2018-2019 Bioengineering

Fields of Study

Biomedical Instrumentation

The biomedical instrumentation (BMI) field is designed to train bioengineers interested in the applications and development of instrumentation used in medicine and biotechnology. Examples include the use of lasers in surgery and diagnostics, new microelectrical machines for surgery, sensors for detecting and monitoring of disease, microfluidic systems for cell-based diagnostics, new tool development for basic and applied life sciences research, and controlled drug delivery devices. The principles underlying each instrument and specific clinical or biological needs are emphasized. Graduates are targeted principally for employment in academia, government research laboratories, and the biotechnology, medical devices, and biomedical industries.

Course Requirements

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. At least three courses selected from Bioengineering C201, C204, C205, C206.

Group II: Field Specific Courses. At least three courses selected from Bioengineering CM202 (or CM203 or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 165A), Bioengineering M153 (or Electrical and Computer Engineering M153 or Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering M183B), Electrical and Computer Engineering 100.

Group III: Field Elective Courses. The remainder of the courses must be selected from one of the following three areas:

Bionanotechnology and Biophotonics: Bioengineering C270, C271, Chemistry and Biochemistry C240, Electrical and Computer Engineering 121B, 128, M217, 225, 274, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 258A, M287, C287L

Microfluidics, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), and Biosensors: Bioengineering M260, 282, Chemical Engineering C216, Chemistry and Biochemistry 118, 156, Electrical and Computer Engineering 102, 110, 110L, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 103, 150A, C150G, M168, 250B, C250G, 250M, 281, M287, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C185A, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 165A, 168, M175A, M175B, M272

Surgical/Imaging Instrumentation: Bioengineering 224A, CM240, C270, C271, C272, Biomathematics M230, Electrical and Computer Engineering 176, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 171A, 263D

Other electives are approved on a case-by-case basis.

Biomedical Signal and Image Processing

The biomedical signal and image processing (BSIP) field prepares students for careers in the acquisition and analysis of biomedical signals and enables students to apply quantitative methods to extract meaningful information for both clinical and research applications. The program is premised on the fact that a core set of mathematical and statistical methods are held in common across signal acquisition and imaging modalities and across data analyses regardless of their dimensionality. These include signal transduction, characterization and analysis of noise, transform analysis, feature extraction from time series or images, quantitative image processing, and imaging physics. Students have the opportunity to focus their work over a broad range of modalities, including electrophysiology, optical imaging methods, MRI, CT, PET, and other tomographic devices, and/or on the extraction of image features such as organ morphometry or neurofunctional signals, and detailed anatomic/functional feature extraction. Career opportunities for BSIP trainees include medical instrumentation, engineering positions in medical imaging, and research in the application of advanced engineering skills to the study of anatomy and function.

Course Requirements

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. Three courses selected from Bioengineering C201 (or CM286) and either CM202 and CM203, OR Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 144 and Physiological Science 166.

Group II: Field Specific Courses. At least three courses selected from Electrical and Computer Engineering 239AS, 266, Neurobiology M200C, Neuroscience CM272, M287, Physics and Biology in Medicine 205, M219, M248, and one course from Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C134, or Neuroscience 207.

Group III: Field Elective Courses. The remainder of the courses must be selected from Bioengineering 100, 120, 223A, 223B, 223C, 224A, M261A, Biostatistics M238, Computer Science 269, Electrical and Computer Engineering 102, 113, 210A, 211A, 212A, 236A, 236B, 273, Mathematics 133, 155, 270A through 270F, Physics and Biology in Medicine 210, 217, 218, 222, 227, M230.

Biosystems Science and Engineering

Graduate study in biosystems science and engineering (BSSE) emphasizes the systems aspects of living processes, as well as their component parts. It is intended for science and engineering students interested in understanding biocontrol, regulation, communication, and measurement or visualization of biomedical systems (of aggregate parts — whole systems), for basic or clinical applications. Dynamic systems engineering, mathematical, statistical, and multiscale computational modeling and optimization methods — applicable at all biosystems levels — form the theoretical underpinnings of the field. They are the paradigms for exploring the integrative and hierarchical dynamical properties of biomedical systems quantitatively — at molecular, cellular, organ, whole organism, or societal levels — and leveraging them in applications. The academic program provides directed interdisciplinary biosystems studies in these areas, as well as quantitative dynamic systems biomodeling methods-integrated with the biology for specialized life sciences domain studies of interest to the students.

Typical research areas include molecular and cellular systems physiology, organ systems physiology, and medical, pharmacological, and pharmacogenomic systems studies, neurosystems, imaging and remote sensing systems, robotics, learning and knowledge-based systems, visualization, and virtual clinical environments. The program fosters careers in research and teaching in systems biology/physiology, engineering, medicine, and/or the biomedical sciences, or research and development in the biomedical or pharmaceutical industry.

Course Requirements

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. Two physiology/molecular, cellular, and organ systems biology courses from either Bioengineering CM202 and CM203, OR Physiological Science 166 and Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology M140, OR 144 and another approved equivalent course, and two dynamic biosystems modeling, estimation, and optimization courses from Bioengineering CM286, and either Biomathematics 220 or 296B.

Group II: Field Specific and Elective Courses. Three courses, selected in consultation with and approved by the faculty adviser, from Bioengineering C204, C205, C206, M217, CM245, M248, M260, C283, M296D, Biomathematics 201, 206, 208A or 208B, 213, M230, Chemistry and Biochemistry CM260A, CM260B, Computer Science 161, CM224, Electrical and Computer Engineering 102, 113, 131A, 132A, 133A, 133B, 141, 142, 210B, 232E, M240C, 241A, M242A, M252, 260A, 260B, Mathematics 134, 136, 151A, 151B, 155, 170A, 170B, 171, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 107, 171A, Physiological Science M135, 200.

