The biomedical industry may be best described as an ever-changing set of design challenges and puzzles that, once solved, lead to improvements in the delivery of medical treatment. While experienced engineers continue to move the field forward and propel their companies to produce new diagnostic tests and more effective medical treatments, the path to successful innovation may not always be smooth. Sometimes a fresh approach may provide the key to a tough engineering problem.

This was precisely the situation that Dan Lombardi, a senior fellow engineer with Viasys Healthcare / Nicolet Biomedical, experienced last spring when he had the opportunity to work with a team of four undergraduates in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Biomedical Engineering. As a member of the UW-Madison Biomedical Engineering Student Design Consortium, Nicolet Biomedical — a Madison company that specializes in the development of instruments to assist clinicians in evaluating and analyzing the function of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system — turned to students to solve an engineering puzzle that had proven elusive.

Says Lombardi, "Students bring a fresh approach to what are often old, stubborn, dogmatic problems – they are able to come up with ideas that, frankly, we don't think of."

The project in this case was to design a monitor to help doctors track the movements of epilepsy patients to better assess and diagnose their seizure types. Although it was Lombardi's first experience with the Student Design Consortium, he had high expectations.

"I anticipated an excellent outcome working with students in the UW Department of Biomedical Engineering," he says, "and right from the very beginning I was impressed with all four students on the team." Before going down a particular path in tackling the problem, Lombardi notes they did a lot of groundwork. One of the first challenges was to determine the best approach for tracking seizures, and after thoroughly researching the pros and cons of several different approaches, including radio frequency and optical techniques, they settled on using ultrasound.

The next phase of the project entailed developing and writing a set of specifications for the epilepsy monitor. Under Lombardi's supervision, the team demonstrated that it could map the patient's location in three dimensions by feeding those dimensions into a computer that converted them into coordinates that could be interpreted by a video camera. The project received positive reviews when it was presented at the end of the semester at the biannual showcase of project designs (see accompanying box about the Biomedical Engineering Design Expo). Now that all the technical issues of the device have been sufficiently addressed, the company is in a position to move ahead with production. Says Lombardi, at this point, it comes down to a fiscal and marketing decision, and he is hopeful that the monitor will eventually be marketed.

Lombardi commends his team of UW-Madison students for their commitment to the project and their display of engineering skills. As for Nicolet's participation in the Student Design Consortium, Lombardi highly endorsed his company's decision to join. "I really enjoyed the students and found they gave me all of their time and effort," he says. "From my standpoint, it was just plain fun."

Robert Radwin, professor and founding chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UW-Madison, says there is no other program in the country quite like theirs. Every biomedical engineering student works on a biomedical design project every semester, solving real problems for real clients. Many of the clients are clinicians from UW Hospital or medical researchers in the Medical School. Through the consortium, young, industrious biomedical engineering students also have the opportunity to partner with professional engineers working for some of the region's most innovative companies. Their interactions result in the solving of real-world engineering puzzles that may eventually become valuable solutions to the challenges faced by clinicians and researchers in a variety of medical disciplines.

Members of the consortium submit ideas for the current semester's list of projects offered in the department's design courses. In addition to Nicolet Biomedical, other companies presently participating include Datex-Ohmeda based in Madison, GE Healthcare headquartered in Waukesha and American Medical Systems in Minneapolis. In forming this partnership, member companies agree to guide a team of students through the process of designing a medical device, a therapy or diagnostic tool of the company's interest. The annual fee for membership in the Biomedical Engineering Student Design Consortium is $6,000.

Radwin says the Student Design Consortium creates valuable relationships between the students and companies, and that really serves to motivate the students. "This helps them to see how what they learn in the classroom relates to the real world, and they 'learn how to learn.'" Many of the past projects have been successful and have led to unique designs.

The partnership also serves the purpose of allowing students to gain more insight about what engineering is all about, and this may spark their interest in working for a company after graduating. As for the participating companies, they benefit by helping to advance their projects along to the point of designing a prototype, with the potential for further development, granting of a patent and eventual marketing. An added advantage for companies, points out Radwin, is that they gain an edge over competitors in the job market by identifying firsthand the top recruits from each graduating class of biomedical engineers. It also helps Wisconsin companies keep the most talented students in the state.

The evolution of the design course was straightforward. It began with the formation of an undergraduate degree program in biomedical engineering just five years ago. Radwin says, "We wanted a biomedical engineering degree that was different—we wanted to create a program that would help ensure that there were jobs for our undergraduates." To achieve this goal, they sought advice from local and regional biomedical companies. Those on the corporate side pointed out that undergraduate biomedical engineering students typically don't get enough design experience; they need more if they are to be hired right out of college. That is because unlike other engineering majors, biomedical engineers need to study a broad spectrum of subjects in biology and engineering and often do not have the opportunity to acquire sufficient design skills in four years of college. UW-Madison responded by developing a biomedical engineering curriculum that emphasizes design—a feature that continues to set the UW-Madison biomedical engineering program apart from comparable programs nationwide.

