Skip to main content
2025 BMES Annual Meeting Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
ViewAttendees 1

Biomedical Engineering Education

Biomedical Engineering Education - Poster Session E

R14 - Designing for Others: Building Student Confidence Through Engineering Design Challenges

Saturday, October 11, 2025
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT
Location: Exhibit Hall F, G & H

Introduction: : Roughly fifty percent of the students who begin in engineering leave the field before receiving their degree [1]. Understanding how to improve student persistence would help alleviate this issue, and one promising area of focus is early in students’ educational pathways–in high school. One approach that may enhance early engineering experiences is human-centered design, connecting technical problem-solving to real human needs, which is particularly relevant in fields like bioengineering. The goal of this project was to study how human-centered design methods in a high school engineering camp affected students’ engineering confidence. Human-centered class modules from both engineering and occupational therapy were implemented to improve students’ perspectives on understanding engineering and a human-centered focus in design. These modules ranged from students designing their own prosthetic devices to the inclusion of prosthetic users describing their own experiences. Pre/post surveys were administered to gauge the impact these modules have on the students' confidence and perspectives on engineering.

Materials and

Methods: : Overall, twenty-seven high school students were selected for the Beacon Engineering Academy based on interest, GPA, and courses taken in high school. Out of the twenty-seven, thirteen were accepted into the prosthesis project. Data was collected from students through pre/post surveys that included a series of questions designed to assess their attitude towards and understanding of engineering. Modules and structured lessons were implemented into the camp each day to allow students to understand terminology and engineering fundamentals. Throughout the week, prosthesis users, prosthetists, engineers, and occupational therapists were introduced. Each student completed an upper-limb cardboard prosthesis in preparation for their week-long upper-limb prosthesis project, and was then placed into one of five groups. Lessons were given on adhesives and fasteners, the Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT) model, and human-centered design; students were encouraged to integrate these practices into their projects. Each group was assigned a persona, developed and led by a research assistant, with defined design needs. Additionally, students received lessons on electromyography (EMG) signaling and bioelectricity. They experimented with their own EMG signals and attempted to incorporate them into their upper-limb prostheses designs. The groups received feedback on their designs from professionals in the field, as well as a prosthesis user. Students tested and finalized their designs in preparation for the Cybathlon demonstration and final presentation. The Cybathlon was a set of challenges meant to showcase and highlight the human-centered features of their solutions.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: The results of the analysis found that average student confidence in building devices for real people increased from 4.82 to 5.27 on a 6-point scale between before and after camp (Figure 1). Using a two-sample paired t-test, we found our p-value to be 0.296, which was not statistically significant. While these results do not provide statistical evidence that the modules improved student confidence in building for real people, the positive trend is worth noting given the small sample size. Furthermore, overall student confidence in becoming an engineer was highest in 2025, even if only by a small margin over previous years (Figure 2). Many students reported being more drawn to engineering; however, a few students realized engineering was not for them. More work is needed to confirm the effectiveness of this model in promoting human-centered thinking and the effectiveness of the modules on student confidence.

Acknowledgements and/or References (Optional): : The authors thank Dr. Jesse Sestito for directing the high school engineering camp; Bionic Prosthetics and Orthotics for providing demonstration prostheses; and AJ Stevens and James Richards for their photographic contributions.

[1] Shuman, Larry, et al. Engineering Attrition: Student Characteristics and Educational Initiatives.
[2] A. Miranda, N. Mabrey, I. Ogli, S. Santana de Amorim Brito, A Wolok, et al. “Integrating Human-Centered Design into Pre-College Engineering Camp with a Body-Powered Prosthesis Project”. BMES Annual Meeting. Seattle Convention Center, Seattle-WA, October 13, 2023.
[3] A. Maxey, E. Galvin, N. Houseworth, S. Santana de Amorim Brito, et al. “Body-Powered Prosthesis Project to Promote Learning of Human Centered Design in a Pre-College Engineering Camp” BMES Annual Meeting. Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD, October 24, 2024.