Advise a student design team

The Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) is looking for industry professionals who would be willing to advise undergraduate senior design teams.

Advisor benefits

  • Provide a valuable experience for BME seniors, while supporting the BME department.

  • Have the opportunity to screen and ultimately recruit graduating seniors.

  • Enjoyable experience that provides personal and professional growth.

Course overview

  • Project-oriented course in which students work to develop, design, and test a biomedical device under the guidance of experienced engineers.

  • Students work in teams of four to six students. Each advisor works with one team.

  • Course is set up as a two-semester sequence (Fall and Spring).

Fall

  • First four weeks are dedicated to giving students intense exposure to clinical challenges in one of the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center clinics.

  • Following the clinical exposure phase, students research a specific clinical need and develop a concept for a medical device that would address that need.

  • Students learn about different aspects of general product design, development, and commercialization through a seminar series. Advisors are welcome to participate as either audience members or speakers in their specific fields of expertise.

Spring

  • Students build and test their prototype device while attending lectures on issues specific to medical devices.

Advisor responsibilities

  • Assist students in identifying a project topic during the clinical exposure phase.

  • Provide guidance on the design problem and feedback about progress.

  • Assess the final design and individual student performance.

  • Attend at least a biweekly campus meeting with your group for about one hour.

  • Attend mid-semester and end-of-semester presentations by students.