Senior design - biomedical engineering/industrial design collaboration in senior design projects

Abstract

To prepare biomedical engineering and industrial design students for potential future collaborations, it would be helpful for them to understand and appreciate the contributions each can make to the project team. This can be accomplished through the senior capstone design course by forming project teams that include biomedical engineering and industrial design students. Collaboration between biomedical engineering and industrial design students on senior design project teams provides many benefits. First, students learn how to communicate with people in other functional disciplines. Second, students learn that no individual person has all the skills and knowledge needed to complete a project, and they develop an appreciation for the complementary skills each member brings to the project. Third, students learn that there is more than one way to solve a problem. This helps them develop an appreciation for different approaches to problem solving and ways of thinking. Finally, the overall quality of product design increases when biomedical engineering and industrial design students work together.