Course Descriptions

Department of Biomedical Engineering

B. E. Applegate, G. L. Coté (Head), J. C. Criscione, M. A. Grunlan, M. S. Hahn, J. D. Humphrey, W. Hwang, W. A. Hyman, A. Jayaraman, J. A. Jo, R. R. Kaunas, C. S. Lessard, M. P. McDougall, M. J. McShane, II, K. E. Meissner, II, J. E. Moore, Jr.*, C. M. Quick, K. R. Rajagopal, L. Wang, S. M. Wright, H. Wu, A. T. Yeh

* Graduate Advisor

The thrust of the biomedical engineering graduate program is in the areas of biomedical optical sensing and imaging and cardiovascular biomechanics and mechanobiology. These concepts are applied and studied at whole body, tissue, cellular and molecular levels. Faculty members are presently involved in research from the macroscopic to the nanoscale in the areas of diagnostic and therapeutic systems, imaging systems, soft and hard tissue biomechanics, biothermomechanics, tissue characterization, biomaterials used in the human body, orthopedic biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering, instrumentation, bioinstrumentation, measurement and analysis of human body signals, and analysis of the interaction between humans and medical devices.

Biomedical Engineering
(BMEN)

601. Foundations of Biomedical Engineering Analyses. (3-0). Credit 3.

Analysis of biomedical engineering processes involving interactions between biological tissues and electromagnetic waves using methodologies from developed physical principles; applications include electric and magnetic fields in biological tissues, and electromagnetic wavetreatment of fundamental light propagation properties in biological tissues such as transmission, reflection, polarization, interference and diffraction. Prerequisite: MATH 308.

602. Instrumentation and Measurement in Biomedical Systems. (3-3). Credit 4.

Information measurement from biomedical systems; interface matching; transducers commonly used in biomedical engineering as the interface between biomedical signals and instrumentation systems. Prerequisites: BMEN 322 and 420 or equivalent.

603. Information Processing in Biomedical Engineering. (3-3). Credit 4.

Methods for evaluating alternative approaches in signal processing systems for biomedical applications; provides familiarity with the wide variety of existing software and hardware systems. Prerequisite: BMEN 322.

605. Virtual Instrumentation Design for Medical Systems. (2-3). Credit 3.

Design of medical systems using graphics programming language of LabVIEW including the designing and programming of three virtual systems: cardiac monitor, electromyogram system for biomechanics, and sleep stage analyses for electroencephalograms. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

607. Clinical Engineering. (3-0). Credit 3.

Responsibilities, functions and duties of the hospital based biomedical engineer including program organization, management, medical equipment aquisition and use, preventive maintenance and repair and hospital safety. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

608. Optical Diagnostic and Monitoring Principles. (3-0). Credit 3.

Engineering design principles of optically based monitoring and diagnostic modalities; emphasis on generating quantitative descriptions of biochemical and biophysical interactions of optic and fiber optic systems as applied to medical diagnostics and sensing. Prerequisites: MATH 308; PHYS 208.

609. Optical Therapeutic and Interventional Principles. (3-0). Credit 3.

Study of optical and thermal processes of laser interaction with biological tissue; issues and objectives in therapeutic, surgical and diagnostic applications; basic engineering principles used in developing therapeutic with a focus on the use of lasers and optical technology. Prerequisites: MATH 308; PHYS 208.

611. Biomedical Imaging Systems. (3-0). Credit 3.

The physics behind the major medical imaging systems including CT, MRI, Ultrasound and X-Ray will be introduced and described; a linear systems approach will be used along with basic diffraction theory. Prerequisites: BMEN 322; MATH 308.

612. Experimentation. (2-3). Credit 3.

General concepts forming the basis of the scientific method and design of experiments; analytical instrumentation and measurement methods useful in biomedical research; criteria for the selection, care and use of experimental animals and human subjects in biomedical research. Prerequisite: 3 hours in physiology.

614. Modeling of Biomedical Systems. (3-0). Credit 3.

Principles, objectives and approaches to describing physiological phenomena with mathematical models with emphasis on mammalian systems. Prerequisites: 3 hours in physiology; 3 hours in differential equations.

