Megan White

Description:

BIOMEDE 450, the senior design course for biomedical engineers, made it's mark as one of the most stressful and beneficial classes I've taken at the University of Michigan. In this class, we were assigned teams and got to pick a project to complete with the team over the course of the semester. My project was "Improving Pinching in Multiple Sclerosis". The goal of this project was to design a device to provide sensory feedback to optimize pinch grip in multiple sclerosis patients. Our project was very different than most other teams had that semester beause we didn't have a client, only subject matter experts. We were responsible for determining the need/problem (which other teams were given), analyzing the current hand assitive devices market, and designing a prototype that fit the need and solved the problem we found based on extensive research and testing. We generated a successful prototype that accomplished that goal, and I learned so much throughout the process. After completion of the class, our team submitted our project abstract to the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting, and it was accepted! We presented our project poster at the conference in October 2016. It was an amazing eye-opening experience and gave me a new perspective on the significant impact biomedical engineering has on the research and medical device fields. 

 

Skills Gained

• Public Speaking and Interpersonal skills

• Adaptability 

• Improved analytical and logical thinking

• Problem solving

• Time and Project Management

• Coding using Arduino technology

• Device fabrication and testing methods

 

Lessons Learned/Impact

I can genuinely say this class impacted me the most out of all the classes I've taken at the University of Michigan. I learned so much about working with people, and to push past differences in opinion for sake of reaching our end goal successfully. I learned about all the logistics that goes into creating and marketing a new medical device, and further developed my technical communication skills to produce industry quality reports and presentations. I never realized the amount of research and testing that goes into the development of new medical devices. I learned how to run usability and validation testing, and analyze the data to determine how to modify our device to suit the consumer's needs and wants. I learned how to prototype and create different concepts based on desired features, and how to use selection tools to find the best option. This class opened my eyes to the wonder that this the medical device industry, and I can't wait to be further involved in this industry after graduate school.