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Using the Cardiovascular System to Illustrate Fundamental Laws and Principles in a Freshman Course

Douglas Christensen, Richard Rabbitt Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Abstract Ð Our Fundamentals of Bioengineering I course is organized around key physical and engineering laws and principles. A semester-long Major Project is assigned which integrates many of these principles by modeling the human systemic cardiovascular system, using both Matlab computer analysis and assembly of an analogous electrical circuit.

Background Ð The new undergraduate degree program in biomedical engineering at the University of Utah accepted its first freshman class in fall 1999. An integral part of the curriculum is a sequence of two courses in the freshman year, Fundamentals of Bioengineering I and II, whose purpose is to expose the students to the field of bioengineering as well as to introduce some important scientific, engineering and physiological topics which help lay the foundation for later courses. Laboratory experiences in the form of a Major Project are included in each course. The first semester course covers biomechanical, bioelectrical, instrumentation and computer topics; the second semester covers biochemical, metabolic, cellular, and integrative (e.g., biosensors) subject material.

We decided to organize the first semester course around approximately 14 important physical and engineering laws and principles which are pertinent to biomechanics, bioelectricity and instrumentation. We chose this approach because we believe that the best foundation for further studies in biomedical engineering is formed when students learn and practice basic principles which underlie the field.1,2 The laws and principles we selected, and the order in which they are presented, are given in Table I.

Table I Ð Laws and Principles Covered in the Course Units

1. DarcyÕs Law (membranes) 9. KirchhoffÕs Laws (circuit analysis) 2. PoiseuilleÕs Law (flow through tubes) 10. Operational Amplifiers (gain, feedback) 3. HookeÕs Law (elasticity and compliance) 11. CoulombÕs Law (capacitors, fluid 4. StarlingÕs Law (cardiac adjustment) analogs) 5. EulerÕs Method (finite-difference solutions) 12. Thevenin Equivalent (1st-order time 6. Muscle, Force and Leverage constants) 7. Work, Energy and Power 13. Nernst Potential (cell membranes) 8. OhmÕs Law (current, voltage, resistance) 14. Fourier Series

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Rabbitt, R., & Christensen, D. (2002, June), Using The Cardiovascular System To Illustrate Fundamental Laws And Principles In A Freshman Course Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10784