{"344531":{"#nid":"344531","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Undergraduate Curriculum Teaches Skills to Solve Real-life Engineering Problems","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022BigFirst\u0022\u003EIn 2001, the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering welcomed its first undergraduate class. Four years later, 17 students graduated with biomedical engineering degrees. Now there are more than 800 undergraduates in the program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022BigFirst\u0022\u003E\u201cBiomedical engineering has captured the imagination of young students,\u201d says Wendy Newstetter, who is director of learning sciences research for the Coulter Department. \u201cThe thought of helping society through science and engineering is very attractive to them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESince its inception in 1997, the Coulter Department has been dedicated to education \u2013 with part of a $16 million grant from the Whitaker Foundation earmarked for educational innovation. A strong focus of the undergraduate curriculum is problem-based learning, a student-centered instructional strategy in which students work in small collaborative groups to solve open-ended problems with a faculty member serving as facilitator.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESpecial classrooms in the U.A. Whitaker Building were designed for problem-based learning courses. The small rooms, which are set up like conference rooms with whiteboard-covered walls, are critical to the learning process, says Paul Benkeser, associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Coulter Department.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the freshman biomedical engineering class, groups of eight students are given three relevant biomedical engineering problems such as improving cancer screening and\/or detection methods; identifying sources of error in a biomedical device; and developing mathematical models of the heart.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETackling these difficult research problems seems to help students gain confidence in their ability to conduct research, says Newstetter. More than one-third of the students in the undergraduate program participate in research. For the spring 2008 semester, Coulter Department students accounted for 20 of the 70 Georgia Tech students winning President\u2019s Undergraduate Research Awards.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe start teaching the students the sophisticated skills required for them to be successful biomedical engineers in the freshman problem-based learning course,\u201d explains Newstetter. \u201cBut problem-based learning reappears throughout the curriculum \u2013 in the junior-level design course and even the laboratory courses.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead of a typical physiology laboratory where a student may only learn cell biology assays, the Coulter Department incorporates engineering and biology into a cohesive package by bringing the disease to the forefront, says Essy Behravesh, who is director of the instructional laboratories in the Coulter Department.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen the students take the two-semester senior design project course, they\u2019re ready to undertake a major design project that incorporates engineering standards and realistic constraints.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is a real-life engineering experience for our students,\u201d says Benkeser. \u201cThey have to learn how to communicate professionally with a client, submit engineering design specifications to the client for approval and keep the client apprised of progress.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPast clients have included physicians affiliated with Emory University, Northside Hospital, Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta and engineers and scientists from local biotechnology companies. By the time the students graduate, they find value in the problem-based learning approach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe farther away I get from my problem-based learning experiences, the more I realize how much I learned from them,\u201d says Anu Parvatiyar, a senior in the Coulter Department. \u201cI learned a lot of the core skills involved in problem solving and design that make a biomedical engineer successful.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A strong focus of the undergraduate curriculum is problem-based learning, a student-centered instructional strategy in which students work in small collaborative groups to solve open-ended problems with a faculty member serving as facilitator."}],"uid":"28152","created_gmt":"2014-11-11 16:13:03","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:30","author":"Claire Labanz","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2008-03-01T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2008-03-01T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"42941","name":"Art Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"109451","name":"Winter\/Spring 2009 Issue"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u2028\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2028177 North Avenue\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2028Atlanta, Georgia\u0026nbsp; 30332-0181 \u0026nbsp;USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2028404-894-6986\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2028\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2028\u2028\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBrett Israel\u2028\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-385-1933\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2028\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Ebrett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}