Design and Manufacturing of Medical Devices and Implants: Cultivating a Human- Centered Mindset

Technological advances are revolutionizing the medical device industry; and healthcare makes up one of the largest and fastest-growing job sectors in the United States. However, due to the traditional separation between career trajectories in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and those in the healthcare sector, STEM graduate students often do not have training in a clinical setting.

Consequently, many are not aware of the ethical principles, laws, and policies associated with the development and use of technologies in those settings. As a result, advancements and innovations made in the design and manufacturing of biomedical devices in academic institutions often do not appropriately address the application side of the technology.

This gap in STEM education can be addressed by developing a convergent research program that weaves different disciplines together. Knowledge of the applied side of medical technology research is necessary for effective and sustainable innovation. This NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) project brings together the awardee institution with the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, to address this gap by creating and fostering a use-inspired, human-centered outlook in STEM graduate students through a set of structured and convergent research and training activities.

The project anticipates training 34 Ph.D. students, including 17 funded trainees from engineering, design, manufacturing, and science disciplines.

Trainees will focus on research problems associated with imaging devices and technologies, additively manufactured implants and devices, personable diagnostic devices, tissue repair and regeneration devices, and applications of cybersecurity, data science, and artificial intelligence to medical devices. Trainees will follow a training schedule consisting of NRT core curriculum courses, applied and experiential learning components, including a Mayo Clinic residency, MedTech accelerator participation, a Graduate-Undergraduate Mentorship (GUM) Program, and experiential and professional activities.

NRT trainees will learn aspects that are not traditionally part of STEM education, such as limitations and opportunities for technology-human interactions in medical and clinical settings. They will also gain an understanding of ethical principles and develop an entrepreneurial mindset and aptitude. This training experience will enhance students’ education by providing breath in the three research thrust areas: (1) Human-technology interface in medical devices, (2) Ethics in research and innovation, (3) Law and policies in research and technology.

Cross-disciplinary teams of faculty are selected as the advising team for each NRT trainee; and tudents will integrate at least one of these research thrusts into their specific research topic through their dissertation.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.