2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: Effects of a prototyping course on capstone design performance

Presented at Biomedical Engineering Division (BED) Poster Session

At the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), our design spine includes a 300-level prototyping class to augment practical engineering skills. The prototyping class, entitled Physical Prototyping for Design, aims to increase familiarity and confidence working with various materials, power tools, and machining techniques. We hypothesized that participation in this course would enhance student ability in capstone design. Specifically, during the first semester of capstone design, students individually propose a technical solution for their team project based on design inputs. This affords us the opportunity to evaluate the efficacy and translational outcomes from the prototyping course on engineering skill and ability in capstone design. From 2022-2024, a total of 20 students completed the prototyping course. Seventeen of these students remained in BME and were enrolled in capstone design between 2022-2024, where they were placed among ten different teams. The design proposals from students who completed the prototyping course were scored against their team members who did not take the course. Scoring was performed based on written communication, graphical communication, and materials identification. Projects ranged from machine learning application (all software) to rehabilitation treadmill (electromechanical systems) and imaging phantoms (all hardware and CAD). On average, students from the prototyping course earned 70±13% of the available points from design proposals whereas their peers scored 68±11% (N=10 teams, p=0.72). Though, for projects that utilized most of the skills fostered in the prototyping course (e.g., the imaging phantom used CAD, 3D printing, and physical design features exclusively), the students that took the prototyping course scored substantially better than their peers. Overall, we report no significant effect of early prototyping exposure to design proposal ability in capstone. Future versions of the prototyping course will be revised to introduce and reinforce additional skillsets that may readily translate to capstone design.

Authors

Dr. Emily Dosmar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6341-7530 University of Illinois at Chicago [biography]

Dr. Emily Dosmar is a Clinical Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. She earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, after which she spent nine years as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rose-Hulman. Her work focuses on engineering education, biomedical device design, and the integration of regulatory and clinical perspectives into the undergraduate curriculum. She emphasizes project-based learning to connect theory with real-world application and has a growing interest in alternative assessment practices, including ungrading, to promote deeper student learning and inclusivity. Dr. Dosmar is a 2025–2026 KEEN Fellow and is committed to developing innovative, student-centered learning experiences that prepare future engineers for meaningful, real-world impact.
Dr. Miiri Kotche University of Illinois at Chicago [biography]

Miiri Kotche is the Richard and Loan Hill Clinical Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago and currently serves as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in Engineering. Her research interests center on experiential learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and promoting biomedical engineering through high school science teacher professional development.
Michael Gordon Browne http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-5091-0817 The University of Illinois at Chicago [biography]

Clinical Assistant Professor teaching engineering design, medical device quality and regulatory processes, innovation, and entrepreneurship to University of Illinois at Chicago Biomedical Engineering Students and Medical Students the University of Illinois College of Medicine Innovation Medicine Program. Research interests focus on the emulation of realistic medical device design in education and the quality assessment of educational design projects for between-project comparisons.
Dr. Anthony E. Felder http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4533-8369 University of Illinois at Chicago [biography]

Anthony's current focus is on engineering education and its restructuring to better meet the diverse needs of students and industries. Anthony is also active in ophthalmology research for the multimodal imaging of retinal oxygenation and novel medical device design.

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