Fifty Years of Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Education

Assessing the need for biomedical engineering graduate programs in Saudi Arabia: A stakeholder perspective

BackgroundBiomedical Engineering (BME) plays a crucial role in advancing healthcare. While BME graduate programs have expanded globally, Saudi Arabia faces a significant gap in this area. As the country shifts from being primarily a consumer to a producer in the healthcare sector, determining the essential knowledge and skills required for BME graduates to meet market demands becomes increasingly important.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the need for a graduate-level BME program in Riyadh and to design a Master's program that aligns with international standards and industry requirements.MethodsA comprehensive questionnaire was developed to evaluate the proposed program's coverage of BME fields, its relevance to current and future job market demands, and stakeholder feedback. The questionnaire was distributed to 45 managerial and executive-level BME professionals involved in hiring and policymaking.ResultsThe findings indicated strong support for the program, with respondents affirming its comprehensiveness and alignment with industry needs. Public sector participants showed greater enthusiasm compared to the private sector, which preferred hiring candidates with existing qualifications. Additionally, 25% of respondents recommended incorporating regulatory and business courses to enhance the curriculum.ConclusionThe results highlight the urgent need for graduate-level BME education in Saudi Arabia to support the country's healthcare objectives and better prepare graduates for the dynamic and evolving job market.

Incorporating a Hands-On Device-Based Activity in a Human Factors Biomedical Engineering Course in Sub-Saharan Africa

A challenge in building the biomedical engineering human factors course at Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences was integrating meaningful direct experiences with medical products. The instructor also noticed a significant gap between the topics in the course and their surrounding clinical context, a low-income setting. Recognizing that devices should be designed and evaluated in the context of the local users' needs and situations, new hands-on modules were created and implemented in this BME human factors course. Students were asked to critically evaluate and make recommendations to improve the human factors aspects of the software and hardware of the IMPALA, a vital signs monitoring device developed for use in Malawi. Engaging with this medical device, students observed and understood many issues discussed in human factors, including the design of ports, controls, and other user interfaces. The collaboration between the course and the IMPALA project harnessed the local expertise of students to improve the design of a new patient monitoring system. Thus, the IMPALA project itself benefited from this collaboration. Second, students greatly benefited from applying the class concepts to the IMPALA. Students were engaged far more during the interactive components than during the lecture components. Many students successfully translated their knowledge on human factors to their final-year design project.

Integration of Febio as an Instructional Tool in the Undergraduate Biomechanics Curriculum

Computer simulations play an important role in a range of biomedical engineering applications. Thus, it is important that biomedical engineering students engage with modeling in their undergraduate education and establish an understanding of its practice. In addition, computational tools enhance active learning and complement standard pedagogical approaches to promote student understanding of course content. Herein, we describe the development and implementation of learning modules for computational modeling and simulation (CM&S) within an undergraduate biomechanics course. We developed four CM&S learning modules that targeted predefined course goals and learning outcomes within the febio studio software. For each module, students were guided through CM&S tutorials and tasked to construct and analyze more advanced models to assess learning and competency and evaluate module effectiveness. Results showed that students demonstrated an increased interest in CM&S through module progression and that modules promoted the understanding of course content. In addition, students exhibited increased understanding and competency in finite element model development and simulation software use. Lastly, it was evident that students recognized the importance of coupling theory, experiments, and modeling and understood the importance of CM&S in biomedical engineering and its broad application. Our findings suggest that integrating well-designed CM&S modules into undergraduate biomedical engineering education holds much promise in supporting student learning experiences and introducing students to modern engineering tools relevant to professional development.

Hybrid Soft-Rigid Active Prosthetics Laboratory Exercise for Hands-On Biomechanical and Biomedical Engineering Education

