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Module

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 StudyAssessment preparation and completion11:301:30Exam
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion122:3022:30Preparation for the exam.
Structured Guided LearningLecture materials192:0038:00Lecture note taking: Students review the lecture notes and take their own notes.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture12:002:00In class guest Lectures: from guest lecturers from industry/medicine
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture182:0036:00In class lectures
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical23:006:00Practical Laboratory activities: 2x physical lab sessions in lab to provide practical understanding of the course
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical13:003:00CAD Lab activities circuit design simulation sessions in computer cluster
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching42:008:00Small Group Tutorials: To go through course material in detail in the form of exam questions.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesDrop-in/surgery31:003:00Open office period: To allow students to come and ask any questions they may have
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study180:0080:00General self study and self reading to review the module
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures:
This course will have 20x 2 hours in-class interactive lectures. This is the best form of presenting detailed concepts. Notes will be provided in the form of PowerPoint lecture slides. To support the lectures, there are 40x 15-minute short videos which review the key concepts.

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:
(i)       Circuit design lab:
The best way to develop instinct about circuits and circuit design is to carry out design work. This is best achieved on LTSpice simulation software, which is straightforward but powerful. 2 labs will be provided which will reinforce much of the material from the course.

(ii)       Biosignal measurement lab:
The best way to understand the challenges of biosignals measurement, measurement artefacts and noise is to try to acquire the signal. Students will be given equipment to measure Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of the frontal cortex (brain). The will work in groups to try to measure each others brain signals in both relaxed and agitated states.

(iii)       Pulse oximeter circuit lab: The best way to make biomedical circuits “real” is to fabricate one. Students will be given a circuit design and a bag of components. They will need to both understand and fabricate the circuit and use it to take measurements of their heart signal. They will then need to program a microcontroller to automatically count readings in a useful form.

The labs will be assessed according to progress made within an allotted time and the quality of that progress.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams
Description Length Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Written Examination902A70Closed-Book Exam
Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Practical/lab report2M30Lab test: There will be an assessment of the experimental lab on the basis of how much progress was made towards the objectives, and quality of work..
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 rational:

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. The three types of labs: signal acquisition, circuit board fabrication, and circuit design cover the key aspects of the course and provide a foundation for the student’s summer projects.

Reading Lists

Timetable