Designing Capstone Experiences for Interdisciplinarity in Biomedical Engineering Education

Holly M. Golecki; Jennifer R. Amos; Joe Bradley

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Biomedical Engineering Division (BED) Technical Session 2: Experiential Learning in Biomedical Engineering
Tagged Division: Biomedical Engineering Division (BED)
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42977
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42977
Download Count: 105

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Paper Authors

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Holly M. Golecki University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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Dr. Holly Golecki (she/her) is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Bioengineering at the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an Associate in the John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. She holds an appointment at the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine in the Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences. She is also a core faculty member at the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in the College of Engineering. Holly studies biomaterials and soft robotics and their applications in the university classroom, in undergraduate research and in engaging K12 students in STEM. Holly received her BS/MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University and her PhD in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University.

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Jennifer R. Amos University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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Jenny Amos is a Teaching Professor in Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is a AIMBE Fellow, BMES Board of Director Member, ABET Commissioner, two-time Fulbright Specialist in engineering education and has won multiple awards and recognitions for her teaching and scholarship of teaching. Outside of BME, she has also worked to revolutionize the future of graduate medical education serving as a founding member of the new Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, a first-of-its-kind engineering driven college of medicine. Amos is part of the Illinois NSF RED (Revolutionizing Engineering & Computer Science Departments) research team leading efforts to innovate assessment practices for engineering toward producing more holistic engineers. Amos has a decade’s worth of experience leading curriculum reform and implementing robust assessment strategies at multiple institutions.

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Joe Bradley University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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Joe Bradley is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, Health Innovation Professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, and Lecturer in the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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Abstract

Teamwork is a mainstay of today’s workplace environment. This is especially true in healthcare and engineering fields, where work is so interdependent that teams are a dominant means to facilitating progress. Design and capstone courses are one of the places where biomedical engineering students develop skills needed for success in a team-based workplace. Our department participates in several levels of design across programs. This includes Capstone in the Bachelors (BS) program, Professional Capstone in the Master of Engineering (MEng) program, and the Capstone Projects course in the College of Medicine. Having multiple disconnected levels of design presents numerous challenges, such as sourcing projects, structuring the scope of projects, and sharing resources both physical and personnel related. As a result, we elected to develop a shared resource model for projects across these programs in order to meet the needs of each program and to enhance the learning experience and professional preparation for students. In this new model, medical students develop projects based on needs identified during clinical rotations. Medical students then serve as clients for an engineering student team. Engineering teams are composed of MEng student project managers and BS student engineers, working on the project over the course of their capstone classes. Yet, the design and implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum can be a challenge for instructors and students alike. These challenges may be due to differences in epistemological views, constraints of the higher education system, or a lack of frameworks that support interdisciplinary approaches. In this paper, we will share a framework for a design continuum of biomedically focused projects to provide students within our programs a design experience relevant to appropriate academic, clinical, and industry roles and functions while optimizing department resources. To develop the collaboration, we applied an evidence-based science approach to conduct a human-centered design study integrated with insights from the literature to develop a more general understanding of the nature, form, and opportunities of cross-boundary coordination across multiple programs and multiple types of projects. Through multiple stakeholder analyses we created an updated design experience where medical school students, masters, and bachelors students worked together toward a common project goal. This paper summarizes results from a one-year pilot of the collaboration. The framework includes defined competencies and deliverables for each program along the spectrum of engineering design. Additionally, quantitative and qualitative surveys along with assessment of artifacts from the collaborative projects were used to assess the success of the framework. The strategies discussed in this paper may provide insight into the ways that collaboration among co-instructors can support the creation of learning experiences that overcome the challenges of isolated disciplinary experiences.

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Golecki, H. M., & Amos, J. R., & Bradley, J. (2023, June), Designing Capstone Experiences for Interdisciplinarity in Biomedical Engineering Education Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42977

TY - CPAPER
AB - Teamwork is a mainstay of today’s workplace environment. This is especially true in healthcare and engineering fields, where work is so interdependent that teams are a dominant means to facilitating progress. Design and capstone courses are one of the places where biomedical engineering students develop skills needed for success in a team-based workplace. Our department participates in several levels of design across programs. This includes Capstone in the Bachelors (BS) program, Professional Capstone in the Master of Engineering (MEng) program, and the Capstone Projects course in the College of Medicine. Having multiple disconnected levels of design presents numerous challenges, such as sourcing projects, structuring the scope of projects, and sharing resources both physical and personnel related. As a result, we elected to develop a shared resource model for projects across these programs in order to meet the needs of each program and to enhance the learning experience and professional preparation for students. In this new model, medical students develop projects based on needs identified during clinical rotations. Medical students then serve as clients for an engineering student team. Engineering teams are composed of MEng student project managers and BS student engineers, working on the project over the course of their capstone classes. Yet, the design and implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum can be a challenge for instructors and students alike. These challenges may be due to differences in epistemological views, constraints of the higher education system, or a lack of frameworks that support interdisciplinary approaches. In this paper, we will share a framework for a design continuum of biomedically focused projects to provide students within our programs a design experience relevant to appropriate academic, clinical, and industry roles and functions while optimizing department resources. To develop the collaboration, we applied an evidence-based science approach to conduct a human-centered design study integrated with insights from the literature to develop a more general understanding of the nature, form, and opportunities of cross-boundary coordination across multiple programs and multiple types of projects. Through multiple stakeholder analyses we created an updated design experience where medical school students, masters, and bachelors students worked together toward a common project goal. This paper summarizes results from a one-year pilot of the collaboration. The framework includes defined competencies and deliverables for each program along the spectrum of engineering design. Additionally, quantitative and qualitative surveys along with assessment of artifacts from the collaborative projects were used to assess the success of the framework. The strategies discussed in this paper may provide insight into the ways that collaboration among co-instructors can support the creation of learning experiences that overcome the challenges of isolated disciplinary experiences.
AU - Holly M. Golecki
AU - Jennifer R. Amos
AU - Joe Bradley
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Designing Capstone Experiences for Interdisciplinarity in Biomedical Engineering Education
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42977
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42977
ER -