A heart-lung machine is used to take over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery in which the heart must be stopped. This machine makes possible a variety of life saving surgeries such as heart transplants, bypass surgery, and valve replacement. Blood oxygenators are used in more than one million procedures annually, and their total market is over $500 million per year. This paper describes how a heart-lung machine was used as the basis for engineering projects in three different educational contexts: high school science courses in the United States, a multidisciplinary first year engineering course at a university in the United States, and a second year chemical engineering course at a university in Ireland. In each context, students were challenged to design, build and test a heart-lung machine to simulate the performance of a clinical cardiopulmonary bypass system. The project proved to be adaptable and transferrable to different contexts with different learning objectives, assessment, instructional strategy, student population, and details of implementation.
Dr. Stephanie Farrell is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University (USA) was the 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar in Engineering Education at Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland). She obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1996. Dr. Farrell has contributed to engineering education through her work in experiential learning, focusing on areas of pharmaceutical, biomedical and food engineering. She has been honored by the American Society of Engineering Education with several teaching awards such as the 2004 National Outstanding Teaching Medal and the 2005 Quinn Award for experiential learning. Stephanie has conducted workshops on a variety of topics including effective teaching, inductive teaching strategies and the use of experiments and demonstrations to enhance learning.
Taryn Bayles, Ph.D., is a Professor of the Practice of chemical engineering in the Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering Department at UMBC, where she incorporates her industrial experience by bringing practical examples and interactive learning to help students understand fundamental engineering principles. Her current research focuses on engineering education, outreach and curriculum development.
Dr. Patricia Kieran is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering at University College Dublin. Graduating from UCD (1985), she received an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (1986) and a PhD from UCD (1996). She was appointed as a UCD Fellow in Teaching & Academic Development (2007) and as a Senior Fellow in 2009. She is a 2009 recipient of an ExxonMobil Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching.
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