biom9660 course outline2014 - engineering · attempt at an implantable “bionic eye” in the...

1 BIOM9660 Implantable Bionics

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Session 2, 2014

COURSE STAFF Course coordinator: Professor Gregg J. Suaning, BSc., MSc., Ph.D. Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering Room 510, Samuels Building Phone 9385 3892 Email : [email protected]

Implantable*Bionics**BIOM9660**

Graduate*School*of*Biomedical*Engineering*

Engineering


Guest Lecturers: Dr. Paul Carter – Cochlear Limited Dr. Brett Swanson – Cochlear Limited Dr. Alan Heritage – Heritage and Associates Dr. Paul Matteucci - Medtronic COURSE INFORMATION

Background Welcome to “Implantable Bionics”. This course aims to provide the students with the appropriate background theory and knowledge of therapeutic, implantable bionic devices. Australia has a rich history in implantable bionics that can be traced back to the world's first attempt at an implantable “bionic eye” in the 1950's, to world-leading cardiac pacemaker and defibrillator technologies, to the remarkable cochlear implant that has restored the sense of hearing to tens of thousands of people. The aim of this course is to pass along the knowledge and experiences from the people involved in the research and development of these devices to the students who we hope will form the next generation of biomedical engineers who will perpetuate Australia's leading role in the field of implantable bionics.

By the end of the course you should have a fundamental understanding of the important factors that dictate the success or failure of neural interfaces and implantable electronics. You should also be qualified to advise on the choices available for a given therapeutic application and the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

It is natural for engineers from particular disciplines to migrate to their 'comfort zone' when approaching the design of a medical implant. For instance, the electrical engineer will tend to concentrate on implant circuitry whereas the materials engineer is more likely to have an interest in implant bio-packaging or bio-electrodes. This course is for biomedical engineers from various backgrounds and disciplines. An important objective of the course is to gain working knowledge of and confidence to operate in a broad range of topics within the field of implantable bionics, and to highlight the opportunities of working or conducting research in this field when the 'comfort zones' are broadened.

In this course we explore the types of implantable bionics in clinical application and research. Key factors that determine the success or failure of a particular device will be studied, and fundamental theory and background knowledge will be conveyed through a series of lectures and laboratory exercises.

Units of credit: 6 BIOM9660 is a 6 UOC course and it is expected that you will devote a minimum of 9 hours per week to this course, ideally 12 hours per week. In addition to the lectures and/or laboratories, you should spend 6 hours per week reading lecture and reference materials, and working on problems and assignments.

Presumed knowledge

While the course strives to be one that is accessible to students from all areas of engineering and science, some electronics and mathematics background is essential. These will be reviewed (but will not be taught) during the course. Students not familiar with the fundamental background knowledge will be expected to learn the necessary background material in their own time.

Aims The aims of this course are to:


● introduce students to the fundamentals of implantable bionics as it relates to understanding therapeutic sensory and functional neural stimulation; ● understand the principles which govern the application of electrical neural stimulation and the design of instruments to be used for this purpose; and, ● understand various applications of therapeutic electrical neural stimulation including the underlying biological process that dictate the success or failure of such devices.

Expected learning outcomes On completion of this course, the student should:

● have a broad understanding of the scope of implantable bionics and its applications; ● understand the fundamentals of electrical neural stimulation; ● be able to discuss, develop and apply concepts and principles to a range of problems and

therapeutic medical applications involving implantable bionics; ● appreciate the complexities and specific challenges of life-long implantable device design; ● critically review the literature in the area and apply knowledge gained from the course to

analyse implantable bionic devices; and, ● clearly summarise and communicate findings from literature, course material, and one's

own work using oral and written methods.

These learning outcomes relate most strongly to the following UNSW graduate outcomes: ● scholarly enquiry; ● engagement with the relevant disciplinary knowledge; ● critical thinking and creative problem solving; and, ● collaborative and multidisciplinary work.

They are also moderately related to: ● information literacy; ● enterprise, initiative and creativity.

Teaching strategies This course consists of lecture, tutorial and practical work. Each week there will be a lecture of up to three hours duration, and throughout the semester the principles of the lecture will be reinforced through a laboratory session or sessions. Students will work on problems both individually and in groups. Students enrolled in the course will be given access to a course module using UNSW Moodle (http://telt.unsw.edu.au/) where course material will be placed in order to comply with University policies, and will be where all marks will be posted. The primary contact method shall be via each student's university e-mail account. It is up to the student to ensure that their university e-mail account is maintained below any quotas, and is checked regularly or forwarded to an e-mail account that is checked regularly. Assessments and feedback on work will be regularly provided to the students.

