Senior design

The author considers what should be the desired outcomes for senior design courses for biomedical engineering students. Should the goal of senior design courses be the development of design skills, career preparation, or both? If career preparation is a goal of senior design courses, should the focus be on industry, where the majority of biomedical engineering graduates begin their careers, or should it include alternative career paths? What should be the desired outcomes of senior design courses? To initiate an exchange of ideas to help answer these questions, he describes the senior design course (which he teaches with mechanical engineering and electrical engineering colleagues) at Marquette University. He invites answers to the questions posed as well as any opinions on the subject.