Innovative teaching and learning platform with Jupyter Notebook and real-time integration of an exoskeleton to promote computational competencies in the human medicine curriculum

The courses Medical Engineering I and II promote project-based learning via hands-on projects at the interplay between medicine and engineering for students in the Bachelor of Medicine. The lectures and projects are centered around a robotic elbow exoskeleton, teaching scientific and engineering fundamentals for restoring mobility in individuals with spinal cord injuries. Topics include human factors, design, sensing, actuation, control, and user evaluation, building on students› prior knowledge and fostering transdisciplinary skills.
This project will develop an innovative teaching and learning platform utilizing Jupyter Notebook and the didactic use of an exoskeleton to specifically promote computational competencies in the Human Medicine curriculum. Since 2019, the courses have used LabVIEW as programming language, but students frequently mentioned the disconnect with Python, which they learn in another course. Additionally, integrating course materials and exercises into Moodle was complex. As the current exoskeleton hardware, which only supports LabVIEW, is nearing the end of its life, this presents a unique opportunity to transition to Jupyter Notebooks, Python and new hardware, improving course coherence with the Human Medicine curriculum. Jupyter Notebooks will streamline the integration of instructions, code, and visualizations in one document, enhancing computational competencies through real-time programming and evaluation in a real-world context.

• Introduction of Jupyter Notebooks or JupyterHub as teaching/exercise environment to allow seamless integration of instructions, code snippets, and visualizations of collected real-time signals from the exoskeleton hardware in a single file for simplified handling of the teaching material and exercises for both students and teaching assistants.
• Transfer the coding-related aspects of the courses from LabVIEW to Python and improve curriculum alignment to strengthen the Python-related computational competencies of the students building on their introduction in other courses of the curriculum, in the context of a real-world application.
• Introduce the “EduExo Pro 2.0” as exoskeleton hardware to replace the currently used “Flexos” and revise teaching materials accordingly, including real-time data exchange between the hardware and the teaching/programming environment.

The use and understanding of technology have long become a crucial part of working clinically or in medical research. Further, in recent years, Python has become one of the most used programming languages in data science and engineering. However, its use in real-time signal processing and control of a dedicated hardware (exoskeleton), specifically in an educational context, has not been explored extensively yet. This project combines these aspects by allowing the students to, for the first time in their education, work with and visualize actual signals from a medical technology controlled with Python (e.g., by visualizing measurements in real-time and exploring the effect of different parameters). This will expose them to the important difference between theory and practice when humans and hardware are in the loop. Accordingly, bringing future medical doctors or researchers in direct, hands-on contact with these aspects already early in their studies is expected to be highly beneficial in view of their careers.
While the value of introducing Python is already recognized by the ETH through the “introduction to computer science basics for medical students” course, it is desirable that other lectures build up on this knowledge. Accordingly, using Python as programming language also in the Medical Engineering courses will not only lead to an overall more coherent medical curriculum, but will also allow the students to practically apply the acquired skills, promoting their computational competencies and increasing their motivation for these important topics.