Desenvolvimento de Dispositivos Médicos

Objectives

This course aims to put students in contact with real problems that occur in clinical or rehabilitation practice, or that are experienced by people with pathology, and that can be mitigated through the development of medical devices. It is a course with a strong practical component in which learning is done based on the challenge to be solved. Students work in multidisciplinary teams and it is expected that at the end of the course, each team will present a functional prototype of the developed medical device.

Syllabus

For each proposed challenge, a multidisciplinary team composed of an external mentor, an internal mentor belonging to the teaching team and a group of students with a maximum of five elements will be created. The work to be developed will be carried out in a collaboratively throughout the course, with different functions being assigned to the different members of the team. It is expected that once the challenge is launched, the team will start by defining the problem to be solved, propose the technical specifications and a consensus solution, and that, in the end, build the functional prototype of the idealized medical device, verifying if it meets the specifications established initially and proposing modifications, or improvements, whenever necessary. Given the specificity of the devices to be developed, whenever necessary, seminars will be offered, presented by faculty members or by external guests, with relevant information for the work being carried out.

Prerequisites

There is none.

Cross Competence Component

Since this is a course based on the resolution of concrete problems with open solution, that presents continuous assessment based on oral presentations and report writing, that involves intra- and inter-group collaborative work, and in which the devices to developed need to take into consideration ethical and professional deontology requirements, it is possible to verify that the four large groups of transversal competencies defined by UNESCO, namely 'Critical and Innovative Thinking', 'Inter- and Intra-Personal Competences',' Global Citizenship 'and' Information and Media Literacy ', are unequivocally present in the structuring and execution of the course.

Laboratorial Component

Depending on the project to be developed, students may need to use the Movement Biomechanics Laboratory or the Product Development and Additive Manufacturing Laboratory of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Programming And Computing Component

Depending on the project to be implemented, students may need to develop some programming (in Matlab or Python). In other cases, groups may need to use engineering software from a computer-aided design perspective.

Ethical Principles

All members of a group are responsible for the group’s work In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used. In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.