This paper introduces a hands-on laboratory exercise focused on assembling and testing a hybrid soft-rigid active finger prosthetic for biomechanical and biomedical engineering (BME) education. This hands-on laboratory activity focuses on the design of a myoelectric finger prosthesis, integrating mechanical, electrical, sensor (i.e., inertial measurement units (IMUs), electromyography (EMG)), pneumatics, and embedded software concepts. We expose students to a hybrid soft-rigid robotic system, offering a flexible, modifiable lab activity that can be tailored to instructors' needs and curriculum requirements. All necessary files are made available in an open-access format for implementation. Off-the-shelf components are all purchasable through global vendors (e.g., DigiKey Electronics, McMaster-Carr, Amazon), costing approximately USD 100 per kit, largely with reusable elements. We piloted this lab with 40 undergraduate engineering students in a neural and rehabilitation engineering upper year elective course, receiving excellent positive feedback. Rooted in real-world applications, the lab is an engaging pedagogical platform, as students are eager to learn about systems with tangible impacts. Extensions to the lab, such as follow-up clinical (e.g., prosthetist) and/or technical (e.g., user-device interface design) discussion, are a natural means to deepen and promote interdisciplinary hands-on learning experiences. In conclusion, the lab session provides an engaging journey through the lifecycle of the prosthetic finger research and design process, spanning conceptualization and creation to the final assembly and testing phases.

A Qualitative Study of Biomedical Engineering Student Critical Reflection During Clinical Immersion Experiences

Purpose

Clinical immersion experiences provide engineering students with opportunities to identify unmet user needs and to interact with clinical professionals. These experiences have become common features of undergraduate biomedical engineering curricula, with many published examples in the literature. There are, however, few or no published studies that describe rigorous qualitative analysis of biomedical engineering student reflections from immersion programs.

Methods

Fifteen reflection prompts that align with program learning goals were developed and structured based on the DEAL model for critical reflection. Undergraduate participants in a summer immersion program responded to these prompts throughout five weeks of clinical rotations. Data from two summer cohorts of participants (n = 20) were collected, and thematic analysis was performed to characterize student responses.

Results

Students reported learning about key healthcare topics, such as medical insurance, access to healthcare (and lack thereof), stakeholder perspectives, and key medical terminology and knowledge. Most reflections also noted that students could apply newly gained medical knowledge to biomedical engineering design. Further, clinical immersion provided students with a realistic view of the biomedical engineering profession and potential areas for future professional growth, with many reflections identifying the ability to communicate with a variety of professionals as key to student training. Some students reflected on conversations with patients, noting that these interactions reinvigorated their passion for the biomedical engineering field. Finally, 63% of student reflections identified instances in which patients of low socioeconomic status were disadvantaged in health care settings.

Conclusions

Clinical immersion programs can help close the gap between academic learning and the practical experience demands of the field, as design skills and product development experience are becoming increasingly necessary for biomedical engineers. Our work initiates efforts toward more rigorous analysis of students' reactions and experiences, particularly around socioeconomic and demographic factors, which may provide guidance for continuous improvement and development of clinical experiences for biomedical engineers.

A Survey of Clinical Immersion Experiences in Biomedical Engineering

Immersion in clinical environments is generally believed to be a valuable experiential learning opportunity for students in biomedical engineering, both at the undergraduate and the graduate level. Immersion is believed to foster an understanding of medical culture, clinical operations, interprofessional collaboration, and oftentimes allows students to either identify unmet clinical needs. The National Institutes of Health supports efforts through grants to incorporate these clinical immersion programs into biomedical engineering curricula, and this has potentially facilitated an expansion of these programs across the United States. Unknown is how common clinical immersion experiences are in biomedical engineering programs, in general how these are organized and executed, and their goals. We conducted a survey of biomedical engineering programs to learn how many programs offer clinical immersion experiences, over what timeframe and in what formats, and what is known about their goals and learning outcomes. We present here the results of that survey which includes 52 clinical immersion courses and programs, 14 of which either are or were previously funded by the NIH. Each of these courses or programs engages, on average, about 27 students per year, but range in size from 2 to 160. The duration of the immersion experience likewise varies greatly from 3 to 400 h. The objectives of these programs are mostly to identify problems, develop engineering solutions to problems, or to learn clinical procedures. Despite the impressive breadth of experiences revealed by this survey, we still know relatively little about their impact on student learning, motivation, identity, or career path. Desired outcomes and assessment strategies must be better aligned with the structure of the clinical immersion experiences themselves if we are to determine if they are effective in meeting those outcomes, including those of professional preparation.

