A Practical Approach to Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices into Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Courses

Abstract

Biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate curricula have begun to address gaps in diversity, especially in response to the newly proposed ABET diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) criteria. However, there is a significant lack of teaching resources, and pedagogical training available for those interested in including DEI into their course material. This is not restricted to BME and permeates many STEM fields. Thus, new engaging techniques to incorporate DEI into STEM teaching must be developed and tested. A mandatory undergraduate BME course at Stony Brook University was redesigned, to include DEI concepts directly into course content. Instructor generated resources were presented and discussed throughout the semester. These resources focused on introducing prominent scholars, engineers, and researchers, who rarely make it into textbook discussions, and their discoveries and contributions. A graded project was incorporated that asked students to generate their own resources, with the understanding that an overarching goal was to develop a library of information to be shared with our student population. After one semester, over seventy biographies have been collated. This approach worked well to highlight individual accomplishments of diverse scholars. Students appeared to be engaged with the discussion (observed through body language and participation), and appreciated researching a prominent engineer outside of those typically discussed. In the future, it will be important to link highlighted engineers more closely to course content, and to include key findings more directly within topics that are under discussion. Importantly, these efforts must be included within the graded course content to help ensure engagement, retention, and understanding.