Learning By Doing

“Experiential learning” is one of the latest buzzwords in higher education, but for MSOE it’s nothing new. In fact, it’s how the university has been teaching since 1903—and it’s happening in every major at MSOE. Here are a few of the exciting real-world projects students got their hands on this year.

Medical diagnoses through deep learning

An electrocardiogram, also known as an ECG, is a medical test that monitors the state of the heart by recording electrical signals produced by the heart. Many diseases throughout the body display cardiac symptoms that can be picked up by an ECG. These ailments include maladies such as traumatic brain injuries, COVID-19 and more.

Diagnosing a patient for such maladies is difficult to do from an ECG because the visual indicators are small and can be hard to notice, even to a trained eye. Deep learning, however, has proven to be a powerful tool in solving such detailed problems. Nathan Chapman, Jack Flitcroft, Stuart Harley, Errin Miller and Kyle Rodriguez are a team of seniors majoring in computer science. They are working with the Medical College of Wisconsin to build deep learning-based models that predict whether a patient has a high likelihood of having COVID-19 or a traumatic brain injury.

They are training deep learning models using Rosie, MSOE’s supercomputer, based on the data collected from ECGs. “ECGs are really inexpensive and quick medical tests, and provide a lot of information about the body,” said Flitcroft. “The issue is that to the human eye it’s difficult, to say the least, to gather from an ECG whether someone has some illness. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. AI is really good at spotting small differences within a healthy versus unhealthy ECG, and with this we can predict whether someone has a number of different health conditions from this simple test.”

Flitcroft and his teammates are taking this technology one step further and putting it directly in the hands of anyone who owns a smart watch.

“Even smart watches have ECGs in them now,” he said. “Imagine if you hit your head hard and want to know if you have a concussion. We are building an app to take your ECG on the smart watch, and let you know if the model thinks you have a concussion.”

From athletes to the average person, everyone is at risk for concussion after a big bump or fall. This new technology is another tool to encourage individuals to seek medical attention.

Community compassion

In the Nursing Care of the Community course, students learn how to use the nursing process in partnership with communities for improving health. They explore and discuss issues relevant to population-based nursing care and societal trends that influence community health. Over the winter they had clinical experiences at Repairers of the Breach, a daytime shelter and resource center for the homeless, where they helped members of the community with basic health needs. Nursing students Cass Lyles and Jackie Nguyen reflected on their experience with one of the patients who visited the shelter, but only wanted to be seen by a doctor.

“Professor Robin Gates was able to reassure the patient that we were competent and would be able to provide care for her,” said Nguyen. “She was immediately reassured, and we were able to start taking her vitals. Initially, she mentioned that she was at the clinic for a wellness check, but I wanted to dig a bit deeper because I had a feeling there could be something else that she may have needed.”

“When assessing her, she mentioned that she hit her head and was injured due to being attacked on the streets earlier in the morning,” said Lyles. “She then opened up [and shared] that she was sexually assaulted by someone she knew. We were able to have emergency services take care of her, but while we were waiting, I stayed with her in the room so she would not be alone to process the trauma.”

“I’m glad that the clinic was available for her to come to in a time of need and that we had a supportive group to be there for her,” said Nguyen. “I can tell that she felt safe around us and that we did our best to guide her the best way we could. Our last week at Repairers of the Breach was a valuable learning experience and it gave us a glimpse of the harsh realities of our vulnerable community members. It was a great learning experience seeing how powerful pure compassion is.”

Testing it out

An MSOE senior design team is working to develop an over-the-counter test that will check for both COVID-19 and influenza. Team Argus is comprised of biomolecular engineering seniors Steven Imp, Brian Chavez, Benjamin Bruckert and Rebekah Bartels and advised by Drs. Eryn Hassemer and Gul Afshan, Physics and Chemistry Department. “Our goal for this project is to create a product that can safely, accurately and quickly detect and differentiate COVID-19 from influenza,” explained Bartels. “COVID-19 and influenza are both respiratory diseases and can display similar symptoms to each other, even though their severities are much different. We hope our design gives clarity as to whether someone has one, both or neither of the diseases.”

Lighting the skyline

Often, experiential learning opportunities are multifaceted and involve significant community engagement. In another prime example, SHARP Literacy has partnered with MSOE and Light the Hoan to launch “Beyond the Classroom – Code the Hoan: STEAM Scholars.”

Through the program, middle school students will tap into their creativity and problem-solving skills and learn about the technology behind the Hoan Bridge’s lighting system. Industrial engineering students at MSOE are designing and building a scale model of Milwaukee’s iconic Hoan Bridge that will travel from school to school throughout the city as part of a mobile learning unit. Using LED Lights and virtual reality software, the young students will learn the principles of coding and critical thinking. They’ll interact with a fully online coding and training platform to program the lights on the model bridge—just like professional coders work to program the lights on the Hoan Bridge itself.

Through projects like this, MSOE students are transformed into community builders and leaders. They are helping inspire the next generation of STEM students and professionals,” said Dr. DeAnna Leitzke, associate VP of academic excellence. “Project-based experiential learning is at the core of the MSOE experience and MSOE’s CREATE Institute supports campus to ensure projects like this help students develop the skillset and mindset they need to solve the complex challenges of today and tomorrow.”

“Technology holds promise for the next generation; however, for many students in our community, this opportunity is not top-of-mind or accessible without SHARP’s Design Through Code program,” said Lynda Kohler, SHARP president and CEO. “We are beyond thrilled to be able to join forces with Light the Hoan and MSOE to empower today’s students with the digital literacy skills that will serve as the foundation for future success.” The Code the Hoan: STEAM Scholars program is made possible by a $218,000 grant SHARP Literacy was awarded from Governor Tony Evers’ statewide Badger Bounceback Beyond the Classroom Grant Program.

Enhanced designs

With a classroom embedded within the office of MSOE’s Marketing Communications Department, students in the user experience (UX) program didn’t have to look far to find a real-world project to dive into. Over the winter they audited and redesigned the information architecture (IA) of numerous sections of the MSOE website using innovative online tools that helped with content auditing, brainstorming and project management. nt. To prepare for the project, students reviewed other university websites. They also completed individual and group assignments and prepared presentations for their client, Josh Hertzog, MSOE’s director of digital marketing. “Who better er to help us enhance MSOE.edu than our very own students,” said Hertzog. “The students have fantastic ideas.” Hertzog is currently reviewing the students’ work and hopes to implement many of their suggestions in the future. The students’ work also will become part of their senior UX digital portfolio. A few of the ideas presented by Jessica Oratch and Kayla Yakimisky are pictured at right.

From computer science to industrial engineering and everything in between, MSOE students have one thing in common: they learn by doing.

VISIT MSOE.EDU/DIMENSIONS FOR VIDEOS AND PHOTOS OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AT MSOE.