Engineering, especially electrical engineering, can seem completely unrelated from medicine. When people think about electrical engineering in the context of medicine, they may only think of smart watches and other wearable devices. However, three of the fourteen Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century as laid out by the National Academy of Engineering have to do with the field of medicine, while many more have huge repercussions for the health of humans. In this camp, we will investigate how electrical engineers not only power, but also empower, the medical field to engineer better medicines, advance health informatics, and reverse engineer the brain.
In addition to wearable electronics, electrical engineers play a key role in reverse engineering the brain by creating devices that can monitor and control the electrical impulses sent through the body’s nervous system. While many may think of personal computing devices as driving innovation in micro and nano electronics and power technology, it is really implantable devices that are providing the strongest catalyst. Electrical engineers are even responsible for designing the computer architectures and algorithms used for modeling disease spread, determining risk factors, and detecting disease. Electrical engineers improve our lives in many different ways, however, one of the strongest impacts they have on humanity is powering healthcare. In this camp, we will investigate these applications, all while learning the fundamentals of circuits and programming to allow you to develop your own solution to improve the material condition of those around you.
Over the course of this week, you will complete 20+ lab activities and an open-ended design challenge. In addition to learning new concepts and skills, you will also learn how to think like an engineer. In this camp, we will address these essential questions:
By the end of this camp, you will be able to: