A Longitudinal and Interdisciplinary Biodesign Internship Program for Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Students Focused on Medical Device Innovation

Challenge: The biomedical engineering (BME) capstone design courses are traditionally offered in students’ senior year. Students often feel underprepared for the hands-on biodesign and prototyping process. Also, capstone design projects are often provided by BME faculty, without students’ input in needs finding and screening. Novel Initiative: A longitudinal and interdisciplinary biodesign internship course sequence (program) was developed and offered. This internship course has three components. Part I is offered in the fall semester of students’ junior year, focusing on biodesign concept development and preliminary prototyping. Part II is offered in the spring semester of students’ junior year, focusing on clinical observation and needs finding. Part III is a 6-week summer immersion program, where students work directly with clinicians and industry mentors to convert a valid clinical need into a biodesign project and initiate the bio-innovation process. Successful summer projects can be carried forward into students’ senior year and become their senior design projects. Reflection: Since the start of this program in 2018, 47 students participated in the program, which accounted for approximately 20% of the total number of students. More than 75% of the projects developed in the biodesign internship program were successfully carried into BME senior design and involved more than 60% of BME students in their senior design process. Students were satisfied with their biodesign internship experience. Other products of this program include conference presentations, peer-reviewed journal publications, provisional patents, patents, and design competition awards.