Orthopedic-Based Biomechanics for Undergraduate Vietnamese Students

Abstract

Biomedical Engineering is among the emerging technological disciplines in Vietnam. This is evidenced by the identification of undergraduate BME as one of the Advanced programs supported by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and hosted by the new Biomedical Engineering Department within the School of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST). Furthermore, a second BME department has emerged at the Vietnam National University- Hoc Chi Minh City- International University (IU). The predominant focus of both of these BME departments and curriculums is in biomedical instrumentation, which historically has been the most frequent field of employment for biomedical engineers in Vietnam. Because the intent of both of these BME programs is to educate their students to be competitive internationally for graduate programs and employment, there is an emphasis to expand their curricula to include broader BME topics such as biomechanics and biomaterials. With the award of a grant from the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) as a VEF U.S. Faculty Scholar, the lead author taught an engineering biomechanics course for Vietnamese undergraduate students for three consecutive years. Two of these offerings were at HUST and one was at IU. The pedagogical format of the course changed each year and ranged from a mixture of onsite and internet distance learning, to onsite and video conferencing, to fully onsite. Each year the course was centered around the design of an orthopedic fixation appliance...a bone plate. Course materials include PowerPoint slides, supplemental readings, and assignment descriptions, and were customized specifically for this course. Each offering presented unique challenges relating to instructional technology, course pace, and cultural and language differences. Notwithstanding, each of the course offerings was considered a success based on student learning, mastery and performance, and student course evaluations.