A Senior-Graduate Level Course in Biomedical Instrumentation and Computing

A senior-graduate level course is described in which some of the material of traditional bioinstrumentation courses is presented in conjunction with laboratory applications of a minicomputer. During the course each student 1) learns aspects of the fundamental properties of bioelectrodes, transducers, and safe human biopotential measurement techniques, 2) uses a minicomputer as a laboratory instrument, and 3) initiates and completes two projects that require independent thinking, initiative, and careful execution. In the course of the computer applications the students 1) learn to use elements of a fairly sophisticated operating system (OS/8), 2) master a simple but powerful higher level computer language (Basic), 3) apply one or more sophisticated signal analysis programs to their biological data (time averaging, correlation, spectral analysis, time and post stimulus interval anaylsis), and 4) solve a "real world" problem that requires a nonsystem interface to the computer. The heavy emphasis on the laboratory portion of the course provides the opportunity for practical "hands-on" experience with bioinstrumentation and with computer based data acquisition, processing, and display techniques.