In this paper, we present our progress in creating and implementing a four-semester design project to build a functional cardiograph that estimates heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR). This set of project-based learning activities addresses industry’s complaint that students lack practical experience (“how devices are made”). The four project parts are: 1) creation of a personalized SolidWorks case and breadboarding of a bioamplifier circuit (connected to National Instruments my-DAQ data acquisition and a laptop running a LabVIEW executable); 2) C programming of a Texas Instruments microcontroller embedded system (replacing the breadboard, my-DAQ, and laptop) to acquire and display electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms; 3) filter design to isolate ECG and respiration waveforms, with subsequent peak detection for estimating HR and RR; and 4) filter redesign using wavelet transforms to provide motion artifact resistant estimation of HR and RR. Although seemingly a biomedical engineering project, we administer this project to all our engineering students during their first, third, fifth, and sixth semesters, before they choose a specialization in biomedical, computer, or environmental engineering.
The learning outcomes, which are related to data acquisition, programming, filter design, and algorithm design, are discussed. Each learning outcome is assessed by the instructor using a rubric that describes each outcome. In addition to student performance, we also consider how this project may support student engagement and retention via students’ and instructors’ reflections, which are collected via journals, focus groups, and surveys.
Dr. Gail Baura is a Professor and Director of Engineering at Loyola University Chicago. To create this new general engineering program, she combined engineering with social justice for students and faculty.
Leanne Kallemeyn, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in Research Methodologies at Loyola University Chicago. She teaches graduate-level courses in program evaluation, qualitative research methods, and mixed methods. She has been the PI on seven major evaluation projects that ranged from one to five years in length. Her scholarship focuses on practitioners’ data use and evaluation capacity building within non-profits through coaching. She received a Bachelors in Psychology from Calvin College, and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
I am a mechanical engineer in the medical device industry.
Dr. Vincent Chen is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering with expertise in neuromodulation and rehabilitation engineering. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, and pursued a career in the tech industry while working on his graduate degrees. Before joining Loyola University Chicago, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and conducted clinical research at the Neuromodulation Center of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. His current research focuses on quantifying the extent of neuroplasticity induced by the application of brain and peripheral nerve stimulation.
I have a BSEE from the University of Maryland, 1967 thus I have 50 years experience divided between 3 different fields: Aerospace, Computer and Medical. For these fields, the work was mostly analog and digital design. Software was required for all the medical products which was performed by others who had to meet my design requirements.
The medical products involved designing microvolt level analog circuits, ADCs, discrete digital, microprocessors and PGA digital circuits, for testing to design specifications and approving to FDA, CE, UL, etc., specifications for heart pacemakers, neuro-stimulators and other medical products.
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