BMEN 6760 Biomedical Microdevices

BMEN 6760 Biomedical Microdevices
Biomedical Microdevices
This graduate level course will focus on design and fabrication of biomedical microdevices for basic biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. Students will learn from examples in recent medical literature how to approach the design of biomedical devices. The course will emphasize two basic engineering concepts – simplicity and biomimetics. It often pays (figuratively and literally) to spend the time to engineer the simplest device with needed functionality, because simple devices are often more robust, inexpensive and user-friendly, and therefore are easier to commercialize. The biomimetic approach to engineering of devices could save a lot of effort simply because nature has already spent the time to try out nearly every possible design, and has often (but not always) arrived at the optimal solution. As an exercise in this course, students will be asked to propose a solution to a medical problem of their choice (from contemporary literature) and explain why they chose the specific design. A goal of this course will be to stimulate students to think creatively and to integrate their knowledge across a wide spectrum of subjects in BMEN curriculum for solving real problems related to human health. This course will specifically emphasize the development of point-of-care diagnostic devices for remote, rural areas, developing world and other resource-limited settings.  
credit hours: 3