EEE8116 : Bioelectronics
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Professor Patrick Degenaar
- Owning School: Engineering
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
This course aims to develop a deep understanding of the principles of bioelectronics and their increasing importance to modern medical electronics. The course will cover two main domains :
(1) Human bioelectronics:
This part of the course aims to cover the electrochemical operation of cells and how that leads to electrical activity. How the cells transmit information and how they can be stimulated through electrical, chemical optical (and potentially magnetic, ultrasonic) mechanisms.
(2) Bioelectronic medical circuits and systems.
This part of the course aims to cover the key devices and circuits used in biomedical circuits and how they can be brought together into a functional medical system.
The course comprises of lectures which are augmented by lab practical’s and small group tutorials to reinforce student information. Throughout the course, in addition to the technical content, important issues such as ethics, risk analysis and diversity are discussed as well as their importance in medical device design and regulation.
Outline Of Syllabus
1. Human bioelectronics:
Considers the key aspects of bioelectronics from a human and biological perspective. It includes Human bioelectronics and failure, electrochemistry of cellular bioelectronics, The action potential, inter-neuron transmission, optogenetics, and some basic neural coding. It will also provide some fundamentals of bio-signal sensing, electrical-neural stimulus, and optical communication with cells.
2. Bioelectronic medical circuits and systems.
Considers the implementation of bioelectronics into circuits and systems. It includes and overview of what is bioelectronics, transistors to amplifiers, Core bioelectronic circuits, how to traverse the analog and digital domains, implantable communications, implant control methodologies, implant power management, and biocompatibility. It will also provide some examples of biomedical systems.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 1:30 | 1:30 | Exam |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 16 | 2:00 | 32:00 | Lecture note taking: Students review the lecture notes and take their own notes. |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 22:30 | 22:30 | Preparation for the exam. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 16 | 2:00 | 32:00 | In class lectures |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Practical | 2 | 3:00 | 6:00 | Practical Laboratory activities: 2x Laboratory learning activities to reinforce the theoretical content. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 2 | 2:00 | 4:00 | Small Group Tutorials: To go through course material in detail in the form of exam questions. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 3 | 1:00 | 3:00 | Open office period: To allow students to come and ask any questions they may have |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 83:00 | 83:00 | General self study and self reading to review the module |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 16 | 1:00 | 16:00 | Homework study: Students are given self study questions to answer to coincide with lectures. |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Lectures:
This course will have 18x 2 hours in-class interactive lectures to provide the core theoretical content.
Tutorials:
4x tutorials will be provided as before to cover each aspect of the course. These will be performed in small groups with students split up into small groups of 3 or 4 students so that they can work as a team. The tutorial questions will be provided in the exam format so that students can understand from an early point what the exam questions will look like. Students will be provided with exemplar answers post-tutorial.
Lab work:
Students will have 3x lab sessions during the course. These aim to provide practical experience to reinforce the theoretical content and help students connect their learning with real world applications.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Exams
| Description | Length | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written Examination | 90 | 2 | A | 75 | Closed-Book Exam |
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practical/lab report | 2 | M | 25 | Lab test: There will be an assessment of the (2nd) experimental lab on the basis of how much progress was made towards the objectives and quality of work. The practical will be 3hrs long and assessed within that period. Lab 2(3 hrs): Summative assessment |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lab exercise | 2 | M | Lab 1 (3 hours): Formative assessment based on progression through the exercises. |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The cohort who study the Bioelectronics module are primarily from the MSc Biomedical Engineering. These have a very varied background – some have studied electronics, some chemistry and some biology. As such, it is important to ensure there are exercises that give this broad spectrum of students an intuitive understanding of the course material.
Specific assessment rationale:
Exam:
Exams are an important method of determining student knowledge.
Lab exercises:
The practical labs are important to reinforce the understanding from the theoretical lectures, and asses student’s ability to apply the knowledge they hae received in real world applications. As such, the first lab exercise will be formative and the second one will contribute to the final mark for the module. Each lab will be 3 hours long and assessed during the lab on the basis of how many of the goals have been achieved within the 3 hours.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- EEE8116's Timetable