Outcomes of a Biomedical Engineering Design Education Workshop

A full day biomedical engineering design education workshop was held on October 22, 2002 in conjunction with the joint IEEE-EMBS/BMES conference in Houston. Attendees were from both University and Industry backgrounds. Eight subject areas relating to the teaching and conduct of design courses were discussed. These topics included placement of the courses in the curriculum, course objectives, solicitation and management of projects, possible sponsored national or international design contests, and industry sponsorship of project groups. Extensive notes and concept maps were generated for each of the topics discussed as the group met as a “committee of the whole.” The essence of the discussions provided a good general overview of the need by design instructors for mutual sharing of resources and of industry input to design courses, both in lecture content and in sponsorship of relevant design challenges. The group considers that there are several action items that will need to be addressed as time allows, such as: 1. the development of a communication medium, such as a design oriented section (page) of the IEEE-EMBS magazine, 2. the continued development of design overview web sites, 3. the sharing of design lecture and source material, and 4. the development and sponsorship of a national design competition. Introduction: The above mentioned workshop took place involving most of a full day of meetings and discussion. The following text will cover the topics discussed in four consecutive sessions, and will conclude with the group’s recommendations. Session 1: How and when should design be taught? (Gassert) and What outcomes should be expected from a design course? (Goldberg) Examples may be found in the literature for design courses aimed at the freshman through senior years. It was strongly recommended that design be a consideration in teaching throughout a four year education, but it was noted that few universities actually give credit for consecutive design courses through a four year education. Whatever the placement of the course (most are senior two semester courses) the consensus was that one needs to cover hard skills (project management, resource mining, and constraints), soft skills (technical communication, and team dynamics) and concept coverage (ethics, safety, intellectual property.) Design should provide the integration of theory and practice, provide skills for employment, and be done in such a manner as to over satisfy ABET minimum requirements. The design experience must