Today we headed back to the School of Engineering in Bilbao to start working on our project. Before we started working however, we did some creativity exercises that were pretty fun and allowed me to see how my teammates think. Then we started brainstorming different ideas for our project topic which was mitigating bedsores for patients on hospital beds. Bedsores are when patients are lying down too long and pressure builds up on certain areas of the body that are more bony causing pain and tissue damage. After passing around different ideas we came up with designing a gown with temperature sensors to prevent bedsores since areas with bedsores are usually hotter. Then, we did research on how someone would actually go about building it by looking at different wearable sensors, wearable batteries, waterproof materials, etc. Every team also designed a model figure showcasing our designs out of wet clay.

Next, we presented our design to the class which gave us lots of good feedback. One of the pieces of advice they gave us was to think about heat capture and heat release for the device within the gown. Another thing they brought up was how to prevent the sensors from moving around or getting damaged as the person puts their weight on it. We also got to see the other groups present their ideas as well. For example, one group designed automated railings that will track a patient’s movement within their beds and will adjust the position of the railing to prevent patients from falling which I thought was neat. Through brainstorming, designing, and listening to the different projects I learned more about the process that bioengineers have to go through to build good devices and also the importance of teamwork and feedback in the field of engineering.

After presenting all of our projects we headed to the Museum of Modern Art in Bilbao. Here we got to see one of the oldest paintings of Bilbao which depicted what it looked like hundreds of years ago. It was interesting to see how vastly different the city is today while still remaining some of the same cultural elements it had back in the day. Next, we got to see a lot of the work that the architect Denise Scott Brown did renovating parts of Philadelphia and also her work analyzing the architecture of Las Vegas. Finally, we ended the tour by heading up to the second floor where we saw lots of artwork centered around the theme of light.