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How Do Biomedical Engineering Graduates Differ from Other Engineers? Bridging the Gap Between BME and Industry: a Case Study

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Connecting BME education to the "real world"

Tagged Division

Biomedical Engineering

Page Count

7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--30578

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/30578

Download Count

561

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Paper Authors

biography

Tanya M. Nocera The Ohio State University, Department of Biomedical Engineering

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Tanya M. Nocera, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University. She is focused on developing, teaching, and assessing upper-level Biomedical Engineering laboratory courses, with particular interest in improving student technical communication skills.

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biography

Alexis Ortiz-Rosario The Ohio State University

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Alexis Ortiz-Rosario is a assistant professor of practice in the department of biomedical engineering at The Ohio State University. He holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, and a M.S. and PhD in biomedical engineering from The Ohio State University. His current position entails teaching measurements and instrumentation courses, leading micro and nano educational labs, as well as mentoring students in their senior capstone projects. His current projects include industry integration in the curriculum, undergraduate professional development, and entrepreneurial minded learning in the classroom.

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Amena Shermadou Ohio State University

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Amena Shermadou is an Engineering Education graduate student at The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelors and Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio. Her experience with teaching first-year engineering students has led to research interests in curriculum development, student empowerment and the development of holistic engineers through the collaboration with engineering stakeholders.

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biography

David A. Delaine The Ohio State University

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Dr. David A. Delaine is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Department of Engineering Education. Within this newly formed department he strives to creatively impact society through investigating the intersections of engineering, education, and social need through research on community engagement and collaborative processes within informal learning. He has obtained a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Drexel University, in Philadelphia, USA and served as a Postdoctoral Fulbright Scholar at the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo. Dr. Delaine is a co-founder and past president of the Student Platform for Engineering Education Development (SPEED) and has served two terms as an executive member of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) as a Vice President for Diversity & Inclusion. He is investigating university-community engagement as empowerment settings and working to further the research agenda of the global community of practice within Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering Education. His research laboratory aims to support an inclusive, global pipeline of STEM talent and to unify the needs of the engineering education stakeholders in order for engineering education to more accurately reflect societal needs. Diversity and inclusion, university/community engagement, informal learning, action research, and student led initiatives fall within the scope of his academic endeavors.

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Abstract

Workshops hosted at recent Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) meetings have identified the leap from university to a career in industry to be a nation-wide challenge for Biomedical Engineering (BME) undergraduate programs and their alumni. While some strides are being made to better utilize BME industries feedback in formation of undergraduate and masters level BME program curricula, a more holistic understanding of the factors influencing the gap between university and industry is desired. Here, we present a case study at our university that evaluates and compares the industry potential of engineering students progressing through and graduating from emerging (i.e. BME, Materials Science and Engineering) and traditional (i.e. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering) disciplines. Using data collected by our university’s Engineering Career Services, we will present comparisons of co-op, internship, and full-time industry employment between BME and other emerging and traditional engineering disciplines. Through this case study, and further discussion, we aim to identify potential areas of opportunity for shrinking and/or bridging the gap for BMEs seeking to enter the industry workforce.

Nocera, T. M., & Ortiz-Rosario, A., & Shermadou, A., & Delaine, D. A. (2018, June), How Do Biomedical Engineering Graduates Differ from Other Engineers? Bridging the Gap Between BME and Industry: a Case Study Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30578

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2018 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015