# Transforming Senior Design through Inter-Professional Team Experiences

> **NIH NIH R25** · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $43,200

## Abstract

Project Summary
Engineering pedagogy centered narrowly on technical competence alone has well-known limitations;
this is particularly profound in the intrinsically interdisciplinary field of biomedical engineering. Over
the past two decades, the emphasis on redesigned curricula and practice-oriented activity have
fostered successful team based activity in and around the classroom, reflecting the changing paradigm
of design for today's “new economy” biomedical engineer. The dialectic nature of the Senior Design
Capstone Experience is central to forging students into engineers through a transformative leap in
critical and applied thinking, but the approach is often “too much, too late.” Entrenched academic
traditions of “jam-packed” technical curricula are not aligned with today's professional practice. The
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) approach to this challenging educational task involves four
research aims, two of which leverage the outcomes of a prior NIH R25 award: Aim 1 is to enable and
promote interactive and hands-on learning; new research will include the development of an extra-
curricular training workshop to help boost skills, the establishment of a managed, stocked, lab space,
and the introduction of a “moot court” series for interactive learning about legal cases, encouraging
informal learning through experimentation. Aim 2 provides an inter-professional team environment.
Translating biomedical engineering knowledge into practice involves not only an understanding of a
highly interdisciplinary science, but also draws on an inter-professional team environment. We will
expand our prior success with the involvement of external clinical and industrial design stakeholders
through the inclusion of commercialization experts and mentors for legal and regulatory affairs.
Aim 3 centers on the development of non-technical skills. We propose to further enhance our already
strong emphasis on non-technical skill development by employing a competitive proposal process for
selecting projects as well as expanding the course in the fall from 2 to 3 hours per week. This
expansion will allow for more small-group discussions with their TA (project manager) as well as
explore a greater range of ethical and liability case studies in a recitation format. Aim 4 establishes
concrete outcomes to disseminate the results of the training. Commensurate with the idea that
engineers do not work in isolation, as part of this work, we will develop a series of standardized case
studies to share with other institutions. With these aims we seek to build upon the foundation of our
current success in transforming student into engineers and further enrich the Senior Design capstone
experience not only for the curriculum at our institution, but the capabilities of Biomedical Engineers
across the field as well.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10244898
- **Project number:** 5R25EB014774-08
- **Recipient organization:** CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Colin Kincaid Drummond
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $43,200
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-07-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10244898

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10244898, Transforming Senior Design through Inter-Professional Team Experiences (5R25EB014774-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10244898. Licensed CC0.

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