Design in Biomedical Engineering: Student Applications of Design Heuristics as a Tool for Idea Generation
- Conference
- Location
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Columbus, Ohio
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2017
- Start Date
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June 24, 2017
- End Date
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June 28, 2017
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biomedical
- Page Count
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15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--28115
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/28115
- Download Count
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981
Paper Authors
Anastasia Katharine Ostrowski University of Michigan
Anastasia Ostrowski is a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, conducting research with the Daly Design and Engineering Education Research Group. Her undergraduate degree is in Biomedical Engineering focusing on electrical engineering. Her current research focuses on understanding how engineering students in biomedical engineering engage in the design process.
Jin Woo Lee University of Michigan
Jin Woo Lee is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
Shanna R. Daly
University of Michigan
orcid.org/0000-0002-4698-2973
Shanna Daly is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. She has a B.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Dayton and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University.
Aileen Huang-Saad University of Michigan
Aileen is faculty in Engineering Education and Biomedical Engineering. Previously, Aileen was the Associate Director for Academics in the Center for Entrepreneurship and was responsible for building the Program in Entrepreneurship for UM undergraduates, co-developing the masters level entrepreneurship program, and launching the biomedical engineering graduate design program. Aileen has received a number of awards for her teaching, including the Thomas M. Sawyer, Jr. Teaching Award, the UM ASEE Outstanding Professor Award and the Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award. Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty, she worked in the private sector gaining experience in biotech, defense, and medical device testing at large companies and start-ups. Aileen’s current research areas include entrepreneurship engineering education, impact and engaged learning. Aileen has a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a Doctorate of Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Aileen is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Beta Sigma Gamma.
Colleen M. Seifert University of Michigan
Colleen M. Seifert is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and psychology at Yale University. She was an ASEE postdoctoral fellow at the University of California – San Diego and the Navy Personnel Research Development Center. Her research interests center on learning, memory, and creativity.
Abstract
Creative thinking during concept generation is an important source of successful innovation; thus, techniques that support creative conceptual designs are imperative to engineering design processes. Ideally, concept generation strategies should be based on empirical evidence to prove their applicability in the design context. A recently created ideation tool, called Design Heuristics, was developed through empirical studies of professional engineers and award-winning products. While the Design Heuristics strategies were identified and validated in the engineering product design space, their application in biomedical engineering spaces has not been examined.
In our study, we implemented a Design Heuristics lesson during one session of a year-long upper-level undergraduate biomedical engineering design course. Thirty-eight students worked in nine design teams on a project they chose from a set provided by the instructor. Prior to the session, students articulated their understanding of their project aims and specifications by completing a short assignment. During the in-class session, the students participated in three concept generation tasks. In the first, they individually generated design concepts based on their own natural ideation approaches. During the second, after a short training on how to use the tool, they individually generated concepts using a subset of the Design Heuristics. In the third period, students discussed their initial ideas within their teams and developed three ideas they chose to pursue. In this paper, we present a deep analysis of 12 students who participated in three of these biomedical engineering product design teams.
Our analysis revealed that biomedical engineering students successfully engaged in idea generation with the use of Design Heuristics. The students’ teams used the Design Heuristics to build new concepts. Each of the three teams produced diverse concepts and reported their use of specific Design Heuristics. The findings presented here include the design concepts during the Design Heuristic-inspired ideation, along with individual and team consideration of the concepts. We present specific examples of concepts generated with the tool, as well as final team ideas selected for further development. The findings suggest that Design Heuristics can support idea generation in a variety of biomedical engineering design project contexts, supporting the use of the Design Heuristics tool outside of the previously documented product design contexts. As in other studies of idea generation, Design Heuristics were found to facilitate idea generation by novice designers in a biomedical engineering domain.
Ostrowski, A. K., & Lee, J. W., & Daly, S. R., & Huang-Saad, A., & Seifert, C. M. (2017, June), Design in Biomedical Engineering: Student Applications of Design Heuristics as a Tool for Idea Generation Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28115
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