BME 2.0: Engineering the Future of Medicine

If the 20th century was the age of mapping and controlling the external world, the 21st century is the biomedical age of mapping and controlling the biological internal world. The biomedical age is bringing new technological breakthroughs for sensing and controlling human biomolecules, cells, tissues, and organs, which underpin new frontiers in the biomedical discovery, data, biomanufacturing, and translational sciences. This article reviews what we believe will be the next wave of biomedical engineering (BME) education in support of the biomedical age, what we have termed BME 2.0. BME 2.0 was announced on October 12 2017 at BMES 49 (https://www.bme.jhu.edu/news-events/news/miller-opens-2017-bmes-annual-meeting-with-vision-for-new-bme-era/). We present several principles upon which we believe the BME 2.0 curriculum should be constructed, and from these principles, we describe what view as the foundations that form the next generations of curricula in support of the BME enterprise. The core principles of BME 2.0 education are (a) educate students bilingually, from day 1, in the languages of modern molecular biology and the analytical modeling of complex biological systems; (b) prepare every student to be a biomedical data scientist; (c) build a unique BME community for discovery and innovation via a vertically integrated and convergent learning environment spanning the university and hospital systems; (d) champion an educational culture of inclusive excellence; and (e) codify in the curriculum ongoing discoveries at the frontiers of the discipline, thus ensuring BME 2.0 as a launchpad for training the future leaders of the biotechnology marketplaces. We envision that the BME 2.0 education is the path for providing every student with the training to lead in this new era of engineering the future of medicine in the 21st century.

Engineers in Medicine: Foster Innovation by Traversing Boundaries

Engineers play a critical role in the advancement of biomedical science and the development of diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for human well-being. The complexity of medical problems requires the synthesis of diverse knowledge systems and clinical experiences to develop solutions. Therefore, engineers in the healthcare and biomedical industries are interdisciplinary by nature to innovate technical tools in sophisticated clinical settings. In academia, engineering is usually divided into disciplines with dominant characteristics. Since biomedical engineering has been established as an independent curriculum, the term "biomedical engineers" often refers to the population from a specific discipline. In fact, engineers who contribute to medical and healthcare innovations cover a broad range of engineering majors, including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, industrial engineering, and computer sciences. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the contributions of different engineering professions to the development of innovative biomedical solutions. We use the term "engineers in medicine" to refer to all talents who integrate the body of engineering knowledge and biological sciences to advance healthcare systems.

Experiential Learning in a Biomedical Device Engineering Course: Proposal Development and Raw Research Data-Based Assignments

There is a need for novel teaching approaches to train biomedical engineers that are conversant across disciplines and have the technical skills to address interdisciplinary scientific and technological challenges. Here, we describe a graduate-level miniaturized biomedical device engineering course that has been taught over the last decade in in-person, remote, and hybrid formats. The course employs experiential learning components, including a proposal development and review that mimic the National Institutes of Health process and technical assignments that use raw research data to simulate a research experience. The effectiveness of the course was measured via pre-/post-course concept inventory surveys as well as course evaluations with targeted questions on the learning instruments. Statistical comparison of pre-/post-course survey scores suggests that the course was effective in students achieving the learning objectives, and comparison of relative increase in pre-/post-course survey scores across different instruction formats (i.e., in-person, remote, hybrid) showed minimal difference, suggesting that the teaching elements are readily transferrable to remote instruction.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43683-022-00094-z.

Regulation and Certification of (Bio)Medical Engineers: A Case Study on Romania

This paper analyzes the Romanian biomedical engineering educational path and certification process in European and international contexts and emphasizes the existence of a deficient operationalization of this qualification and profession, arguing that the domestic shortcomings are both a consequence of an unquestioned process of adopting European and even international classification schemes, and of insufficiently developed national administrative capabilities to properly implement the aforementioned classification frameworks. The core part of the article investigates the current academic track of the biomedical engineering specialization and scrutinizes the classification of occupations at different jurisdictional levels. The conclusions of the study indicate that one of the possible solutions for improving this unsatisfying status quo comes from a better communication between the national and European levels, and by their pro-active involvement in the international attempts of reviewing and refining the existing frameworks. The article ends with several recommendations and policy proposals meant to strengthen the role of various profession-certifying European documents, as well as to alleviate the regulatory deficiencies that this specialization has at Romanian level, in order to maximize its potential in the labor market.

