The report aims to outline : * The scope of bio-medical engineering * The nature & range of work done * Engineers as managers * Technologies unique to the profession * Current projects & innovations * Health & safety issues * Ethics related to the profession * Career prospects * Training for the profession I Engineering Report:Author: Matthew Condensate: September 2012 | Results Summary The Scope of Work Bioengineering Bioengineering or Biomedical Engineering is the discipline that uses knowledge in engineering, biology, and medicine to improve & maintains human health, prevents disease and improves the quality of life.Biomedical/Bioengineering imbibes the expertise of engineers with medical needs for the improvement of a person's health. It is just one of many branch's of engineering where knowledge and skills are developed and applied to outline and solve problems in biology and medicine field. Biomedical engineers may be asked to: design instruments and devices for the medical profession to use such as kidney dialysis machines, to bring together knowledge from different sources to develop new procedures such as bioengineering skin for skin grafting on burn victims, or to carry out research to obtain knowledge needed to solve problems.They can be Involved a range of different fields including bimetallism gamma; bohemianism. MR.
computing Ramp: image processing, nuclear medicine, ultrasonic & nanotechnology. They can also use knowledge from mechanics to work done on the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Nature & Work Done A day in the life of a bioengineering combines biology & medicine with engineering.A biomedical engineer will work closely with medical doctors and medical assistants, life scientists, chemists, and medical scientists, to develop devices and procedures that solve medical and health problems. In bioengineering there are many specialty areas, some of these Include: * Familiarization - the application of electronics and measurement principles and techniques to develop devices used In diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Bohemianism - are mechanics applied to biological and/or medical problems. It including the study of motion, material deformation, flow within the body of devices, and transport of chemical elements across biological and artificial media and membranes. * Bimetallism - describes both living tissue and materials used for implantation. The selection of an appropriate material to place in the human body ay be one of the most difficult tasks faced by the biomedical engineer. Systems Physiology - is the term used to describe that aspect of biomedical engineering in which engineering strategies, techniques and tools are used to gain a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the function of living organisms ranging from bacteria to humans.
* Bio-computing - the application of technology for health care in hospitals. A bio-computing engineer is responsible for development and keeping computer databases of medical instruments and equipment records and for the purchase and use of sophisticated medical instruments.Rehabilitation engineering - is a new and growing specialty area of biomedical engineering. Rehabilitation engineers expand capabilities and improve the quality of life for individuals with physical impairments. The rehabilitation engineer often works directly with the disabled individual.
The Role of Engineers as Managers As an engineer the task to coordinate a team of experts in the construction, science, business & many other industries may arise to assist in the process of a design concept to be constructed into a product that can be used in a specific field.This process may involve: * Designing an article Analyzing, testing & selecting suitable materials * Exploring different methods of fabrication * Testing prototypes * Managing budgets * Marketing the final article Students interested in studying in bioengineering may study in one specific field of engineering, but as they gain experience they can move and branch out into other fields of engineering and project management.Training Requirements & Career Prospects Students interested in studying bioengineering don't necessarily need to study Just in the specific field of bioengineering, but can study in unrelated fields and gain qualifications to then be a bioengineering. Some subjects that may lead to a career in biomedical engineering are: * Medical Degrees * Science/Technology Degrees * Engineering Degrees * Specific Biomedical Engineering Degrees A Biomedical course at the University of New South Wales is offered through the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering (SUBSUME).The course integrates Chemical, Computer, Electrical and Mechanical engineering into one biomedical science course.
Health ; Safety Issues Due to the work in the field of bioengineering, many health ; safety risks may important in which way products will be tested so that humans and the wider immunity are not at risk of any negative results. The trialing of all developments can greatly reduce negative results.The trialing of a product may include Trialing developments in controlled environments such as: * Computer-generated stimulations * Controlled isolated laboratory experiments * Testing on non-human species Although many tests to predict future outcomes may be positive, it still does not in all cases guarantee the safety of a bioengineering product. All procedures carry absorbability risks but there are further risks that concern the hygiene aspects such as: * Construction of the product * The surgical procedure The surgical environment The work environment can also cause health problems.
This can be demonstrated in the areas such as hospitals, dentist's surgery and chiropractic centers where X-rays are used. The radiation given off from an x-ray machine can damage tissue and kill cells. The amount of damage done all depends on the amount of exposure. Short- term exposure to a high dose of radiation can cause nausea & vomiting, fever, hemorrhage and in extreme cases death may result.
Long-term exposure may cause bone degeneration, severe burns, bone marrow damage, genetic mutation, malformation of fetus, leukemia and other forms of cancer.Medical staff working with radiation equipment must protect themselves where fluoroscope, nuclear materials such as uranium, radium and radioactive isotopes are used. Basic protection such as shielding with special clothing is a way of protecting oneself from radiation. The main is to keep the exposure time to a minimal and to keep a maximum distance from the source. Current Project & Innovations Biometric Fingerprints There are many projects currently being developed in the field of bioengineering.
