Development of an Enhanced Biodesign Curriculum to Promote Biomedical Innovation

Project Summary In the past five years, under the support of the NIH R25 grant, we successfully developed a comprehensive curriculum pathway for our undergraduate team-based biomedical engineering (BME) capstone design courses. In this renewal proposal, we aim to improve the current curriculum by developing new courses/programs and bringing new partners to the interdisciplinary design teams, to enhance BME student skill development in biodesign, expand the team perspective, and improve communication across disciplines. In the next project period, we aim to achieve the following three goals: 1) Offer an enhanced biodesign curriculum to BME students, by adding new healthcare topics, global components, a more diverse pool of healthcare mentors, and a new course structure (i.e., the Vertically Integrated Projects Program), to the current practice. 2) Develop a Healthcare Device Innovation (HDI) Microcredential Program. Three courses will be developed for this microcredential program, covering various biodesign topics. These new microcredential courses will be open to enrollment for not only BME undergraduate students, but also all healthcare students and practicing healthcare providers within Stony Brook University and Stony Brook University Hospital. BME undergraduate students will be able to take these classes as technical electives. These courses will give BME students opportunities to work directly with a variety of healthcare providers with expertise in general medicine, nursing, dental medicine, clinical laboratory services, emergency medical services, radiology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and social welfare, etc. 3) Establish a new Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship Internship Program, in collaboration with Center for Biotechnology, the Intellectual Property Partners Office, and local biotech companies. This new internship program will provide BME undergraduate students with experiential learning opportunities to observe (and comprehend) the operational and business side of the biodesign process. We will recruit, retain and train a diverse group of students/participants in the proposed educational programs. Quantitative and qualitative analyses will be conducted to assess and evaluate the programs’ learning and teaching outcomes. The enhanced biodesign curriculum, microcredential and internship programs will help BME students to learn how to work effectively with various healthcare providers and other stakeholders during the biodesign process. All these programs will help BME students to gain practical skills that are needed for the future bioengineering workforce development.