Fostering Community and Inclusion in a Team-Based Hybrid Bioengineering Lab Course

As cornerstones of biomedical engineering and bioengineering undergraduate programs, hands-on laboratory experiences promote key skill development and student engagement. Lab courses often involve team-based activities and close communication with instructors, allowing students to build connection and community. Necessitated by the pandemic, changes to class delivery format presented unprecedented challenges to student inclusion and engagement, especially for students from underrepresented minority backgrounds. Here, we present a multi-faceted approach for fostering inclusion and community-building in a hybrid bioengineering laboratory course. A basis for this project was an approach for team-based project work which allowed students to have hands-on experience in the lab and collaborate extensively with peers, while abiding by social distancing guidelines. Members of each student team worked together remotely and synchronously on a project. One team member executed the hands-on portion of each lab activity and the remote student(s) engaged in the project via online communication. The hybrid lab course was supplemented with interventions to further promote inclusivity and community, including instructor modeling on inclusion, team-based course content, attention to lab session logistics, and instructor communication. Students responded positively, as indicated by the median ratings in course evaluations for the four lab sections in the following categories concerning course climate (using a 5.0 scale): their overall comfort with the climate of the course (4.8 to 5.0), feeling valued and respected by lab instructor (4.8 to 5.0) and their peers (4.8 to 5.0), peers helping each other succeed in the course (4.5 to 5.0), and the degree to which the experience in the course contributed to their sense of belonging in engineering (4.2 to 5.0). When asked to describe aspects of the class that contributed to inclusivity towards differences, students cited a collaborative environment, course content on implicit bias and inclusivity, and an approachable teaching team. Overall, our approach was effective in fostering a sense of community and inclusion. We anticipate many of these initiatives can transcend instructional format to positively impact future lab course offerings, irrespective of modality.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43683-022-00081-4.

Biomedical/clinical engineering education and certification: fifty years of actions

Health care is today technology driven and biomedical engineering is behind the impressive developments that reshaped medicine during the last 50 years. Biomedical Engineers (BMEs) as professionals are playing a vital role during the whole life cycle of Medical Devices (MDs), from the innovative idea to their final use and decommissioning. This rapid evolution creates a constant pressure for new knowledge and skills for the BMEs and therefore for continuous curriculum updates of education in BME, to meet current trends and market demands. Biomedical Engineering is relatively new when compared with other engineering disciplines. The earliest programs during the 1970s, most of which were at Doctoral and M.Sc. levels. B.Sc. programs were developed in most European Universities from the 1990s. Today there is an impressive trend to create new programs and the number of higher education institutions offering a BME degree is almost two hundred, just in Europe. Although biomedical engineering is playing a vital role in innovation, development, maintenance, and safe use of medical technology, BMEs are not yet recognized as a distinct professional entity and do not appear in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) lists. This is partly because biomedical engineering covers a very broad domain and includes professionals with very heterogeneous areas of specialization. Unlike in other engineering fields, where certification is a prerequisite for being a licensed professional, even for the clinical engineering, certification is not widely applied. This is mainly due to the lack of motivation since certification is not mandatory. In contrast with other health care professionals, that cannot practice their profession if they are not officially registered, such requirement does not exist for clinical engineers. In the present paper a review of the developments in BME educational programs in Europe, fifty years long, is attempted, focusing on some important initiatives and actions well known to the author. Additionally, some aspects of Clinical Engineering certification are addressed.

Digital Game-Based Support for Learning the Phlebotomy Procedure in the Biomedical Laboratory Scientist Education

Practice-based training in education is important, expensive, and resource-demanding. Digital games can provide complementary training opportunities for practicing procedural skills and increase the value of the limited laboratory training time in biomedical laboratory science (BLS) education. This paper presents how a serious game can be integrated in a BLS course and supplement traditional learning and teaching with accessible learning material for phlebotomy. To gather information on challenges relevant to integrating Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL), a case was carried out using mixed methods. Through a semester-long study, following a longitudinal, interventional cohort study, data and information were obtained from teachers and students about the learning impact of the current application. The game motivated students to train more, and teachers were positive towards using it in education. The results provide increased insights into how DGBL can be integrated into education and give rise to a discussion of the current challenges of DGBL for practice-based learning.

