Students study patterns of electrical activity in the heart during interactive engineering lab

academics 0:49 Students study patterns of electrical activity in the heart during interactive engineering lab

By:

Olivia Coleman

12 Feb 2019 147

Undergraduate students in Professor Vincent Wang's Engineering Analysis of Physiologic Systems class participate in a lab where they utilized an EKG (ECG) prototype which uses electrodes placed on the body to measure patterns of electrical activity in the heart. This is the type of interactive learning exercise which will be integrated throughout the new undergraduate Biomedical Engineering curriculum.

Collegiate assistant professor Chris Arena was a guest presenter/lab demo leader in the class. The lab was supported by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) through an Instructional Innovation Grant proposal, "Incorporation of Medical Devices into Engineering Physiology Curriculum."

[00:00:00] >> Take one of everything, we have extra electrodes. We have 3 wires on our ECG sensor, we have to plug that into the Arduino so that we get the correct signal out. So now we can plug in our electrodes. I've never had like pads on my hands I've had like electrodes on my knees for like physical therapy but never monitoring my heart. [00:00:19] Type in whatever letter and hit enter and it's going to record 1,000 samples, and you'll see the numbers start scrolling down the screen. Then you can measure over this way, how many millivolts positive you were. I think it's a lot more exciting then just sitting and listening to your teacher lecture, I mean our lectures are very interesting but it's also nice to kind of see what you're learning in action and just how everything kind of comes together in class and then also in the lab, it's really important.