Enhancing Undergraduate Bioengineering Education through Engaged Service Learning, Clinical Immersion, and Entrepreneurship - Abstract
The unique characteristics of the training needed for today’s biomedical engineers to face complex and cross-
disciplinary problems impart difficulties in curriculum design. The need to accommodate a sufficiently strong
background in foundational science and engineering as well as the diverse areas of biomedical engineering often
results in a full set of technically-heavy didactic courses with little opportunity for experiential training prior to the
capstone senior design course. As a result of the lack of practical experience, biomedical engineering graduates
entering the workforce may struggle due to under-developed soft skills, critical thinking, or the clinical mindset
needed to succeed in a professional biomedical team setting. To address this need, we propose to enhance our
curriculum by facilitating earlier exposure to hands-on team based design and experiential learning in clinical
and industry relevant practice. We will specifically implement new components of a team service-learning design
course at the sophomore level, a summer clinical immersion program with local hospitals and emergency medical
services at the junior level, and a team-centered workshop led by local industry experts on the translation and
commercialization of medical devices to augment the senior design experience. Providing students with needs-
based service-learning design projects will prepare them in developing technologies that will not only address
public health concerns but also be welcomed by the community and enhance their understanding of the
importance of engineering in service to society. Building upon this through new partnerships in the proposed
program for clinical immersion, students will gain proficiency in identifying and evaluating unmet clinical needs
as well as gain meaningful perspectives related to human factors and expectations for design of a quality medical
device. Students will also benefit from a design team-centered workshop series that will be led by local industry
experts through activities that will improve their understanding of the industry-relevant practices for development,
and how to navigate the regulatory approval processes to translate and commercialize their senior design
technologies. Through this three-tiered enhancement to our program that takes students through the complete
progression from needs finding to commercialization, students will gain the practical experience early on and
repeatedly throughout their undergraduate studies. By strengthen their skills spanning engineering, medicine,
and business this program will help our graduates meet the needs of the biomedical workforce and serve as the
next generation of entrepreneurs in the biomedical industry.
