TY - JOUR
T1 - Curricular Advancement of Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Design Projects Beyond 1 Year
T2 - A Pilot Study
AU - Manbachi, Amir
AU - Logsdon, Elizabeth A.
AU - Yazdi, Youseph
AU - Durr, Nicholas J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Accessing a donation made to the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the authors established summer bridge funding to support two or three promising projects (selected toward the end of their main curricular year) to continue over the summer after Year 1. This award includes funding for the students’ part-time work and support from the program faculty. Selected teams are required to meet with the faculty and other support staff twice monthly throughout the summer. Funded teams must submit a one-page description of how the funds were used and must report the outcomes of their work at the end of the summer. Qualifications for and details of summer bridge funding are detailed below: Applications include a cover sheet, letter(s) of support, and proposal for the intended use of the funds; Projects may receive up to $4000 total; Each student must be on payroll for a minimum of 5 weeks, maximum of 10 weeks of work; Each student must commit a minimum of 10 h/week, maximum of 20 h/week; Incoming juniors/seniors must be part of the team for the entire duration of the project.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the support received from the Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering, as well as the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID). In addition, we are grateful to Dean T. E. Schlesinger, Dr. Michael Falk, Dr. J. Web Stayman and Dr. Eileen B. Haase for helpful discussions in forming the curricular advancement of the undergraduate design team program. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support received from Malinow family for the summer bridge funding described in this article. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the support received from the Johns Hopkins University?s Whiting School of Engineering, as well as the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID). In addition, we are grateful to Dean T. E. Schlesinger, Dr. Michael Falk, Dr. J. Web Stayman and Dr. Eileen B. Haase for helpful discussions in forming the curricular advancement of the undergraduate design team program. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support received from Malinow family for the summer bridge funding described in this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Biomedical Engineering Society.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - A year-long design project is a typical requirement for an undergraduate engineering degree. However, the abbreviated, two-semester format limits most projects from reaching appropriate maturity for obtaining intellectual property (IP) protection, external funding, and/or peer-reviewed publications. The traditional model may be associated with some dissatisfaction with the abrupt ending of the work, as projects are often just completing their initial proof-of-concept testing after 1 year. This study reports the results of a pilot experiment that allowed such design projects to extend through a second year. We investigated three different mechanisms for continuation: research credits, a second-year curricular course (Advanced Design Teams), and extracurricular support. Students in this program continued to engage with an advisory board of clinicians, engineers, and other professionals, many of whom had assisted with the project during the first year. We investigated whether continuing the projects in a curricular fashion may provide a better avenue for productivity than extracurricular mechanisms. Based on the results of this pilot study, our department has formalized a curriculum to support teams beyond the first year, in which continuing students from the first-year teams can apply to continue their projects for credit toward their degrees.
AB - A year-long design project is a typical requirement for an undergraduate engineering degree. However, the abbreviated, two-semester format limits most projects from reaching appropriate maturity for obtaining intellectual property (IP) protection, external funding, and/or peer-reviewed publications. The traditional model may be associated with some dissatisfaction with the abrupt ending of the work, as projects are often just completing their initial proof-of-concept testing after 1 year. This study reports the results of a pilot experiment that allowed such design projects to extend through a second year. We investigated three different mechanisms for continuation: research credits, a second-year curricular course (Advanced Design Teams), and extracurricular support. Students in this program continued to engage with an advisory board of clinicians, engineers, and other professionals, many of whom had assisted with the project during the first year. We investigated whether continuing the projects in a curricular fashion may provide a better avenue for productivity than extracurricular mechanisms. Based on the results of this pilot study, our department has formalized a curriculum to support teams beyond the first year, in which continuing students from the first-year teams can apply to continue their projects for credit toward their degrees.
KW - Capstone
KW - Design
KW - Engineering education
KW - Instrumentation
KW - Student project continuation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076619463&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85076619463&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10439-019-02434-7
DO - 10.1007/s10439-019-02434-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 31828455
AN - SCOPUS:85076619463
VL - 48
SP - 1137
EP - 1146
JO - Annals of Biomedical Engineering
JF - Annals of Biomedical Engineering
SN - 0090-6964
IS - 4
ER -