Suggested approach to learning This course requires you to understand the lecture material and then apply the knowledge to therapeutic, implantable device applications. It is important to understand the fundamental concepts as soon as possible and to ask for help if you do not understand. Attend all the lectures and if something is unclear, please ask questions. Make sure you review all the lecture notes and read all material that is suggested or handed out. Class participation through attendance at lectures


and participation in class exercises and group work is expected and will allow for alternative methods of absorbing the relevant information. The material is diverse and not as tightly linked into an overall analytical structure as in some other subjects. You will need to be prepared to assimilate facts relating to a large number of different topics and principles. If you treat this assimilation simply as an exercise in rote learning, the volume of material will make it hard. If you become sufficiently involved and interested in the material, you will find it easy to comprehend; very much less rote learning will be needed because you will understand the principles and be able to work out the consequences.

COURSE RESOURCES

UNSW Moodle will be used as the primary source of information and communication of marks and obligatory material that is required in order to comply with UNSW directives. This resource can be found here: http://telt.unsw.edu.au/

Several useful reference books are held in the UNSW Library and others on-line. Two of particular relevance to this course are: The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, edited by Joseph D. Bronzino. 3rd ed. Boca Raton :CRC/Taylor & Francis, 2006. and,

Merrill, D.R. Bikson, M. Jefferys, J.G.R. (2005) Electrical stimulation of excitable tissue: design of efficacious and safe protocol. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 141: 171–198

ASSESSMENT

Before detailing the assessment items in this course, it is prudent to describe the philosophy of assessment that will be applied.

First, deadlines are deadlines, not guidelines or suggestions so the student is required to hand-in all assessment items on-time if they expect to obtain credit for them. There are cases where legitimate and serious circumstances preclude one from accomplishing something by a particular time, but these are rare and obvious, and can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Please ensure that all work is submitted by the due date and time as late submissions will require evidence of the aforementioned 'rare and obvious' circumstances. Extensions will be given only in these extraordinary cases.

Second, as this course includes group work, individual performance is often difficult to assess. To address this issue, mechanisms (described below) have been put in place in order to observe and individually assess performance in course work.

Third, keeping up in this course is crucial. There is a great deal to cover, and a limited time in which to cover it. For this reason, assessment events will be frequent and so will require that the student stays on top of course material at all times throughout the course. If a lecture is missed, ensure that notes are obtained by other means. Slides for most or all lectures will be made available and, importantly, as in most circumstances1 this is not a competitive course (i.e. you will be

1 Individual performance in the group report is an exception to this rule as the contribution made by the student is

assessed relative to the contribution of others in the same group.


assessed individually and not relative to others in the course) sharing of notes and open discussion of course material is encouraged.

After week one, a weekly quiz will be given in most of the lecture sessions. These will be administered at the start of the lecture period and will be of approximately 15 minutes duration. Students are expected to prepare for each quiz by studying the lecture material from the previous weeks, and any laboratory material for the current week. Short answer or multiple choice questions will be the norm, and the aim will be to assess the student's understanding of the material from the previous week's lecture, and their preparation for the laboratory tasks of the current week.

Be advised that once a concept is introduced to the course, it may appear on any assessment event from that point onward. For instance, if a concept is introduced during week 1, a question on that concept could be on a quiz in week 11 (or any other week after week 1).

To compensate for the occasional mishap or unforeseen circumstance, the lowest score of the (up to) 11 quizzes will be excluded from the calculation of the overall quiz mark. The overall quiz mark will be calculated as follows: (a) each quiz mark will be expressed as a percentage; (b) all quiz marks with the exception of the lowest mark will be added together; (c) the number calculated in (b) will be divided by one less than the total number of quizzes. PLEASE NOTE: item (b) above takes into account unforeseen circumstances. In other words, once during the semester you may miss, fail or otherwise receive a poor mark on ONE AND ONLY ONE quiz and it will not count towards your overall mark in the course. If you miss, fail or otherwise receive a poor mark on any other quiz, it will count towards your mark and there is no avenue available that allows for a re-sit of a quiz. Students who arrive late for a given quiz, but before it is completed, they may take the quiz although it must be handed in at the same time as all other students. It is therefore in the best interests of the student to arrive on time for the quiz. Quizzes are NOT returned to the students although the solutions will be worked through in the lecture in most cases. A comprehensive, group project on the topic of neurostimulation will form an integral requirement of the course. The presentation of the project will be given in the form of a five-minute video during the final weeks of the semester, and in poster format for judging. Individual contributions to the group project are required to be equal. In cases where this cannot be demonstrated, individual contributions will be assessed by way of the individual student diaries. Details of the marking of the project are as follows: (a) The group project will be assessed and the mark will be expressed as a percentage; (b) The student's diary may be assessed relative to other members of the same group so as to determine their contribution to the report if inequality is of concern. This contribution will be expressed as a percentage, that is, if four group members contribute equally, this will be 25% for each group member. (c) In the event that the contribution is not equal among the contributors, a penalty will be applied to those contributing less. The course coordinator will determine the penalty but typically it will be formula-based and is best illustrated by way of the following example. Example: a group of four students produce an excellent report that receives a group mark of 88%. Group member 1 contributed 35% of the work whereas the other three group members contributed evenly the remaining 65% (22% each). Group member 1 receives 88 for their mark, whereas members 2, 3 and 4 will incur a penalty of 35-22 (the difference between the best contribution and


