Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineers apply engineering design and analysis techniques to problems at the interface between physical and biological systems. They engineer solutions to help people live better lives. Biomedical Engineering at Stevens: Biomedical engineers design devices and instruments that aid physicians in medical diagnosis and treatment of disease and improve the quality of life for people whose natural bodily functions are impaired. Examples of such innovations include total implantable hearts, pacemakers and defibrillators, imaging devices, prostheses, replacement parts, portable EKG machines, and heart-lung machines. Our program is broad-based and multidisciplinary, designed to produce graduates who are prepared for careers in the biotech industry, to enter medical school, or to continue their education in graduate or professional school. Stevens biomedical engineers are exposed to a broad curriculum that not only trains them in the fundamentals of math, science and engineering, but also in biology, physiology and the interactions of engineering materials with biological surfaces. The program has a very strong design component and extensive laboratory experience in making measurements on living systems. The BME degree at Stevens includes the general engineering courses taken by other engineering disciplines, including eight semesters of design. The last three semesters of design are program-specific, with the last two semesters dedicated to a “Capstone Design” project — a team effort to design, build and test a medical device. A typical BME senior design has two or more faculty advisors, including a Stevens’s faculty member and a physician from one of our collaborating medical facilities. Biomedical engineers must possess a thorough understanding of biology and human physiology. As such, the Stevens BME program includes courses in bio-transport phenomena, biomaterials, and biomechanics, as well as electronics, digital signals processing, medical imaging, and mathematical modeling of physiological processes. Our laboratories include hands-on experience in taking and analyzing data at all levels of biology and physiology. Research Opportunities: Stevens presently has a collaborative research and teaching agreement with Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) and UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. Our senior design students regularly win prizes for their designs at regional and national competitions. Every year, several student-owned intellectual properties are converted to patents and some students have gone on to form their own start-up companies. BME faculty members welcome undergraduate participation in their research labs. Major faculty research areas include biorobotics, brain-machine interface, spinal implants, lung mechanics, emergency medicine (with HUMC) and tissue engineering.