Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Carnegie Mellon University students visit Allegheny General Hospital for a class called "Surgery for Engineers." Dr. Sutanu Misra, right, an anesthesiologist, explains the equipment he uses in an operating room. Click photo for larger image.

In an operating room, one expects to see a patient on the operating table surrounded by surgeons, nurses and high-tech equipment.

But on a recent evening in Allegheny General Hospital, four operating rooms were crowded with Carnegie Mellon University students in bunny suits (blue overalls worn in operating rooms) and hair bonnets.

Don't worry: They weren't doing surgery. But in one room, they were taking turns using electronic scalpels -- Bovie pens -- to cut, then suture porterhouse steaks. But these weren't just everyday porterhouse: "Good porterhouse," Dr. James Burgess said.

Dr. Burgess, an Allegheny General Hospital neurosurgeon, proposed the idea of having engineering students visit operating rooms at AGH. He had heard about a program at Johns Hopkins in which engineering students visited operating rooms to learn biomedical technology as a way to hatch new ideas to benefit surgeons and patients.

Dr. Burgess offered to teach such a course at CMU and university officials took him up on the offer. AGH officials also supported the program.

The first class last spring drew 12 students. The one last fall had 15. The one running Jan. 17 to May 2 has 44 students enrolled, proving its popularity.

Dr. Burgess was busy recruiting as many as 25 surgeons as mentors, which has sent him scouring the city.

The best way to understand what surgeons do is to hang around them. Inside the operating room, students get a snapshot of existing technology, then return to campus with new ideas.

The potential result, Dr. Burgess said, is new ideas and technology to help surgeons and ultimately patients.

"There's an endless need for advancement in all areas and the consensus is, the faster [engineers] understand the needs, the quicker it will happen," Dr. Burgess said.

Todd Przybycien, director of CMU's biomedical engineering department, said the course is "wildly popular" because students get hands-on experience and have a rare chance of working with surgeons.

During the course, students adopt a project to develop technology that can solve a medical problem or make a process more efficient. By the end of the semester, students, all seniors, must write a paper about and produce drawings of their proposed technology and build a prototype, if time permits.

Several students from previous classes have had brilliant ideas that they've continued working on at the graduate-school level.

Sashu Bakhru, a doctoral student in CMU's biomedical engineering program, said the course gave him direction in what now has turned into a research project for his thesis.

It involves creating a polymeric microcapsule that can deliver neural stem cell cultures to the right place in the brain or body, then release them at the best time to assure they grow.

"I had no idea what went on in an operating room," Mr. Bakhru said. "If you develop an instrument, you need an idea what to do. This course produced that perspective.

"It was one of the most interesting classes I ever took," he said, describing it as a "fantastic experience." "Each student gets to work with a practicing physician. There's a lot of one-on-one interaction."

The fact that surgeons volunteer their time "is unbelievable in my view," Mr. Bakhru said.

Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Allegheny General neurosurgeon Dr. James Burgess proposed the idea of having engineering students visit operating rooms to learn biomedical technology. Click photo for larger image.

Plenty of work remains for the project he started at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Burgess said it's promising.

"It addresses an important problem of endoscopic surgeries that need a new tool," Dr. Burgess said.

Another student project involves creating a knee-joint simulator that shows the mechanics of knee function.

Last semester, another innovative project got its start. A team of students is working on a better inner-ear implant to take the place of current devices.

"It goes on and on to the point that there's so much good stuff," Dr. Burgess said, noting that students pair up on projects. "You wonder what they will come up with in the 24 projects this semester."

During their visit to operating rooms, students not only cut and sewed porterhouse steaks, but also received brief lectures about heart-lung, anesthetic and imaging equipment. Doctors and hospital personnel answered questions and voiced desire for new technology. The course also teaches them how to use a medical library.

Even in their bunny suits and hair bonnets, it was clear the students were busy soaking up information and fomenting ideas.

What occurs when physicians and engineers rub elbows is rewarding.

"Students are having a good experience, but the by-product is the blossoming of relationships," Dr. Burgess said. "I'm learning a lot myself."

Dr. Przybycien said the program allows students to put their education into practice with real-life experiences.

"Students need to see problems and get the creative juices flowing," he said. "It's really been a success, and I lay 110 percent of the credit at Jim Burgess' feet."