An In-depth Analysis of Open-ended Biomedical Engineering Design Problems and the Role of Metacognition in Their Solutions

Abstract

Hannah Yssels is a fourth year biomedical engineering student at UC Davis, specializing in medical devices. She is currently a research assistant to Jennifer Choi, PhD, investigating problem solving performance and thedevelopment ofdesign thinkingskills in biomedical engineering. She has also assisted in the Heinrich Lab, researching the characterization of monocyte membrane protein populations. Hannah is a three-time finalist in the UC Davis Biomedical Engineering Society's Make-a-Thon medical device design and prototyping competition. Dr. Marina Crowder Marina Crowder is currently Teaching Faculty in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Davis. In addition to teaching core undergraduate courses, Marina is aimed at understanding how to better support the development students' problem-solving skills. She has interests in graduate student teaching professional development, effective supplemental instruction models at the upper-division level, and improving the success of transfer students in STEM. Prior to joining UC Davis, Marina taught at Laney Community College and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Rebecca Heald in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at UC Berkeley. She received her doctoral degree in Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and B.S. degree in Genetics, both from UC Davis.