Sticky++Nephrotex Game

Nephrotex is a new epistemic game in which undergraduate engineering students role-play as professional engineers-in-training in order to develop the skills, knowledge, identity and values of engineers.

In Nephrotex, students are welcomed as early career hires into the fictitious company Nephrotex, whose core technology is the ultrafiltration unit, or dialyzer, of a hemodialysis machine. The students’ assigned task is to design a next-generation dialyzer that incorporates carbon nanotubes and chemical surfactants into the hollow fibers of the dialyzer unit. Since design is a foundational discipline for engineers, we focus on bringing engineering design to first-year engineering students.

Our design project is offered as part of a simulated workplace environment for established professionals in practice Thus, the learning develops in context, and the experience has the potential to more realistically mimic the engineering experience.