Luis Portillo

Topic Proposal Question

In 2008, engineers got together to come with a list of challenges/problems that is
keeping humans from improving life. One of those challenges is to engineer better
medicines. How can engineering get involve in generating better medicine and
better methods to make medication/treatment more efficient, and fulfill their grandchallenge they proposed to?
Research Questions

If both doctors and engineers are involved in research for a specific illness,
how is an engineer helpful to a doctor? What is it specifically that engineer
does in the medical field?
o An engineer is helpful in the medical field to help in the technical part
of the job. An engineer can decide what medical equipment will be
better for a surgery or for a specific research. An engineer can use
their background of technology innovation to manufacture better
medical equipment.
What is the line that separates ones job from another between a doctor and
an engineer in the medical field?
o None is less than the other in the medical field. Both are very helpful
since both observe issues from different perspectives. A doctor can
identify issues with the help of engineered devices. While engineers
can develops their devices based of the primary research of a doctor.
An engineer and a doctor is great combination of minds to have in a
medical field.
When engineers were adding the grand challenge of engineering better
medicine to their list, they said that they couldnt be satisfied with the
achievements theyd made, therefore, they have to move on to more
advanced and complicated areas . What are they moving into? What plans do
they have in the medical field?
o Engineers want to proceed into the molecular level of the human body.
To create personalized medicine is a big challenge. Therefore,
manufacturing devices that can detect thousands of chemicals in blood
or body fluids quickly would be helpful for doctors to prescribe specific
and appropriate medicine.
UTEP has recently presented the Bio-medical field of engineering. A
biomedical engineer is said to have knowledge from both fields (medical and
engineering). How is our local community integrated in engineering better
medicine and better methods of treatment?
o A trending topic in UTEPs biomedical field is Stem cells. Stem cells
can be monitored to be structured for any type of cell needed in a
patients body. Other areas besides tissue engineering/regenerative
medicine that UTEP is offering in Biomedical engineering biomedical
imaging, biosensors and instrumentation, and biomechanics.