# Applying a Human-Centered Design Approach to Enhance Bioengineering Education

> **NIH EB R25** · RICE UNIVERSITY · 2026 · $1

## Abstract

Project Summary
Capstone Senior Design courses enable bioengineering (BIOE) seniors to engage
with the design process and apply technical fundamentals and industry related topics,
ultimately generating a functional prototype. Our capstone program at Rice University,
solicits project ideas from research faculty, physicians, and industry leaders.
Interdisciplinary teams drive the prototype development throughout the year and submit
oral presentation and documentation deliverables. Students in our capstone program enjoy
immense advantage o􀆯ered by a well-equipped design facility and infrastructure at Rice
University to support projects from the Texas Medical Center, home to the world’s largest
children’s and cancer hospital and the largest medical city in the world. These strengths,
along with the cross-disciplinary teams (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering
and global health technologies) rigorous senior design documentation, and oral
deliverables, lead to teams placing nationally in competitions each year.
E􀆯ective capstone program design, however, demands an engaged clinical
experience, an area lacking in many existing programs, including ours. To address this, we
propose the creation of a novel clinical immersion program with a focus on human
centered design and disparities in healthcare delivery. Our program will consist of a cohort
of five bioengineering seniors selected through an application process. The cohort will
attend didactic lectures on topics such as design process, needs finding, disparities in
healthcare delivery, universal design, storyboarding, stakeholder communication and
design de-risking. Students will apply their learnings by immersive engagement in two
clinical environments: 1) Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Texas Children’s Hospital and 2)
Texas Heart Institute. Exercises such as iterative storyboarding, daily individual and group
reflections and case study research on the evolution of a device design will elucidate areas
of cl

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11323064
- **Project number:** 5R25EB034204-03
- **Recipient organization:** RICE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sabia  Abidi
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** EB
- **Fiscal year:** 2026
- **Award amount:** $1
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-05-01T00:00:00 → 2030-03-31T00:00:00

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11323064

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11323064, Applying a Human-Centered Design Approach to Enhance Bioengineering Education (5R25EB034204-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-03 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11323064. Licensed CC0.

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