1. Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Otolaryngology
Keywords: Biomedical engineering, neural Engineering, project-based, active learning
Merging bio and engineering: project-based learning in undergraduate and graduate biomedical courses
Suhrud M. Rajguru, PhD
Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Otolaryngology
University of Miami

2. Why? What problem are you solving?
Improve involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in neural engineering and introduce mathematical concepts and engineering tools used to study neural function
What are your educational objectives?
Revise existing curricula to emphasize team science and real world applications.
Develop course content that can be accessed by students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles.
Combine in-depth discussions of neuroscience, physiology and computational / visualization methods into rigorous bioengineering curricula.

3. When? What is the developmental history of your innovation?
Fall 2012, BME 470: Introduction to Biosignal Processing
Help students form associations between theoretical concepts and translation to practice
Added a practical component to supplement lecture material: Instrumentation lab, MATLAB programming and signal processing applications
Students recorded and analyzed real biosignals and articulated their properties
Continue to develop new and relevant examples and data into the course exercises based on data obtained from research and literature.
Extend to BME 603: Neuroscience course open to both undergraduate (enrolled in 5-year BS/MS program) and graduate students (MS, PhD).

4. Where? Have you tried this in other institutions?
Is this developed for a single class, a full course, or a curriculum?
Full course(s)
Education Levels: upper division undergraduate and graduate students
Education Backgrounds: biomedical engineering, biology and the School of Medicine

5. What? EXPERIMENT COURSE OBJECTIVE EXPECTED OUTCOME
Instrumentation for electrophysiological measurement
BME 470
Introduction to signals, concepts related to data acquisition (sampling, reconstruction, ADC, DAC), signal averaging and signal-to-noise ratio
Gain knowledge of technical requirements and challenges in measuring neural signals.
Sharp microelectrode recordings from 8th nerve
BME 603
Learn dissection, general electrophysiology methods
Demonstrate in vivo experiment techniques
Data analysis of neural recordings and statistical methods
BME603
Threshold detection, effects of digitization on biosignal recording and post-processing, biostatistics
General knowledge of signal processing.
Ca2+ imaging
Learn microscopy/ imaging techniques, signal detection and analysis
Knowledge of noninvasive approaches to assay function / intracellular signals
Computational models to fit experimental results
Learn computational approaches and associated complexities
Learn to develop models rooted in experimental findings

6. Prognosis? How are you documenting impact?
Direct (student projects, presentations)
Indirect assessment measures (surveys, interviews, course evaluation)
What challenges are you currently facing?
Difficulty in organizing group sessions and hands-on experiences for large class sizes
What advice would you like from others at FOEE?
How to scaling up this approach for larger classrooms
How to keep students motivated and engaged
Assessment tools you’ve used