Biomedical Engineering and Device Design

Course Description

This hands-on course is an introduction to biomedical engineering with a focus on neuroscience and instrumentation. Medical devices use a variety of sensors to record signals from the body that are important for understanding and treating diseases. For example, pacemakers are devices that are implanted in the heart to sense and control heart rate. When the pacemaker senses that the heart rate has fallen below a healthy threshold, the device stimulates the heart to control its rate of beating. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to work in small groups to design and build such a device which will incorporate both hardware and software to acquire and interpret biological signals.

This course will introduce circuit design and coding through a biomedical engineering lens. Students will gain an understanding of how to acquire and interpret biological signals through instruction and hands-on lab experiences. The course will include a design project, through which students will work together and exercise creativity to develop their own biomedical devices. In addition, students will engage in reading and listen to podcasts to learn about the history of medical devices and recent innovations in the field of biomedical devices. This course will provide a foundation for a future in biomedical engineering study and device design.

By the end of the course, students will gain a basic understanding of engineering design, biology, circuit design, and coding. The design project will exercise students’ analytical problem solving and troubleshooting skills, which are important for success in college-level engineering and beyond.

Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites. An interest in biomedical engineering, creative design, and an aptitude for problem solving is recommended.