2019 Winter BME-in-Practice Courses
Are you a freshman or sophomore interested in BME? Are you trying to understand what you can do with a BME degree? Are you ready to get started with your BME experience? Consider signing up for one or all of our 2019 Winter BME in Practice Courses. These 1-credit courses were created by your fellow students for you. Engage in hands on BME projects. These short 4-week modules will focus on one aspect of biomedical engineering and immerse you in the world of BME practice. Students can enroll in all 3 classes or just 1 to get a flavor of BME. Space will be limited (max 20 with waitlist).
Courses offered will be dependent on student interest! Vote for the modules that are most interesting to you by signing up for email notifications and voting for your top 3 modules. (All classes will be held in LBME)
| Course Title | Course Times | Dates of Class |
| Roadmap to Drug Development | M/W 12:30-1:30, Th 3:30-7:30 |
BME499.011 Jan 9-Feb 7 (no Lab on Th Jan 10) |
| Introduction to Medical Product Design | T/Th 9:30-12:30 |
BME499.040 Jan 9-Feb 7 |
| Engineering the Cellular Microenvironment: An Introduction to Tissue Engineering | M/W 12:30-1:30, Th 3:30-7:30 |
BME499.021 Feb 11 – March 14 |
| Wrangling with Regulations: Introduction to Regulatory Science | M/W 12:30-1:30, Th 3:30-5:00 |
BME499.031 March 18 – April 11 |
| The Big Picture: An Introduction to Visualizing Information | M/W 12:30-1:30, Th 3:30-7:30 |
BME499.051 March 18 – April 11 |
Roadmap to Drug Development
Supercomputing and advanced computational methods are shaping the future of medicine and drug development by reducing the time and cost needed to bring a drug to market. The coding skills needed to create these models are highly sought after by industry representatives. This course will provide a unique experience for students to work in small groups in a low stress environment to develop models that will help biomedical engineers make more informed decisions when developing drugs. Specifically, students will combine their knowledge of cell signaling pathways and MATLAB skills to solve problems related to drug development. This course will be unique in that students will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with instructors and graduate students to understand the problems explored in this class, and that there will be designated time for students to work on the homework while in class. In addition, students will have the opportunity to learn how modeling can be used in different concentrations within the BME curriculum and in their future careers.
Engineering the Cellular Microenvironment: An Introduction to Tissue Engineering
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is a rapidly evolving field with the potential of creating functional tissues to treat disease, repair damage, and even replace whole organs. In order to translate scientific discovery into engineered tissues for use in patients, one must first understand how changes to a cell’s microenvironment can be manipulated to influence cell behavior. In this introductory course, students will be exposed to basic concepts used in the field of tissue engineering. Students will explore the various components of a cellular microenvironment and gain an understanding of how these components work together to influence cell morphology and phenotype. Students will also have the chance to see these concepts at work by encapsulating cells in hydrogel scaffolds to control their microenvironment, and manipulating various hydrogel properties to determine their effects on cell performance. Students will gain hands-on laboratory experience with cell culture, 3D cell encapsulation, imaging techniques, and quantitative assays that measure cellular response to their microenvironments. This course will equip students with technical skills necessary to prepare them for future research experiences and internships in regenerative medicine.
Wrangling with Regulations: Introduction to Regulatory Science
Calling all engineers, scientists, and future clinicians! Looking to gain some experience to help you land your first internship? Aspiring to work in medtech and biomedical research? Then Wrangling with Regulations is THE course for you. To make your innovation available to patients, you will need to go beyond just inventing the devices and drugs of the future; you will also have to navigate the complex FDA approval process. In this exciting 4-week introductory crash-course, you will befriend regulations by solving relevant real-world case studies to observe how regulatory approval can make or break medical devices, drugs/biologics, diagnostics, and research. Sign up to get that competitive edge for internships and co-ops by acquiring the expertise that companies in the healthcare industry want in new employees.
Introduction to Medical Product Design
Concept evaluation is a key part of the engineering design process. Given the complexity of medical device design today, products must go through numerous cycles of refinement, prototyping, and evaluation before they are ready for commercialization. Introduction to Medical Product Design allows students to experience an initial product development cycle while gaining valuable exposure to modern tools used in the medical device industry. Students will use computed aided design (CAD), 3D printing, physical testing and finite element analysis (FEA) to refine, prototype, and evaluate their design. Students will explore how to use the results of these physical and computational evaluations to inform the next iteration in the product development cycle. Participation in the course will provide a hands-on, skills-based design project experience that students can use as a competitive edge when applying for internships and co-ops and/or in subsequent design courses.
The Big Picture: An Introduction to Visualizing Information
Cutting edge methods in engineering and medicine are producing data sets larger than ever. Drawing meaningful conclusions from big data creates new challenges in the rising fields of bioinformatics, analytics, and computing. To meet the demands of these fields, we need data scientists that also possess biomedical knowledge, that’s where you the biomedical engineer can come in. In this course, you’ll gain a hands-on experience working with real biomedical data sets. You’ll receive an introduction to the basics of statistical analysis and data interpretation using open-source graphical software environments like R. Moreover, you’ll learn to display this data in compelling visuals. Because the human brain processes visual information 60,000x faster than text, graphical data visualization is paramount to improve the readability, comprehension, and importance of data. You will walk away with the practical skills needed to understand the details of your data but you’ll know how to communicate “the big picture” to your peers or future employers!