BME Labs in the Era of COVID-19: Transitioning a Hands-on Integrative Lab Experience to Remote Instruction Using Gamified Lab Simulations

The COVID-19 induced abrupt transition to online learning that occurred in the Spring of 2020 presented particular challenges to the adaptation of hands-on laboratory courses in biomedical engineering. This paper describes the transition of such a course in one undergraduate program, assessment of this transition, and how this assessment has led to the design of the Fall 2020 online delivery format. In the spring, instruction was delivered online via asynchronous lectures and recorded video demonstrations, while raw data was provided to students to simulate specific laboratory techniques. Additionally, synchronous and asynchronous forms of student support were offered, including office hours and discussions. Student feedback was assessed via an end-of-semester survey designed specifically to analyze the students’ perceptions of the Spring 2020 transition to remote learning, as well as a comparison of Spring 2020 and Spring 2019 (when the course was taught in-person) student performance deliverables. Student performance was comparable to (or even better than) that in 2019. Students responded very positively to the transition, with most students agreeing or strongly agreeing that they had the resources needed to succeed (4.43 on a Likert scale), although on average, the students also found that the shift made learning more challenging, with increased effort required to engage with the material. Students especially found the recorded demonstration of laboratory techniques, asynchronous lectures, the learning management system chat feature, and virtual office hours useful. Many students felt that even with these resources, they still lost some of the experience that comes with in-person hands-on application, and some students found working in teams to be more challenging. While the overall approach implemented in the abrupt transition was effective in terms of student learning outcomes, engagement and immersion in a more realistic experience is a concern moving forward in Fall 2020. Based on our outcomes and on data from the literature, we will add gamified virtual lab simulations, shown to enhance student experience and create a more engaging and effective learning environment in lieu of in-person instruction.

Five Qualitative Research Concepts Grounded in Anthropological Methods for Teaching Design in Healthcare

Biomedical engineering, engineering, and design in health programs around the world have involved human-centered design as part of their undergraduate curriculum. The disparities evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid developments of biotech startups have highlighted the importance of preparing professionals in the health areas for undertaking rigorous, empathetic, and ethical research. In addition to working with human-driven information, students in the health areas are challenged to deal with technical developments that involve legal and ethical concerns deeply rooted in sociopolitical issues and human rights. Concerned with how to achieve a better understanding of behavior in designing for healthcare, this article describes the rationale behind teaching qualitative research in healthcare for biomedical engineering and engineering design education. Through portraying different healthcare designs resulting from an engineering design course, it describes the instruction of qualitative-driven concepts taught to biomedical engineering, design, and premed undergraduate students. Using a design-based research approach, we look to increase the chances of adoption of the presented qualitative research concepts in educational design in health programs. We deliver five tested research tools that better prepare students to carry out more rigorous, respectful, and aware qualitative research in health areas for the development of novel solutions.

Using Simulation-Based Active Learning Strategies for Teaching Biofluids Concepts

Biofluids comprises a core topical domain for modern biomedical engineering education. Like other biomedical topic areas, biofluids education must address highly interdisciplinary and applied topics. Concept/problem-based active learning approaches can provide effective avenues to teach such diverse and applied topics. However, with the heterogeneity within biofluids topics across cellular, physiological, and/or extra-organismal scales, it is important to develop active learning content that enables students to explore concepts with appropriate context. This challenge is further complicated by the need to administer such content remotely (due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Here, we outline our design process and implementation experience for simulation-based active learning modules for a newly developed physiological biofluids course. We share the overall design approach, with two example cases of simulation-based concept exploration: (a) arterial Windkessel effects and lumped parameter hemodynamic analysis; and (b) curvature-induced helical flow in human aorta illustrated using four-dimensional (4D) flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Evidence from student survey ratings, student comments and feedback, and monitoring student performance for course deliverables indicate positive student response toward these modules, and efficacy of the modules in enabling student learning. Based on our design and implementation experience, we argue that simulation-based approaches can enable active learning of biofluids through remote and online learning modalities.

