Hands-on design projects are widely used in engineering curricula to improve hardware/software skills, develop design mindsets, and tie real-world problems to engineering curricula with an eye toward increased student engagement and retention. In Fall 2018, Kansas State University (KSU) accepted its first cadre of incoming freshmen into a new Biomedical Engineering (BME) degree program. In an effort to increase the effectiveness of the program’s design courses, which will be offered annually to students of various ages beginning in Fall 2020, the authors performed a search of recent engineering education literature related to the inclusion of design projects in undergraduate BME curricula, focusing on (a) projects that could be reasonably incorporated into courses that support undergraduate students with little-to-no design experience, (b) efforts that map to the emphasis areas for this new BME program, (c) student-learning assessment techniques that have proved useful in these hands-on contexts, and (d) projects that would make interesting recruiting examples for high school students considering such a program. The overall goal of this work is to allow lessons learned from these earlier efforts to inform projects offered as part of this new BME curriculum. This paper presents (1) an overview of this new curriculum, (2) the skillsets that this new BME program intentionally addresses and the courses that will support that skillset development, (3) BME project-based efforts described in the literature that relate thematically to the emphasis areas in this curriculum, (4) assessment methods that have appeared useful when applied to such projects, and (5) suitable categories of starter projects for this new curriculum, including those that can be prototyped prior to the Fall 2020/2021 onset of the initial junior/senior-level design sequences.

A Survey of Biomedical Design Projects to Inform Skill Development in a New Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Curriculum

A recent editorial explored the relationship between nursing and STEM - science, technology, engineering and math - by asking and answering the question, \"Is nursing a STEM discipline?\" (Davidson, 2019). A previous editorial explored the value of including the \"art of nursing\" as part of the transition from STEM to STEAM - defined as science, technology, engineering, art and math (Yoder-Wise, 2018). And another editorial offered the outright perspective that, \"Florence Nightingale was the first environmental engineer\" (Oerther, 2018).

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Identifying Opportunities for Educators to Pursue Collaboration at the Interface of Nursing and Engineering -- And a Word of Caution

