Computing, Electronics, and Health for Everybody: A Multi-Country Workshop on Low-Cost ECG Acquisition

A persistent interdisciplinary gap continues to hinder the development of Health 4.0 educational initiatives. Biomedical Engineering programs typically emphasize physiology and instrumentation while providing limited exposure to modern software ecosystems, whereas Informatics curricula often overlook the physical and physiological foundations of bio-instrumentation. To address this dual deficiency, this paper presents a low-cost and modular educational intervention aligned with the “Computing, Electronics, and Health for Everybody” philosophy. The proposed approach is a hands-on technical workshop that translates core biomedical signal-processing concepts into an accessible learning experience using the Arduino platform and the AD8232 ECG sensor. The intervention was implemented simultaneously across universities in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, involving a total of n=92 undergraduate engineering students. Learning outcomes were evaluated using a pre–post assessment design. The results demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in participants’ conceptual understanding of ECG signal components (p<0.001), with mean scores increasing across all evaluated dimensions. In addition, students reported higher confidence in interpreting physiological signals and applying interdisciplinary reasoning. These findings indicate that the proposed intervention effectively supports interdisciplinary learning for software-oriented engineering students by introducing core biomedical acquisition and signal-processing concepts through an accessible and scalable educational framework.