Perspectives of the Biomedical Engineering Program at UASLP after ten years - analysis and criticism

The Biomedical Engineering (BME) bachelor pro-gram of the Faculty of Sciences in Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP) was created in June of 2010, with the aim of training professionals with an integral perspective in the engineering field by considering a multidisciplinary approach to develop and apply technology in the areas of medicine and biology. After 10 years, our BME program has achieved national recognition. Despite of being an emerging program, this achievement has been obtained by the consolidation of our academic staff, the outstanding participation of our students in national and international academic events, and the historical graduation results. In our comprehensive evaluation, we report an overall terminal efficiency (completion rate) of 67% and a graduation rate of 47.2%, where these values are above the average for an engineering program in our institution. Additionally, the BME program provides students with solid skills and background to carry out research activities, which has resulted in a considerable number of alumni pursuing graduate studies or have already completed one. Our results show that 90% of our former students are working after graduation, but only 44% work in the field of biomedical engineering, since the regional labor market starts to saturate given the fact that, at present, students from six generations have completed our BME bachelor program. In this way, few graduates visualize the wide spectrum of job options where a biomedical engineer can impact, by their distinctive comprehensive and multidisciplinary training. Therefore, it is necessary to propose new curricular design strategies to provide our students with an academic training that allows them to enter a globalized world, where there is an even greater spectrum of engineering possibilities related to the fields of medicine and biology, in line with current trends.

Analysis of the Unsuccessful Efforts to Design & Construct Invasive Mechanical COVID-19 Ventilators in Mexico: Did the Current BME Curricula at Mexican Universities Contribute to the Failure?

Mexico was caught unprepared to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most egregious failures was the incapability to provide an additional 10,000 ventilators in order to cope with the excess demand. The Mexican government proposed a program for funding the development of these devices and over 100 designs were submitted but were of below standard quality and performance. Only three designs have been approved up to date.This work analyzes the failures from the point of view of the incapability to design, develop and test locally made ventilator designs, and asks whether the national university system, after a history of 48 years of producing thousands of Biomedical Engineering students in over 60 institutions has become incapable of delivering a design of a medical device of medium complexity.

BME Career Exploration: Examining Students' Connection with the Field

A common perception of biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduates is that they struggle to find industry jobs upon graduation. While some statistics support this concern, students continue to pursue and persist through BME degrees. This persistence may relate to graduates' other career interests, though limited research examines where BME students go and why. Scholars are also pushing for research that examines engineering careers in a broader context, beyond traditional industry positions. This study adds to that conversation by asking: How do BME students describe their career interests and perceived job prospects in relation to why they pursue a BME degree? A qualitative study of BME students was performed at a public, R1 institution using semi-structured interviews at three timepoints across an academic year. An open coding data analysis approach explored careerperceptions of students nearing completion of a BME undergraduate degree. Findings indicated that students pursued a BME degree for reasons beyond BME career aspirations, most interestingly as a means to complete an engineering degree that they felt would have interesting enough content to keep them engaged. Participants also discussed the unique career-relevant skills they developed as a BME student, and the career-placement tradeoffs they associated with getting a BME undergraduate degree. Based on these results, we propose research that explores how students move through a BME degree into a career and how career-relevant competencies are communicated in job searches. Additionally, we suggest strategies for BME departments to consider for supporting students through the degree into a career.

Moving outside the lab: Markerless motion capture accurately quantifies sagittal plane kinematics during the vertical jump

Markerless motion capture using deep learning approaches have potential to revolutionize the field of biomechanics by allowing researchers to collect data outside of the laboratory environment, yet there remain questions regarding the accuracy and ease of use of these approaches. The purpose of this study was to apply a markerless motion capture approach to extract lower limb angles in the sagittal plane during the vertical jump and to evaluate agreement between the custom trained model and gold standard motion capture. We performed this study using a large open source data set (N = 84) that included synchronized commercial video and gold standard motion capture. We split these data into a training set for model development (n = 69) and test set to evaluate capture performance relative to gold standard motion capture using coefficient of multiple correlations (CMC) (n = 15). We found very strong agreement between the custom trained markerless approach and marker-based motion capture within the test set across the entire movement (CMC > 0.991, RMSE < 3.22°), with at least strong CMC values across all trials for the hip (0.853 ± 0.23), knee (0.963 ± 0.471), and ankle (0.970 ± 0.055). The strong agreement between markerless and marker-based motion capture provides evidence that markerless motion capture is a viable tool to extend data collection to outside of the laboratory. As biomechanical research struggles with representative sampling practices, markerless motion capture has potential to transform biomechanical research away from traditional laboratory settings into venues convenient to populations that are under sampled without sacrificing measurement fidelity.