Typical projects involving engineering students identified as „interdisciplinary‟ usually involve different disciplines within engineering. Projects that are truly interdisciplinary can be discovered when faculty from different areas of campus work together toward the development of a project involving students from outside their respective discipline. This paper presents results of one such arrangement. During a tour of a new nursing laboratory, engineering noticed possible design improvements in various manikins (life-sized anatomical human models) in the nursing laboratory. A team of first year engineering students was given the opportunity to work with an upperclassmen engineering student, all with an interest in biomedical engineering and faculty from nursing and engineering toward design improvement in NoelleTM, a manikin who simulates birth through both cephalic presentation and malpresentation; head or feet first. The students were charged with nearly all aspects of the project including preparing a proposal, documenting progress, reporting to faculty and community on the status of the project and a final poster presentation and engineering report. The final project involved two specific redesigns. First, a microphone that simulates fetal heartbeats was repositioned and rewired since the cords were often damaged during the birth simulation. Second, both the umbilical cord and its attachment point to the baby manikin was redesigned because the original attachment point weakened the umbilical cord and often led to a broken and unusable cord. The attachment into the baby manikin was fitted with a push-lock connector and the free end of the umbilical cord was capped off in order to fit comfortably into the new attachment point. This report offers information to allow similar Universities, especially those without a formal biomedical engineering undergraduate program, to explore the implementation of similar interdisciplinary projects. It includes a description of the working arrangement between faculty in nursing and engineering with the student team of engineers, description of deliverables from the student team, results of the design implementations, and discussion of professional skills developed through the process. The report will also include testimonials from the students with a self-assessment of the value of the project. Biomedical Engineering options at a small, private university: Ohio Northern University, like other smaller, private Universities, has engineering programs in Electrical and Computer, Mechanical and Civil Engineering. Students with an interest in Biomedical Engineering are offered two alternatives: a Biomedical Option (through Electrical or P ge 22179.2 Computer Engineering) or a Biomedical Sciences minor (through Mechanical Engineering) 1 ; both options offer students an opportunity to take coursework and some laboratory work in the biomedical area well into their plan of study. Implementing a full scale biomedical engineering program is not feasible without significant additional recourses or an affiliated medical school. There is little opportunity to work in a laboratory setting on projects related to biomedical engineering in the first year of study, as is the case for most if not all engineering programs. Engineering faculty met with faculty from the Department of Nursing while pursuing opportunities for undergraduate student research projects and, together, an undergraduate research and development opportunity was formed. Department of Nursing The undergraduate baccalaureate nursing program at Ohio Northern University was initiated in 2005 and most recently became its own department. This program has identified strong academic offerings and is currently accredited nationally through the Commission on College Nursing Education (CCNE). The program moved to new facilities and established new laboratory spaces and equipment. The nursing laboratories are outfitted with many innovative pieces of nursing equipment including the use of low to high fidelity manikins. The manikins contribute to student learning as each mannequin has heart, lung, and bowel sounds in addition to being able to instill or remove body fluids from multiple orifices. Laboratory, facility and curricular upgrades allow the ONU department of nursing to improve student learning, recently cited as one of four recommendations by the Institute of Medicine 2 . During a tour of the new nursing facilities, a birthing manikin was demonstrated. Two potential design flaws were immediately evident to the engineering and nursing faculty members. First, a speaker used to create the sound of a fetal heartbeat was wired to a control box very close to the mechanism which pushes the baby during delivery. The second was the attachment of the umbilical cord to the baby: as the baby rotates inside of the manikin, excessive force can cause the cord to rip out of the baby, causing damage to the cord. Rather than a redesign, the manufacturer offered umbilical cords and speakers for sale to replace damaged units. Establishing the undergraduate research project: The redesign offered a distinctive opportunity for a student project. Since this was a unique opportunity, it was decided: The project would be offered outside of any coursework rather than implementing it as an independent study or similar course No pay or credit would be offered The rewards would be intrinsic: the opportunity to learn via a self-directed project and the potential of presenting your results. P ge 22179.3 Identifying interested students: The lead engineering faculty member emailed the faculty involved in different biomedical options in the college, asking for a few names of students who may be interested and had the ability to lead an extracurricular project. These students were emailed to determine their interest, and one junior Mechanical Engineer volunteered to lead the project team. As the leader was identified, the first-year engineering cohort was emailed to determine if there was interest among these students. Four students replied and the team was scheduled to visit the nursing laboratory for an extensive demonstration. NoelleTM, the birthing manikin, was demonstrated. The participating students met with the lead faculty member from engineering and nursing, and the project team consisting of one junior and three freshmen was formed and named “Team Nursing”. Student self-direction of the project: Although the project had been identified by the faculty from nursing and engineering prior to establishing it as an undergraduate project, the student team was free to define the project in their own terms given the specified criteria, including a requirement to finish the design by the end of the academic quarter.. The team was tasked to submit a project schedule (and regular updates) to the lead faculty. They were expected to meet regularly, and offered access to the nursing laboratory when needed. The junior was initially identified as the team leader, and the engineering faculty member was identified as the lead faculty. Reporting requirements: Team Nursing was also tasked to present their results in a variety of forms, including a final written report and a poster presentation in an undergraduate research symposium. In addition, it was anticipated that an academic paper would be submitted for publication. Presenting Technical Results: In addition to a paper summarizing the results of the project, Team Nursing presented their results through two venues: a research poster presentation at an undergraduate research symposium and through a final technical report presented to engineering and nursing. Undergraduate Research Symposium: Team Nursing submitted and was accepted to present at a campus-wide Undergraduate Research Symposium, which is typically a venue for teams from Pharmacy and the physical sciences. The team developed and presented a research poster (Figure 1). They received very positive feedback not only for their project, but for their presentation skills and enthusiasm. Page 22179.4 Figure 1: Team Nursing poster presented at Ohio Northern University Undergraduate Research Symposium

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Susan M. Montenery

Papers

An Innovative Interdisciplinary Student Project: Engineering and Nursing