Group III: Field Ethics Course. One course selected from Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C134, or Neuroscience 207.

Medical Imaging Informatics

Medical imaging informatics (MII) is the rapidly evolving field that combines biomedical informatics and imaging, developing and adapting core methods in informatics to improve the usage and application of imaging in healthcare. Graduate study encompasses principles from across engineering, computer science, information sciences, and biomedicine. Imaging informatics research concerns itself with the full spectrum of low-level concepts (e.g., image standardization and processing, image feature extraction) to higher-level abstractions (e.g., associating semantic meaning to a region in an image, visualization and fusion of images with other biomedical data) and ultimately, applications and the derivation of new knowledge from imaging. Medical imaging informatics addresses not only the images themselves, but encompasses the associated (clinical) data to understand the context of the imaging study, to document observations, and to correlate and reach new conclusions about a disease and the course of a medical problem.

Research foci include distributed medical information architectures and systems, medical image understanding and applications of image processing, medical natural language processing, knowledge engineering and medical decision-support, and medical data visualization. Coursework is geared toward students with science and engineering backgrounds, introducing them to these areas in addition to providing exposure to fundamental biomedical informatics, imaging, and clinical issues. The area encourages interdisciplinary training with faculty members from multiple departments and emphasizes the practical translational development and evaluation of tools/applications to support clinical research and care.

Course Requirements

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. Bioengineering 220, 221 (or CM202 and CM203), 223A, 223B, 223C, 224B, M226, M227, M228.

Group II: Field Specific Courses. M.S. comprehensive students must take three courses and Ph.D. students must take six courses from any of the following concentrations:

Computer Understanding of Images: Computer Science M266A, M266B, Electrical and Computer Engineering 211A, Physics and Biology in Medicine 210, 214, M219, M230

Computer Understanding of Text and Medical Information Retrieval: Computer Science 263A, Information Studies 228, 245, 246, 260, Linguistics 218, 232, Statistics M231

Information Networks and Data Access in Medical Environment: Computer Science 240B, 244A, 246

Probabilistic Modeling and Visualization of Medical Data: Biostatistics M232, M234, M235, M236, Computer Science 241B, 262A, M262C, Epidemiology 212, Information Studies 272, 277

Group III: Field Ethics Course. One course selected from Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C134, or Neuroscience 207.

Molecular Cellular Tissue Therapeutics

The molecular cellular tissue therapeutics (MCTT) field covers novel therapeutic development across all biological length scales from molecules to cells to tissues. At the molecular and cellular levels, this research area encompasses the engineering of biomaterials, ligands, enzymes, protein-protein interactions, intracellular trafficking, biological signal transduction, genetic regulation, cellular metabolism, drug delivery vehicles, and cell-cell interactions, as well as the development of chemical/biological tools to achieve this.

At the tissue level, the field encompasses two subfields — biomaterials and tissue engineering. The properties of bone, muscles, and tissues, the replacement of natural materials with artificial compatible and functional materials such as polymers, composites, ceramics, and metals, and the complex interactions between implants and the body are studied at the tissue level. The research emphasis is on the fundamental basis for diagnosis, disease treatment, and redesign of molecular, cellular, and tissue functions. In addition to quantitative experiments required to obtain spatial and temporal information, quantitative and integrative modeling approaches at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels are also included within this field. Although some of the research remains exclusively at one length scale, research that bridges any two or all three length scales is also an integral part of this field. Graduates are targeted principally for employment in academia, government research laboratories, and the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries.

Course Requirements

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. At least three courses selected from Bioengineering C201, C204, C205, C206.

Group II: Field Specific Courses. At least three courses selected from Bioengineering 100, 110, 120, 176, CM278, C283, C285.

Group III: Field Elective Courses. The remainder of the courses must be selected from Bioengineering 180, M215, M225, CM240, CM245, CM287, Biomathematics 201, M203, M211, 220, M270, M271, Chemistry and Biochemistry 153A, 153B, M230B, CM260A, CM260B, C265, 269A, 269D, 277, C281, Materials Science and Engineering 110, 111, 200, 201, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 156A, M168, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C185A, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology M110A, 110B, 203, 211A, 211B, 288, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 100, M140, 144, 165A, C222D, 224, M230B, M234, Neuroscience 205, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine M237, 294.

Other electives are approved on a case-by-case basis.

Neuroengineering

The neuroengineering (NE) field is designed to enable students with a background in biological sciences to develop and execute projects that make use of state-of-the-art technology, including microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), signal processing, and photonics. Students with a background in engineering develop and execute projects that address problems that have a neuroscientific base, including locomotion and pattern generation, central control of movement, and the processing of sensory information. Trainees develop the capacity for the multidisciplinary teamwork, in intellectually and socially diverse settings, that is necessary for new scientific insights and dramatic technological progress in the twenty-first century. Students take a curriculum designed to encourage cross-fertilization of neuroscience and engineering. The goal is for neuroscientists and engineers to speak each others’ language and move comfortably among the intellectual domains of the two fields.

Course Requirements

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. Three courses selected from Bioengineering C201 (or CM286) and either CM202 and CM203, OR Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 144 and Physiological Science 166.

Group II: Field Specific Courses. Bioengineering M260, M261A, M284, and one course from 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C134, or Neuroscience 207.

Group III: Field Elective Courses. Two courses from one of the following two concentrations:

Electronic Engineering: Chemical Engineering CM215, CM225, Electrical and Computer Engineering 210A, M214A, 214B, 216B, M250B, M252

Neuroscience: Bioengineering C206, M263, Neuroscience M201, M202, 205