Engineering Wellness: A Biomedical Engineering Design Course to Support Student Wellness

Introduction: Recent national data have indicated alarming trends in college student mental health with increasing reports of mental health challenges, including severe stress. High stress is also cited as a top reason for students “stopping out” of their degree programs. In parallel, national data also suggest that positive mental health of students is also decreasing over time. Studies of engineering programs indicate that students prevalently believe that experiencing high stress is required for success. We propose that there is a need to change this narrative of surviving in engineering to one of thriving. We posit that by integrating wellness education into engineering curriculum then wellness and self-care may become more normalized in engineering spaces. Towards these goals, we developed a new first-year engineering design course titled Engineering Wellness. The goal of the course is for student design teams to work with a wearable sensor or related wellness technology to learn about how it supports wellness as well as about the physiology and sensor technology. Advances in sensors and data collection have vastly expanded the amount of health data available. In parallel, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have created opportunities to leverage this vast data to inform personalized and preventative healthcare. As more technologies reach the market, there are an increasing number of at-home wellness technologies available to consumers. Engineering Wellness addresses these topics while also emphasizing the importance of inclusive design.

Materials and

Methods: The novel course content was offered as a first-year design course as part of the first-year engineering program at the University of Michigan. The course was co-taught by three faculty instructors, a graduate student instructor, and an undergraduate course assistant. Modules include content on physiology, sensor technology, application/interpretation of sensor data, and research-based wellness studies informed by biometric sensors. For example, the sleep module covers physiology of heart rate, PPG, and ECG sensors, using heart rate data to understand sleep patterns and quality, and research-based practices for students to get their best sleep. Course labs include building and testing biometric sensors, measuring cortisol by ELISA, and benchmarking glucometers. In parallel, students learn about inclusive design principles and complete a case study about racial bias in pulse oximetry and impacts on health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the course, design teams work collaboratively to propose a redesign of an existing wellness technology. Each team receives a unique device and completes labs to conduct benchmarking and user testing. Student feedback was collected through end-of-semester course evaluations. Instructor team reflections were collected to support future iterations of the course offering.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: The pilot course was offered in 2023 for 58 first-year engineering students. Student feedback was positive, with students sharing that they appreciated the different components of the classes (e.g., labs, discussions), that they could engage with the class without having a background in biology, and that the course was their favorite of their current enrollments. Students shared that they “appreciate[d] the focus on wellness”. Another student shared: “All parts of the class challenge parts of my student psyche in a way that’s helped me improve over the semester.” Overall, due to the positive feedback on the pilot course offering, as well as the student interest from across engineering disciplines, we plan to continue offering the course annually, as well as to increase and assess the wellness content of the course. Students rated the device project as a little bit valuable on average on a 4-point Likert-type scale (0=not at all helpful, 3 = very helpful) (mean = 1.00, sd = 0.73) and the mini-lessons on wellness as slightly more valuable (mean = 1.28, sd = 1.00). Additionally, several students suggested giving more mini-lessons on broader wellness topics, e.g., “More about coping with stress and anxiety! Not just academically but socially as well.”

The pilot course offering was well-received by students. Instructor reflections for future course offerings include additional testing of new devices for projects, including to test for feasibility of benchmark testing. Finally, instructor reflections included the need to further integrate wellness content with course assignments, including written reports and problem sets. In response to student feedback, the instructor team intends to add more wellness topics identified by students in the pilot course offering.

Future work will include development of an Engineer Your Wellness workbook that leverages the engineering design process for students to reflect and develop their own student wellness plan. Additionally, we aim to scale the course content across different platforms to reach more students. Ultimately, the goal of the Engineering Wellness curriculum is to change the narrative in engineering education from one of surviving to thriving.

Acknowledgements (Optional): This work was supported by the University of Michigan E3 grant program.