BIOE592
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Integration Courses
BIOE321 - Cellular Engineering
BIOE425 - Pharmaceutical Engineering
BIOE464 - Extracellular Matrix
BIOE592 - Sensory Neuroengineering

 

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BIOE592 - Sensory Neuroengineering

Title: Sensory Neuroengineering

Overview: This course will explore how bioengineering techniques and principles are applied to sensory systems, with a focus on hearing, balance, and vision. The structure and function of sensory organs is introduced from a systems perspective, and followed by an in-depth coverage of the cellular and molecular basis of sensation. The interaction between the electrical, mechanical, and optical aspects of sensory systems, as well as ways to modulate these interactions, is explored. Current therapies for auditory and visual impairment are covered, as well as recent advances in the emerging field of auditory and visual prosthetics based on neuroelectronics. The course is interdisciplinary and invites seminar speakers from Bioengineering , Electrical Engineering, and clinical departments at Baylor College of Medicine.

Schedule-- go to course schedule

Course materials go to course materials

Projects Each year, a final project in assigned in the class. Last year, the project was to design an interactive educational module to teach others about the sensory systems. The goal was of the project was to force the students to integrates and reiterates the knowledge they acquire during the semester. The class was split into groups and each team group was responsible for creating a challenging game to be played by their classmates. The aim of this project is to encourage students to be creative and put together the course material in a way that is engaging and fun. The last week of class was dedicated to presenting and playing the games

This coming fall, the students will spend the semester designing and constructing an educational, interactive, small museum exhibit. The exhibit will teach about how the five senses work, what happens when these senses start to fail, and what bioengineers can do to treat sensory impairment. The exhibited will initially be presented at the Rice student union: students, faculty, and wider community will be notified of the exhibit by advertisement in the Rice newspapers. We will make a special effort to invite members of the local Lions club, and the Houston Chapter of Self-Help for Hard of Hearing. We also plan to schedule a day on which students from local high school students will view the exhibit, in order to stimulating student's interest in neuroengineering. .

Special Features – In this course, I invite several outside lecturers from Baylor College of Medicine to speak about their research. The weekly assignment for the students is to read 2-3 recent papers (usually one review article and one or two research papers) that cover the topics that will be lectured on that day. The students are required to turn in a summary of the papers at the start of the lecture. At the end of class, there is a discussion period in which the students can ask the expert lecturer questions. The interactive projects also are a special feature of this class.

Integration into Curriculum. Sensory Neuroengineering is designed for our seniors and graduate students in bioengineering. This course is designed to take students from the organized lecture format of an undergraduate class into a more individualized style of learning. As preparation for Sensory Neuroengineering, undergraduate students will have already taken Physiology, Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Thermodynamics, Introduction to Biomechanics and Biomaterials, Bioinstrumentation and numerous relevant math courses at Rice; graduate students generally have had similar preparation. The course is designed as an elective for our seniors who are concentrating in the Cellular and Molecular Engineering Track of our department; students from other tracks often elect to take the course.

 

– Elective course
– 20 seniors and grad students enrolled Fall 2004
– Structure and function of sensory systems
– Neuroprosthetic Devices (Cochlear/Retinal Implants)
– Biosensors Inspired by Sensory Systems

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