Impact Of Team And Advisor Demographics And Formulation On The Success Of Biomedical Engineering Senior Design Projects
- Conference
- Location
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Louisville, Kentucky
- Publication Date
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June 20, 2010
- Start Date
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June 20, 2010
- End Date
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June 23, 2010
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biomedical
- Page Count
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12
- Page Numbers
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15.669.1 - 15.669.12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--15947
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/15947
- Download Count
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329
Paper Authors
Alyssa Taylor University of Virginia
Alyssa C. Taylor is a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. She received a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering with a Biomedical Engineering emphasis at the University of California, Davis. Ms. Taylor’s teaching activities at the University of Virginia have included designing and co-instructing undergraduate teaching labs and assisting with the coordination of the BME Capstone Senior Design course at the University of Virginia. Her research interests include retinal angiogenesis and microvascular remodeling, as well as undergraduate engineering pedagogical approaches. Upon completion of her Ph.D. degree, Ms. Taylor will join the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, where she will coordinate undergraduate teaching labs and the Bioengineering Capstone Design sequence.
Katelyn Mason University of Virginia
Katelyn E. Mason is a third year undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. Since January 2009, Ms. Mason has been collaborating on research projects in Shayn M. Peircs lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. Her research is focused on hypoxia-induced retinal neovascularization, as well as the evaluation of factors impacting the success of the undergraduate Capstone Design experience at the University of Virginia. Ms. Mason expects to receive her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in May 2011.
A. Leyf Peirce Starling The Fletcher School
Mrs. Leyf Starling is a 6th grade science and reading comprehension at The Fletch School in Charlotte, NC. She received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Virginia in May, 2003. She is currently working on her MAT in Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte while conducting research in science teaching methods for students with learning disabilities. Mrs. Starling has also taught middle school math and science at Durham Academy, Providence Day School, and Community House Middle School. She is also a consultant for the TeachEngineering website through Duke University.
Timothy Allen
University of Virginia
orcid.org/0000-0001-5768-6339
Dr. Timothy E. Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. He received a B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Allen's teaching activities include coordinating the undergraduate teaching labs and the Capstone Design sequence in the BME department at the University of Virginia, and his research interests are in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. He is also interested in evaluating the pedagogical approaches optimal for teaching lab concepts and skills, computational modeling approaches, and professionalism within design classes
Shayn Peirce University of Virginia
Dr. Shayn M. Peirce is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. She received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. Dr. Peirce's teaching activities have focused on developing and teaching the undergraduate Capstone Design course in the BME department at the University of Virginia, and her research is focused on using in vivo and computational models to elucidate the mechanisms of vascular differentiation and the efficacy of stem cell-based therapies for wound repair.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Impact of Team and Advisor Demographics and Formulation on the Success of Biomedical Engineering Senior Design Projects
Abstract
A major senior design experience is a requirement of all ABET-accredited undergraduate biomedical engineering (BME) programs. At the University of Virginia, this experience is implemented in the form of a team-based, year-long Capstone design course. Student teams work on a diverse set of real-world BME problems and are advised by different cohorts of research faculty, clinicians, and/or industrial advisors. Our study addresses whether or not team and advisor demographics and formulation impact project outcomes in terms of success metrics, defined here as grant applications, conference proceedings, peer-reviewed publications, patent filings, national or university-level awards, and technology licensing. Our analysis spans five consecutive years of the Capstone design course, in order to determine which factors contribute to the success of a Capstone project. Aspects of student team demographics and formulation considered include: team size, gender, and grade point average (GPA). Advisor demographics considered include: number of advisors per team, affiliation, degrees, and experience. Data is presented as (average total number of successes/team ± SEM).
Our results indicate that the number of student members on a team impacts Capstone project success as defined by our metrics. Both teams with 3 and 4(+) students generated significantly more total successes per team ((2.3 ± 0.61) and (2.5 ± 0.71), respectively) than teams with only 2 student members (1.2 ± 0.24) (p ≤ 0.05). The average total number of successes/team generated by teams with only one student member was also notably lower (1.5 ± 0.18) than that of larger teams, although this comparison was not statistically significant. In addition, for students working individually, their cumulative GPA entering Capstone was found to correlate with the success of their Capstone projects. For example, students with a GPA of 2.8 or below produced a significantly lower amount of success outcomes than students with a GPA of 3.6 or above ((0.20 ± 0.20) vs. (2.0 ± 0.32), (p < 0.03)).
The results of our study indicate that advisor demographics are also important contributors to the success of a Capstone project. For example, the number of advisors/team appears to impact Capstone project success. Teams with 3 or more co-advisors produced significantly more total successes per team (3.7 ± 0.81) than teams with only one advisor (1.4 ± 0.18) or two co-advisors (1.6 ± 0.25) (p < 0.005). Capstone advisors are selected from a variety of disciplines, and advisor affiliation was found to impact project success. Interdisciplinary advisors generated the most successes/team, as compared to teams advised only by advisors of a single affiliation, i.e. BME, industry, nursing, etc. Teams with industrial advisors performed significantly better if also co-advised by at least one advisor with a different affiliation than industry (i.e. BME) ((2.1 ± 0.17) vs. (0.44 ± 0.17), (p < 0.001)). Teams with advisors possessing different types of degrees generated more success/team than teams with a single advisor or multiple advisors possessing the same type of degree.
Our findings indicate that a variety of aspects of student team and advisor demographics impact the generation of Capstone project success outcomes. The results of this study enable us to make
Taylor, A., & Mason, K., & Peirce Starling, A. L., & Allen, T., & Peirce, S. (2010, June), Impact Of Team And Advisor Demographics And Formulation On The Success Of Biomedical Engineering Senior Design Projects Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--15947
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