Overview
The Biomedical Engineering Senior Design program introduces students to a systematic, customer-driven design and problem-solving approach to developing prototypes of medical devices and research instruments.
The program includes a two-semester sequence of courses that starts with students benchmarking and analyzing existing medical devices. They then break into teams to solve a problem posed by Rochester faculty members, clinicians from our medical center, the local community, or local industry during the remainder of the year.
In solving these problems, students generate a formal design proposal, participate in formal design reviews, develop physical prototypes, and test their devices. They also provide extensive reports to document the results of testing and considerations for further implementation. Course milestone events and assignments align with Quality Systems practices, preparing our students for industry.
Student teams at the University's Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences partner with local companies and institutions to solve real-world engineering problems. All design teams are expected to thoroughly consider many realistic constraints, including ethical, economic, manufacturing, social, and regulatory issues. BME seniors work directly with the graduate students in our Center for Medical Technology & Innovation (CMTI) program, and each student team is supervised by biomedical engineering faculty, who provide both technical and project management guidance.
Our students have completed hundreds of projects, including clinical devices, assistive technology, biomedical research instruments and protocols. Several teams have entered projects in local entrepreneurship and national design competitions with great success. Senior design project teams have had winning entries in national design competitions, the NY State Business Plan Competition, the Mark Ain Business Plan Competition, as well as a 10-year track record of success at the Forbes Engineering Entrepreneurship Competition.
At the end of the academic year, teams present their research at the annual Hajim Senior Design Day. This annual event has grown since 2011 to showcase capstone projects of seniors from all six Hajim School departments.