Fingerprint-based identification is the oldest methods used in numerous applications to identify persons and for security uses.These older style uses of fingerprint identifications are having are currently having an upgrade. The skin on the finger is made of friction ridges & pores (sweat glands). Friction ridges remain the same during a person's whole life. They reconstruct the same if damaged in injury.
Everyone is known to have unique ; absolute fingerprint. While the overall appearance of identical twins fingerprints is often similar, they differ in the fine details such as the locations of ridge starting and stopping.In addition, they are no more similar to each other than to some prints of unrelated individuals. Fingerprint matching techniques can be placed into two categories: * Minutiae Based * Correlation Based Minutiae-based (Detail Based) techniques first find minutiae points and then map their relative placement on the finger. Minutiae points are local ridge characteristics that occur at either a ridge forks or a ridge ending.
However, there are difficulties when using this approach. It is difficult to extract the detailed points accurately when the fingerprint is of low quality because of injury.Biometric Radio Frequency technology. Automated entry points to highly restricted environments can use both he RIFF and fingerprint authentication for security authentication where as the other access points in the same environment can use RIFF technology.
By using Biometric RIFF it avoids misuse of RIFF tags. Since tags store data with specific scaling, privacy is ensured for the users. This makes RIFF technology a more reliable one to be used and extends usage of RIFF technology at highly secured environments.The system overcomes the limitations of face recognition systems as well as fingerprint verification systems. The integrated prototype system operates in the identification mode with an good response time. The identity established by the system is more reliable than the identity established by a face recognition system.
It also meets the response time as well as the accuracy requirements. Fingerprint scanning entry devices for building door locks and computer network access are becoming more common.Recently a number of banks have begun using fingerprint readers for authorization at Tams and grocery stores are experimenting with a fingerprint scan checkout that automatically recognizes and bills a registered shoppers credit card or debit account. The potential uses for this biometric appear to e limited only by the willingness of people to use it. An input fingerprint is first matched at a coarse level to one of the pre-specified types and then, at a finer level, it is compared to the subset of the database containing that type of fingerprints only.A critical step in automatic fingerprint matching is to automatically and reliably extract details from the input fingerprint images.
However, the performance of a detailed extraction algorithm relies heavily on the quality of the input fingerprint images. Technologies Unique to Bioengineering Two areas that relate to the area of bioengineering are micro engineering ; Anna machines. As the name implies, micro engineering is the engineering of very small devices for the use in bioengineering. It all started around 20 years ago, when engineers started to create equipment that was very small.Micro engineering relies heavily on extremely precise engineering of optical, hydraulic, thermal and mechanical components. Some examples of micro engineering are motors the size of match heads ; micro electronic components the same size of a ball in a ballpoint pen.
The advantages of micro engineering are shown when they are used in other fields such as: * Health: Minimal invasion surgery: Catheters entering to examine the heart, can be inserted in a mm opening in the groin. * Aerospace: The reduction of size of components means a reduction in weight of aircraft. Leisure: Heart rate monitors can be inserted into watches so that they can be worn Wilts running, swimming etc. Social ; Ethical Issues There are many social and ethical issues that arise in the study of bioengineering, especially concerning the use of prosthetic limbs. These issues include everyday life at home, in the work place and sporting societies, as a result impacting the values and beliefs of citizens. However, there are also many positive views to this thanks to he introduction and development of prosthetic limbs.
Losing an important body part, such as an arm or leg, leads to a type of disability.Because of this people may lose their Job/sporting careers, become depressed or lose their sense of belonging in the latest technology from prosthetics research scientists are ensuring amputees receive fair treatment among other individuals by creating artificial limbs, making sure they aren't singled out because of their injury. Some may see this as a problem in itself that amputee's aren't going to be treated as fairly unless they are fitted with artificial iambs. Although, with the artificial limbs they are able to continue living their life with all the functions they had before.People who may have prosthetic limbs may encounter problems when applying for Jobs such as in military services, fire fighting and becoming a doctor or a policeman.
Because these Jobs are all very physically dependable and with the current technology scientists have developed for prosthesis they would not be able to give the service demanded in these types of work. Solutions to the above issues will be difficult to implement, but they are possible. These can include: * The testing of prosthetic limbs in workplace situations and taking steps to ensure they are not at an advantage or disadvantage. The stressing that prosthetic limbs will help return the patient's quality of life almost back to normal.
* Counseling for people who become depressed because of their disability Conclusion prevents disease and improves the quality of life. Although there are differing views on the ethical issues regarding bioengineering, both sides are based on both scientific and individual preference. Overall, bioengineering is a sustainable field tit advantages useful to the medical industry in both the present time and the future.
