Evolution and Assessment of a Master's-level Multidisciplinary Regenerative Medicine Program

Lily Hsu Laiho; Kristen O'Halloran Cardinal; Trevor R. Cardinal

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Conference: 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Seattle, Washington
Publication Date: June 14, 2015
Start Date: June 14, 2015
End Date: June 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-50180-1
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Design and Research in BME
Tagged Division: Biomedical
Page Count: 9
Page Numbers: 26.699.1 - 26.699.9
DOI: 10.18260/p.24036
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/24036
Download Count: 474

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Paper Authors

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Lily Hsu Laiho California Polytechnic State University

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Lily Laiho is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical and General Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She also serves as the College of Engineering’s Director of Interdisciplinary Projects. She received her Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 2004. She teaches biomedical engineering design, biomedical imaging, and multidisciplinary senior design courses. Her research interests include the design of biomedical devices and investigating the protective benefits of milk phospholipids in preventing damage from ultraviolet exposure in skin cells.

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Kristen O'Halloran Cardinal California Polytechnic State University

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Trevor R. Cardinal California Polytechnic State University

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Abstract

EVOLUTION AND ASSESSMENT OF A MASTER’S-LEVEL, MULTIDISCIPLINARY REGENERATIVE MEDICINE PROGRAMOver the past five years, we have developed a multidisciplinary Master’s degree programin Regenerative Medicine at our university. This program involves faculty and studentsspanning three academic units at our university - Biomedical Engineering, BiologicalSciences, and Animal Science. The goals of our program are to prepare students forcareers in regenerative medicine in both academia and industry by providing them withbroad technical, critical thinking, and problem solving skills in order to be successful inthe area of regenerative medicine. This paper will discuss the evolution of the programand assessment of the program and our students.The Regenerative Medicine Program is a two-year program that consists of threecomponents - one year of coursework, a nine-month internship, and a Master’s project.Coursework includes intensive lab work and focuses on principles of stem cell biology,cell culture, scaffold development, cell sodding, immunofluorescence, animal surgeryand experimentation, therapeutic delivery, fluorescence microscopy, and image analysis.After completing most of their coursework, students complete an intensive nine-monthinternship at one of our partner institutions, which include four academic and fourindustry partners. Once their internship is complete, students return for one last quarter atthe university where they work on a research project and transfer knowledge from theirinternship back to the university.Throughout the program, students are given direct feedback on their performance. Theyare assessed by the instructor of each course on areas such as motivation, independence,dependability, attitude, quality of work, etc. Students meet with a faculty mentor at leastonce a quarter to receive and discuss these assessments. When students leave to go ontheir 9-month internships, they maintain close contact with their faculty mentors,providing monthly progress reports as well as monthly mentoring sessions via phone.Internship supervisors provide performance evaluations every three months. All of thesementoring and feedback mechanisms increase student success and serve to improveperformance.The program has undergone continuous assessment and improvement since the programbegan in 2009. Faculty and students in the program meet with an advisory board yearly,which is comprised of individuals from each of our partner institutions. The advisoryboard helps to assess the content of the courses, student preparation for the internship,student performance during the internship, program logistics, future directions of the fieldof regenerative medicine, and relevance of our coursework and program to ensure wecontinue to meet the needs of academia and industry. Results of these assessments willbe presented in the final paper and demonstrate the success of the program.

Citation
Format

Laiho, L. H., & Cardinal, K. O., & Cardinal, T. R. (2015, June), Evolution and Assessment of a Master's-level Multidisciplinary Regenerative Medicine Program Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24036

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      EVOLUTION AND ASSESSMENT OF A MASTER’S-LEVEL,       MULTIDISCIPLINARY REGENERATIVE MEDICINE                       PROGRAMOver the past five years, we have developed a multidisciplinary Master’s degree programin Regenerative Medicine at our university. This program involves faculty and studentsspanning three academic units at our university - Biomedical Engineering, BiologicalSciences, and Animal Science. The goals of our program are to prepare students forcareers in regenerative medicine in both academia and industry by providing them withbroad technical, critical thinking, and problem solving skills in order to be successful inthe area of regenerative medicine. This paper will discuss the evolution of the programand assessment of the program and our students.The Regenerative Medicine Program is a two-year program that consists of threecomponents - one year of coursework, a nine-month internship, and a Master’s project.Coursework includes intensive lab work and focuses on principles of stem cell biology,cell culture, scaffold development, cell sodding, immunofluorescence, animal surgeryand experimentation, therapeutic delivery, fluorescence microscopy, and image analysis.After completing most of their coursework, students complete an intensive nine-monthinternship at one of our partner institutions, which include four academic and fourindustry partners. Once their internship is complete, students return for one last quarter atthe university where they work on a research project and transfer knowledge from theirinternship back to the university.Throughout the program, students are given direct feedback on their performance. Theyare assessed by the instructor of each course on areas such as motivation, independence,dependability, attitude, quality of work, etc. Students meet with a faculty mentor at leastonce a quarter to receive and discuss these assessments. When students leave to go ontheir 9-month internships, they maintain close contact with their faculty mentors,providing monthly progress reports as well as monthly mentoring sessions via phone.Internship supervisors provide performance evaluations every three months. All of thesementoring and feedback mechanisms increase student success and serve to improveperformance.The program has undergone continuous assessment and improvement since the programbegan in 2009. Faculty and students in the program meet with an advisory board yearly,which is comprised of individuals from each of our partner institutions. The advisoryboard helps to assess the content of the courses, student preparation for the internship,student performance during the internship, program logistics, future directions of the fieldof regenerative medicine, and relevance of our coursework and program to ensure wecontinue to meet the needs of academia and industry. Results of these assessments willbe presented in the final paper and demonstrate the success of the program.
AU  - Lily Hsu Laiho
AU  - Kristen O'Halloran Cardinal
AU  - Trevor R. Cardinal
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Evolution and Assessment of a Master's-level Multidisciplinary Regenerative Medicine Program
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24036
DO  - 10.18260/p.24036
ER  -