Courses

Cross-disciplinary collaboration between engineers and medical doctors is indispensable for innovation in health care. This course will bring together engineering students from ETH Zurich and medical students from the University of Zurich to experience the rewards and challenges of such interdisciplinary work in a project based learning environment.

The main goal of this course is to demonstrate the differences in communication between the fields of medicine and engineering. Since such differences become the most evident during actual collaborative work, the course is based on a current project in biomedical research that combines medicine and engineering.

The specific aims of the course are to

1. For the engineering students: Acquire a working understanding of the investigated biological system
   For the medical students: Acquire a working understanding of the engineering methodologies required for the project
2. Develop and implement a solution strategy together
3. Present the found solution to a cross-disciplinary audience

Projects evolve year after year to push students to find innovative solutions and properly unveil the benefits and difficulties of interdisciplinary team work.