BIOE 374: Biodesign Innovation - Distance Learners Reap the Benefits!

Ours is one of the most popular engineering courses on campus. Here's what one of our distance learning students had to say:

I'm currently enrolled in BIOE374A via SCPD, and just wanted to send along a note to say that the class is already proving valuable for me in my job.

We are fortunate to have weekly collaborative meetings with a surgeon and other folks from the academic setting at the University of South Florida. These have been quite fruitful, resulting in a number of invention disclosures and provisional patents; one of these is converting to a full patent application shortly.

One particular clinical need was presented to us by the surgeon a few months ago, and I watched a few surgery cases to get a better appreciation for the need. An automated electronic device was proposed as a solution, and even though my background is in robotics (and I love overdesigning things!), my gut sense told me that might not be the right solution.

With the things I've learned in the Biodesign class, I was able to understand and more clearly articulate why a passive device was more appropriate, and I proposed a very simple, yet effective solution. I'm currently working on the invention disclosure, and a quickly-prototyped in-vitro study is being planned to validate the idea.

I'm eager to learn even more in BIOE374B!