Inspired by her little brother who has two cochlear implants to aid his hearing and an insulin pump to treat his diabetes, Christine Sleppy wants to combine her engineering skills with medicine to help change lives.

麻豆精品 S淕rowing up, I saw how that sort of technology changed his life as well our whole family and made it possible for him to live like a normal person, 麻豆精品 S� Sleppy said. 麻豆精品 S淪o I want to use my engineering skills toward the medical field to be able to impact other people 麻豆精品 S檚 lives the way it impacted my family. 麻豆精品 S�

Sleppy is among 15 UCF engineering students who are getting to know the inner workings of one of the most intricately designs machines – the human body.

Thanks to a partnership between UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Medicine, the first cohort of students in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 new biomedical engineering (BME) master 麻豆精品 S檚 program are receiving a tactile introduction to the human anatomy.

The master 麻豆精品 S檚 program trains young engineers to design medical devices for implant within or on the body, such as heart pumps, pacemakers, and prosthetics. Most of the students have not had any real exposure to anatomy. So the College of Medicine 麻豆精品 S檚 Mechanics of Biostructures class is designed to give them a better understanding of the body 麻豆精品 S檚 structures.

College of Medicine faculty members Drs. Mohtashem Samsam and Robert Steward lecture the students on basic anatomy. Then the students have seven four-hour lab sessions with Dr. Daniel Topping, assistant professor of family medicine and anatomy. In the lab, the future biomedical engineers examine the musculoskeletal structure of cadavers 麻豆精品 S� persons who have donated their bodies to help train medical students.

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麻豆精品 S淚t really humanizes the experiences when you 麻豆精品 S檙e seeing the body intact and as a whole system rather than just parts, 麻豆精品 S� said student Katherine McGrane. 麻豆精品 S淲e learn so much from physically seeing and touching these innermost components that we 麻豆精品 S檙e used to seeing only in drawings. This give us a lot more insight on how we will go forward and design better medical implants and treatments. 麻豆精品 S�

Program director and UCF engineering professor, Dr. Alain Kassab said the collaboration provides an indispensable experience for the future biomedical engineers.

麻豆精品 S淔or students that are working on cardiovascular flow, for example, it 麻豆精品 S檚 the first time they have seen what an aorta looks like in terms of the structure, the lumen and the actual geometry of these vessels, 麻豆精品 S� he said. 麻豆精品 S淪o this will make them better modelers and better at providing solutions for medical problems. 麻豆精品 S�

Kassab said he is motivated by the feedback he has received from faculty and students involved in the joint program. 麻豆精品 S淭here are a lot of BME programs that don 麻豆精品 S檛 offer such an opportunity and we think that we 麻豆精品 S檝e got something that 麻豆精品 S檚 very unique, 麻豆精品 S� Dr. Kassab said. 麻豆精品 S淭his collaboration between the College of Medicine and the College of Engineering certainly builds bridges and we are looking forward to expanding this relationship in terms of pedagogical developments and research. 麻豆精品 S