Finite Element Analysis as an Iterative Design Tool for Students in an Introductory Biomechanics Course

Insufficient engineering analysis is a common weakness of student capstone design projects. Efforts made earlier in a curriculum to introduce analysis techniques should improve student confidence in applying these important skills toward design. To address student shortcomings in design, we implemented a new design project assignment for second-year undergraduate biomedical engineering students. The project involves the iterative design of a fracture fixation plate and is part of a broader effort to integrate relevant hands-on projects throughout our curriculum. Students are tasked with (1) using computer-aided design (CAD) software to make design changes to a fixation plate, (2) creating and executing finite element models to assess performance after each change, (3) iterating through three design changes, and (4) performing mechanical testing of the final device to verify model results. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess student knowledge, confidence, and achievement in design. Students exhibited design knowledge gains and cognizance of prior coursework knowledge integration into their designs. Further, students self-reported confidence gains in approaching design, working with hardware and software, and communicating results. Finally, student self-assessments exceeded instructor assessment of student design reports, indicating that students have significant room for growth as they progress through the curriculum. Beyond the gains observed in design knowledge, confidence, and achievement, the fracture fixation project described here builds student experience with CAD, finite element analysis, 3D printing, mechanical testing, and design communication. These skills contribute to the growing toolbox that students ultimately bring to capstone design.

Post-graduation Plans of Undergraduate BME Students: Gender, Self-efficacy, Value, and Identity Beliefs

This study investigates career intentions and students’ engineering attitudes in BME, with a focus on gender differences. Data from n = 716 undergraduate biomedical engineering students at a large public research institution in the United States were analyzed using hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis. Results revealed five clusters of intended post-graduation plans: Engineering Job and Graduate School, Any Job, Non-Engineering Job and Graduate School, Any Option, and Any Graduate School. Women were evenly distributed across clusters; there was no evidence of gendered career preferences. The main findings in regard to engineering attitudes reveal significant differences by cluster in interest, attainment value, utility value, and professional identity, but not in academic self-efficacy. Yet, within clusters the only gender differences were women’s lower engineering academic self-efficacy, interest and professional identity compared to men. Implications and areas of future research are discussed.

A biomedical Engineering Laboratory module for exploring involuntary muscle reflexes using Electromyography

Background

Undergraduate biomedical engineering (BME) students interested in pursuing a career in research and development of medical or physiological monitoring devices require a strong foundation in biosignal analysis as well as physiological theory. Applied learning approaches are reported to be effective for reinforcing physiological coursework; therefore, we propose a new laboratory protocol for BME undergraduate physiology courses that integrates both neural engineering and physiological concepts to explore involuntary skeletal muscle reflexes. The protocol consists of two sections: the first focuses on recruiting soleus motor units through transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), while the second focuses on exploring the natural stretch reflex with and without the Jendrassik maneuver. In this case study, third-year biomedical engineering students collected electromyographic (EMG) activity of skeletal muscle contractions in response to peripheral nerve stimulation using a BioRadio Wireless Physiology Monitor system and analyzed the corresponding signal parameters (latency and amplitude) using the MATLAB platform.

Results/protocol validation

Electrical tibial nerve stimulation successfully recruited M-waves in all 8 student participants and F-waves in three student participants. The students used this data to learn about orthodromic and antidromic motor fiber activation as well as estimate the neural response latency and amplitude. With the stretch reflex, students were able to collect distinct signals corresponding to the tendon strike and motor response. From this, they were able to estimate the sensorimotor conduction velocity. Additionally, a significant increase in the stretch reflex EMG amplitude response was observed when using the Jendrassik maneuver during the knee-jerk response. A student exit survey on the laboratory experience reported that the class found the module engaging and helpful for reinforcing physiological course concepts.

Conclusion

This newly developed protocol not only allows BME students to explore physiological responses using natural and electrically-induced involuntary reflexes, but demonstrates that budget-friendly commercially available devices are capable of eliciting and measuring involuntary reflexes in an engaging manner. Despite some limitations caused by the equipment and students’ lack of signal processing experience, this new laboratory protocol provides a robust framework for integrating engineering and physiology in an applied approach for BME students to learn about involuntary reflexes, neurophysiology, and neural engineering.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13036-020-00248-z.