the individual's contribution) or 13% will be applied to the three other students – in this case 13% of 88 is 11.4 so their mark will be 76.6 each. This approach encourages equal contributions from all students in the group. Anonymous assessments of group members will be requested from each student. Where consensus is not reached, the Course Coordinator will assess the relative contributions of each member by way of the history of their participation and contribution on the Wiki.

At the end of the semester, there will be a final examination consisting of both qualitative and quantitative multiple choice, short- and long-answer questions.

The following criteria will be applied in assessing your work: ● evidence of critical understanding of the concepts developed in the course ● ability to apply these concepts to a range of problems pertaining to implantable bionics ● clarity of description, explanation and attention to the focus of the assessment task ● degree to which the material submitted for assessment addresses the specified requirements

Assessment Contribution Comment

Quizzes (lowest score of all quizzes are disregarded)

45% A quiz is scheduled at the beginning of most lectures after the first lecture. Each quiz will be comprised of short answer questions and/or multiple choice questions in a format similar to the final exam. The aims of this assessment are to encourage the students to revise, on a regular basis throughout the course, encourage preparation for laboratories, and to allow students to gauge their progress in different topics and receive feedback on that progress. These quizzes represent a direct test of the degree to which the knowledge based learning outcomes listed above have been achieved.

Group Report (Poster)

10% Each laboratory group will be given a topic in the field of electrical neural stimulation for which they will be required to produce a concise but informative poster on the subject matter. The poster must: • inform students who are unfamiliar with the disease condition the

neural stimulation aims to treat with the effects and prevalence of the disease;

• describe previous work in this field of research; • propose an innovative medical implant to treat the disease; • assess the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Group Presentation

10% The Group Presentation is an opportunity to use innovative means (video) to present the outcomes of the Group Report as if the group were a company promoting their “product”. The objective is for this to be both fun and informative. Details of what will be required within the presentation will be provided in the lectures.

Printed Circuit 5% A printed circuit board design for implant power and data acquisition.

Final Exam 30% The final exam may be made up of any of the following: true/false, multiple choice, matching, short answer and essay questions. The aims of this assessment are to encourage students to review the entire course - including laboratory work and to allow students to apply all the knowledge disseminated to solve problems. This assessment is a direct test of the degree to which the knowledge based learning outcomes listed above have been achieved

HOW THIS COURSE RELATES TO OTHER COURSES


BIOM9660 consists of integrated lecture, tutorial and practical work and includes a breadth of engineering disciplines that is perhaps unique to this course. Revision of electrical engineering principles, relevant physiology, materials science will be covered in addition to principles unique to implantable prosthesis. The course BIOM9660 (Implantable Bionics), expands on aspects of bioelectrodes, biopotentials and neural stimulation from the perspective of designing and manufacturing an implantable therapeutic device. BIOM9640 (Biomedical Instrumentation) BIOM9650 (Biosensors and Transducers) cover many of the related subject matter that would be beneficial (but not obligatory) prior knowledge for this course.

The course BIOM9711 (Modeling Organs, Tissues and Devices) provides a practical overview of computational modeling in bioengineering, focusing on a range of applications including electrical stimulation of neural tissue. The knowledge gained in BIOM9660 will assist in understanding these processes. CONTINUAL COURSE IMPROVEMENT Student feedback on the course and the lecturers in the course is gathered periodically using the university's Course and Teaching Evaluation and Improvement (CATEI) Process. Your feedback is much appreciated and taken very seriously. Continual improvements are made to the course based in part on such feedback and this helps us to improve the course for future students.

