The main objective of the course is to immerse the student in the reality of the Health-Care Sector in Peru. After an introduction to the Peruvian culture and basic lessons in Spanish, the students will visit several rural health centers and hospitals in cities along the north coast of Peru, from Lima to Tumbes. These visits will provide an overview of the complex reality of the Healthcare system of a developing country. The students will be introduced to interviewing techniques in order to identify concrete technological problems at different levels of the healthcare system. They will put these skills in practice while interacting to the physicians in the field. Through a series of workshops, the students will learn how to establish the needs and wants (requirements) for the solution of problems under real constraints. By the end of the course, the students will present their solution proposals. Through all this process, the students will have the opportunity to visit some of the most renowned archeological sites of the Moche heritage, an ancient Peruvian civilization.
Associate Professor Scott Seidman has been on the faculty of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Rochester since its creation in 2000. His research interests include the detection of motion by the inner ear, and how this information is used by navigational and orientational mechanisms. He has designed two laboratory-intensive courses, including the core BME course in Quantitative Physiology. He also co-teaches the year-long Senior Design sequence in Biomedical Engineering. He served as director of an international design educational initiative funded by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance in which students and faculty travelled between the University of Rochester and PUCP in Lima to identify global health needs of developing nations that could be addressed by the design programs of both schools. Seidman serves as the faculty advisor of the University of Rochester chapter of Engineers Without Borders.
Benjamin Castaneda is an Associate Professor and Director of Studies in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the PUCP. He is interested on developing Medical Imaging techniques applied to neglected diseases and on implementing low-cost medical equipment to solve healthcare problems in developing countries. He co-teaches Senior Design courses in Electrical Engineering. Many of the projects produced a prototype which are now being tested in hospitals. Some of these prototypes have won awards in innovation. He serves as the advisor of the IEEE Student Branch and Engineering in Medicine and Biology Chapter at PUCP.
Piura, Chiclayo, Trujillo and Lima
Scott Seidman, Ph.D. (University of Rochester)
Benjamin Castañeda, Ph.D. (PUCP)