Yet the creators of the biomedical engineering department didn't settle for simulating what they perceived to be realistic design challenges. Instead, they began by soliciting real projects from a wide range of clinical departments and laboratories across the UW-Madison campus, from arenas as diverse as internal medicine, ophthalmology, radiology, neurosurgery, exercise physiology, pediatrics, rehabilitation and orthopedics. Then they moved beyond fishing in the abundant waters of UW-Madison and further broadened their search. Turning to the innovative engineering companies who first recommended they create a curriculum emphasizing design, they solicited project ideas from the corporate world. Today, this relationship has blossomed into the UW-Madison Biomedical Engineering Student Design Consortium.

"The projects offered in each semester's design courses involve real-world engineering problems," says Radwin. "What's even better is that the students really love it." At the start of each semester the "wish list" of design projects is posted, and so begins the flurry of forming student teams, scheduling meetings and planning brainstorming sessions. Then come the long hours spent experimenting and actually designing the device. The intensive process requires that teams meet regularly and file progress reports with their mentor or client company. At the end of the semester, the group efforts culminate in a final presentation at the Biomedical Engineering Design Expo (See accompanying box). Open to the public, the Biomedical Engineering Design Expo offers each team the opportunity to demonstrate and explain its project. Biomedical companies are invited and encouraged to attend the event, providing more interaction between the worlds of academe and industry.

Andrew Wentland of Rockford, Ill., a senior undergraduate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is presently leading a team of fellow seniors in what will be his final design project. He chose to tackle the design of an accessible syringe dosing system that aims to deliver automated doses of medications in a reliable, low-cost and easy-to-use fashion. This particular project is part of the Biomedical Engineering National Student Design Competition, so successful completion may earn Wentland and his team additional recognition.

As evidenced by his previous projects, Wentland is drawn to engineering problems with a strong medical bent. He has already demonstrated his skills by successfully designing a neck rotator device to facilitate magnetic resonance imaging, as well as a screw-controlled eye dropper to provide individuals with neuromuscular disorders more control and accuracy when self-administering eye medications. In both cases, Wentland's team took their projects a step further and applied for patents through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

Following graduation, Wentland plans to earn a combined M.D./Ph.D. and continue studying biomedical engineering. The impressive list of engineering experiences and opportunities he has racked up in less than four years at the UW-Madison has helped shape his career goals. He has filled every possible spare minute with endeavors such as serving as president of the Biomedical Student Advisory Committee, conducting research in medical physics and radiology laboratories, even writing articles for engineering magazines. Last summer, Wentland got a realistic taste of life in the corporate engineering world when he earned an internship at GE Healthcare.

As a member of the Student Design Consortium, GE Healthcare has the opportunity to work directly with UW-Madison student engineers, and the company continues to offer highly competitive summer internships. Wentland applied for the position through the university's Engineering Career Services, and he spent his summer there working on computer software projects geared to help radiologists and medical technologists better analyze MRI images. "Working in industry was a tremendous benefit to me," says Wentland. "My time at GE was epiphanic—working on biomedical engineering projects (for the student design consortium) is remarkably congruent with how industry functions. I experienced no difference between industry and design projects, especially when it came to working on a team, meeting with the individuals you are designing the product for and needing to learn that which you don't know."

Worth Seeing: "The Biomedical Engineering Design Expo"

The public is invited to drop by this semester's design expo, where students will have their projects on display for faculty evaluations. It's a great chance to see how teams of students are working with businesses to develop solutions to some challenges in the health care industry today.

The displays go up at noon on Friday, Dec. 3, in the lobby of the Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Evaluations end by 2 p.m.

An added feature of the Expo will be Michael Cudahy, the well-known industrialist, entrepreneur and community leader who will provide a keynote address at noon in the Research Presentation Room just off the lobby.

Cudahy

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Helping to advance technology from both sides of the fence

It is not so uncommon to find University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering students showing up on the doorstep of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation after completing a successful round of design projects. Many of the biomedical tools and devices appearing on the list of design projects each semester have patents pending or already have been patented through WARF. Jeanine Burmania, a graduate of the UW-Madison Department of Biomedical Engineering, can boast of experiencing both sides of the process.

Burmania recently was hired by WARF as a licensing assistant in the biological sciences. Her biomedical engineering training at UW-Madison gave her a broad, yet solid, foundation that she believes led her down the path to her new position. The opportunity to incorporate a number of different types of engineering specialties into her design projects—including computer, industrial, electronic, chemical and biological—provided her with a good flavor for real-world engineering challenges. "Between the variety of engineering courses and the different design projects, the program gives you the option of exploring different areas," she says. "This helps you to figure out what you eventually want to focus on in your career."

Admittedly, Burmania's career path was somewhat less than conventional. After obtaining her master's degree, she worked as a scientist at a small start-up company at University Research Park. Yet when an opening for a licensing position at WARF was posted, Burmania jumped at the chance. She says her experience as a biomedical engineering student reinforced the valuable connection between the design of devices and technologies and the need to license and patent such inventions to make the leap to real-world applications.

"My degree has prepared me to understand the science behind the inventions," she says. "I really enjoy interacting with professors who are enthusiastic about their inventions, as well as meeting with companies. It's fulfilling to know if we can license an invention, it helps the UW as well as the inventors."