Semester-long project exposing students to Experimental Design, Data Collection/Analysis, Developing a Business Model and Technical Communication

This module was designed as a semester-long project that exposed students to Experimental Design, Data Collection and Analysis, Developing a Business Model and Technical Communication to diverse audiences.

Students work in teams of 2-3 to develop a study that utilizes motion analysis technology to analyze the human body in motion. Students are charged with identifying either a disease state that affects mobility, a sports exercise or a biomechanics injury to research and then to develop a scientific proposal, including the Instutitional Review Board (IRB) application, to study that target patient population. Secondly, the students are asked to develop a business model to convert the experiment or research technique into a financially lucrative clinical assessment lab/data collection tool. 

Finally, students were asked to use their scientific findings from data collection from a small in-class preliminary data set that mimicked the disease (e.g. performing the "Parkinson's Shuffle" across force plates) to demonstrate how their research could be scaled up and implemented in a clinical environment.

Students researched how to market their technology and developed a reimbursement strategy (e.g. insurance reimbursed through the hospital or pay-as-you-play in a recreational facility). The goal was to have students consider the value and cost structure of the data collection within their target market.

Using the Connecticut Children's Medical Center's Motion Analysis Laboratory and the Golf Swing Motion Analysis as our example, the students learned how to be entrepreneurial in their mindset and develop both technical and business skills that went beyond that of a typical engineering classroom.

CCMC's Motion Analysis Lab: 
https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/search-specialties/sports-medicine/golf-swing-motion-analysis/