables
5.6 Extracurricular Activities
6. Projects and Project Teams
7. Lecture Topics
8. Intellectual Property and Confidentiality Issues in Design Projects
III Enhancing the Capstone Design Experience
9. Industry Involvement in Capstone Design Courses
10. Developing Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy
11. Providing Students with a Clinical Perspective
12. Service Learning Opportunities
13. Collaboration With Industrial Design Students
14. National Student Design Competitions
14.1 Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Award
Capstone Design Courses
14.2 Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Medical Instrumentation National Student Design Competition
14.3 Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Undergraduate Student Design Competition
14.4 The Collegiate Inventors Competition
14.5 National Scholar Award for Workplace Innovation and Design
15. Organizational Support for Senior Capstone Design Courses
IV Meeting the Changing Needs of Future Engineers
16. Capstone Design Courses and the Engineer of 2020
Conclusion
Author Biography