An Assessment Instrument for User-centered Innovation Potential Among Biomedical Engineers
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biomedical Engineering
- Page Count
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27
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--34108
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/34108
- Download Count
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419
Paper Authors
Carolina Vivas-Valencia Purdue University, West Lafayette
Carolina Vivas-Valencia is a Ph.D. student in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette IN. Her research interests focus on simulation modeling and optimization in population health, healthcare data analytics and outcomes research, community-based health operations research, and innovation education in engineering.
Nan Kong Purdue University, West Lafayette
Nan Kong is an Associate Professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interest includes big-data health analytics. He is actively in collaborating with international partners to enhance American engineering students' global learning.
Eunhye Kim Purdue University, West Lafayette
Eunhye Kim is a Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research interests lie in engineering design education, especially for engineering students’ entrepreneurial mindsets and multidisciplinary teamwork skills in design and innovation projects. She earned a B.S. in Electronics Engineering and an M.B.A. in South Korea and worked as a hardware development engineer and an IT strategic planner in the industry.
Senay Purzer
Purdue University, West Lafayette
orcid.org/0000-0003-0784-6079
Ṣenay Purzer is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education. She studies design learning in college and pre-college education. She is the editor of the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education (JPEER) and serves on the editorial board of Science Education.
Lindsey B. Payne Purdue University, West Lafayette
Dr. Lindsey Payne is a Director in the Office of Engagement at Purdue University coordinating service-learning programs and initiatives. She has a courtesy appointment in Environmental and Ecological Engineering where she teaches a service-learning course in which interdisciplinary teams of students collaboratively identify stormwater management problems, co-design solutions, maintain budgets, and evaluate impacts with community partners. Dr. Payne’s research sits at the intersection of sustainability, teaching and learning, and engagement focusing on transdisciplinary decision-making frameworks in community-based design projects. She also specializes in the assessment of instructional effectiveness and student learning in active learning environments. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, and is the Chair of the Teaching Academy. She has a B.A in Biological Sciences from DePauw University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Ecological Sciences and Engineering from Purdue University. She has also worked professionally in the non-profit and secondary education sectors, and currently serves on multiple community-based environmental boards.
Abstract
In addressing the challenge of rising healthcare costs, medical technology innovation is needed to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and make care accessible and affordable. Meanwhile, biomedical engineers are increasingly asked to develop user-centered solutions. Nevertheless, making the solution desirable among users has been often neglected in the innovation process. To biomedical engineering educators, it remains unclear how to effectively stimulate user-centered innovation potential in an undergraduate biomedical engineering curriculum as there are a lack of studies discussing the interplay between design novelty and solution desirability.
This study aims to develop a user-centered innovation potential assessment instrument applicable to diverse biomedical engineering design projects. Particularly, this study investigates biomedical engineering student’s innovative design thinking in design prototyping. This investigation is guided by the following research questions: 1) how biomedical engineering students demonstrate innovation potential in their design projects; 2) how biomedical engineering students who have had nearly identical curriculum differ in their design projects when approaching innovative thinking; and 3) how biomedical engineering students bridge the gap between technology novelty and solution desirability.
This study is an exploratory study over two semesters, including nearly 20 design projects and around 70 biomedical engineering senior students who were taking a capstone design course. The instrument development was built on File and Purzer (2014)’s definition of innovation potential (1) feasibility (2) viability (3) desirability and (4) novelty. Among these aspects, we focused on the assessment of feasibility, desirability and novelty, which can be quantified and assigned to each design idea proposed by the students. To measure these metrics, we used student’s design journal and a specific in-class ideation assignment as our main data source. To validate our assessment instrument, we applied thematic analysis. We first identified patterns from the design ideas by extracting key attributes such as timeline to complete the project, cost-effective materials, and on-campus resources availability. Next, we estimated the frequency of the key attributes in a design idea and converted each of them to a 5-point scale. Finally, we calculated a composite score for user-centered engineering innovation potential by multiplying the scales on feasibility, desirability and novelty. The students focused only on design conceptualization in the first semester whereas in the second semester, they were required to emphasize both design conceptualization and prototyping.
In the first semester, we observed that ten project teams defined a realistic timeline to complete their projects. Five teams proposed the use of accessible or budget friendly materials and six proposed the use of equipment available on campus. We found that students’ expectations in the proposal phase were often driven by the desire of designing high caliber technology, but often lack the understanding of user-centered needs. We will run the assessment for the second semester on an identical cohort of students but different projects.
The authors believe that this study improves our understanding on user-centered innovation potential in an undergraduate biomedical engineering curriculum and provide insights on how to effectively design interventions to stimulate the development of user-centered innovative thinking skills among biomedical engineers.
Vivas-Valencia, C., & Kong, N., & Kim, E., & Purzer, S., & Payne, L. B. (2020, June), An Assessment Instrument for User-centered Innovation Potential Among Biomedical Engineers Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34108
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