This is the fourth offering of BIOM9660, and in an effort to continuously improve the course, a number of changes are made with each new offering. As a result, students may experience, and indeed should anticipate a small number of logistical adjustments to necessarily occur during the semester. These are regrettable, but nevertheless inevitable despite careful planning and effort to avoid them. Feedback should not be limited to the CATEI process. The academic staff and tutors can be approached at any time with constructive comments or suggestions on how to improve the course. Further, there is a space on the BIOM9660 Wiki specifically for such comments and suggestions.

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS It is very important that all students read and understand the UNSW information that relates to Academic Honesty and Plagiarism. A brief summary follows: Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one’s own.* Examples include:

● direct duplication of the thoughts or work of another, including by copying work, or knowingly permitting it to be copied. This includes copying material, ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document (whether published or unpublished), composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or software, web site, Internet, other electronic resource, or another person’s assignment without appropriate acknowledgement;

● paraphrasing another person’s work with very minor changes keeping the meaning, form and/or progression of ideas of the original;

● piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole;

● presenting an assessment item as independent work when it has been produced in whole or part in collusion with other people, for example, another student or a tutor; and,

● claiming credit for a proportion a work contributed to a group assessment item that is greater than that actually contributed.†

Submitting an assessment item that has already been submitted for academic credit elsewhere may also be considered plagiarism.

The inclusion of the thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic discipline does not amount to plagiarism.


Students are reminded of their Rights and Responsibilities in respect of plagiarism, as set out in the University Undergraduate and Postgraduate Handbooks, and are encouraged to seek advice from academic staff whenever necessary to ensure they avoid plagiarism in all its forms.

The Learning Centre website is the central University online resource for staff and student information on plagiarism and academic honesty. It can be located at www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism. The Learning Centre also provides substantial educational written materials, workshops, and tutorials to aid students, for example, in:

• correct referencing practices; paraphrasing, summarising, essay writing, and time management; ● appropriate use of, and attribution for, a range of materials including text, images, formulae and

concepts.

Individual assistance is available on request from The Learning Centre. Students are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management. Students should allow sufficient time for research, drafting, and the proper referencing of sources in preparing all assessment items.

The University has a very firm policy on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism which will be enforced during this course. Details of the UNSW plagiarism policy are available at https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/Plagiarism.html. The plagiarism policy of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering is derived from the University’s policy and details can be found at http://www.gsbme.unsw.edu.au/plagpol.htm. Whilst we encourage discussion of assignment solutions between students, all material handed in for assessment MUST be your own work and in your own words. Plagiarised material may result in a mark of zero and further action being taken. The School’s policy also states that a non-plagiarism declaration form be attached to each assignment submitted. This course will therefore require that the form provided on the website above be attached to each assignment submitted during the session. The form can be downloaded from http://www.gsbme.unsw.edu.au/plagpol.htm. OTHER IMPORTANT ADVICE AND INFORMATION 1. It is expected that students attend all lectures and tutorial sessions. 2. Assignments submitted after the due date without prior notification and permission will be subject to a deduction in marks. 3. UNSW has a wide range of student support services. The resources listed below should be used by students needing assistance related to aspects of their overall University experience. Specific help regarding this course can be sought from the course coordinator.

http://www.student.unsw.edu.au/ https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/howdoi/HowDoI_MainPage.html

http://www.counselling.unsw.edu.au/ http://www.contact.unsw.edu.au/

4. Students who have a disability that requires some adjustment in their teaching or learning environment are encouraged to discuss their study needs with the course coordinator prior to, or at the commencement of, their course, or with the Equity Officer (Disability) in the Equity and Diversity Unit (9385 4734 or www.equity.unsw.edu.au/disabil.html). Issues to be discussed may include access to materials, signers or note-takers, the provision of services and additional exam and assessment arrangements. Early notification is essential to enable any necessary adjustments to be made. 5. If you believe that your performance in an assessable component of the course has been affected by illness or another unexpected circumstance, you should make an application for special


consideration as soon as possible after the event by visiting UNSW Student Central. Please talk to the course coordinator as well and note that considerations are not granted automatically. 6. UNSW has strict policies and expectations relating to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) accessed at http://www.riskman.unsw.edu.au/ohs/ohs.shtml * Based on that proposed to the University of Newcastle by the St James Ethics Centre. Used with kind permission from the

University of Newcastle † Adapted with kind permission from the University of Melbourne

biom9660 course outline2014 - engineering · attempt at an implantable “bionic eye” in the...

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