620. Bio-Optical Imaging. (3-0). Credit 3.

Optical imaging techniques for detection of structures and functions of biological tissues; basic physics and engineering of each imaging technique. Prerequisites: BMEN 601; MATH 308.

621. Microscale Bio-Optical Applications. (3-0). Credit 3.

Introduction to the biomedical application of lasers to manipulation, detection and visualization on (sub)cellular length scales, with emphasis on governing principles on which applications are founded; applications from recent literature (state-of-the-art) presented. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and approval of instructor.

624. Biomedical Sensing and Imaging at the Nanoscale. (3-0). Credit 3.

This course serves as an introduction to nanotechnology with an emphasis on biomedical techniques and medical applications. The material covered ranges from the basic physics of contrast agents to the engineering of current sensing and imaging systems applied at the nanoscale. Prerequisites: Graduate classification, PHYS 208, MATH 308.

630. Global Medical Device Regulation. (3-0). Credit 3.

Overview of applicable U.S. and international regulations and regulatory processes for the design, approval and marketing of medical devices. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

631. Thermodynamics of Biomolecular Systems. (3-0). Credit 3.

Introduces equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and applies them to understand various bimolecular systems; including ensemble theory, reaction kinetics, nonlinear dynamics, and stochastic processes; with applied examples such as enzyme-ligand binding kinetics, conformational dynamic of proteins and nucleic acids, population dynamics, and noise in biological signals. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and BMEN 240, PHYS 208 and MATH 308.

632. Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics. (3-0). Credit 3.

Introduces biomolecules and their assemblies that play structural and dynamical roles in subcellular to cellular level mechanics, with emphasis on quantitative/theoretical descriptions, and discussions of the relevant experiment approaches to probe these nano to micro-scale phenomena; including topics in (1) self-assembly of cytoskeleton and biomembranes, (2) molecular motors, (3) cell motility, and mechanotransduction. Prerequisites: Graduate classification, BMEN 240 and MATH 308.

635. Biomaterials Compatibility. (3-0). Credit 3.

Relevance of mechanical and physical properties to implant selection and design; effect of the body environment on metallic, ceramic and plastic materials; tissue engineering; rejection mechanisms used by the body to maintain homeostasis regulatory requirements. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and approval of instructor.

638. Control Mechanisms in Living Systems. (3-0). Credit 3.

Application of control theory to the dynamic characteristics of electro-physiological and biochemical processes and to the natural and artificial maintenance of homeostasis in living systems. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and BMEN 420; MATH 308; 3 hours of physiology.

640. Design of Medical Devices. (3-0). Credit 3.

Overview of the multiple issues in managing the design of a marketable medical device, including the design process from clinical problem definition through prototype and clinical testing to market readiness; includes FDA pre- and post-market regulation, human factors and system safety considerations, and medical product liability. Prerequisite: Graduate classification in engineering.

650. Biomedical Optics Laboratory. (2-3). Credit 3.

Biomedical optics technology; basic engineering principles used in developing therapeutic and diagnostic devices; a series of hands-on labs will be performed including optical monitoring, diagnostic and therapeutic experiments. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and MATH 308; PHYS 208.

660. Vascular Mechanics. (3-0). Credit 3.

Application of continuum mechanics to the study of the heart arteries; on the measurement and quantification of material properties, and the calculation of vascular stresses; analysis of several cardiovascular devices to reinforce the need for careful analysis in the device design. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and BMEN 240 and 341 or equivalents; graduate classification.

661. Cardiac Mechanics. (3-0). Credit 3.

Application of continuum mechanics and computational solid mechanics to the study of the mammalian heart; utilization of continuum mechanics and finite element analysis in solving non-linear boundary value problems in biomechanics. Prerequisites: BMEN 240 and 602; MEMA 467; or equivalents.

662. Vascular Fluid Mechanics. (3-0). Credit 3.

Bio-fluid mechanics of the human circulatory system including examination of disease development and medical treatments. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and BMEN 240 or equivalent.

663. Soft Tissue Mechanics and Finite Element Methods. (3-0). Credit 3.

Application of continuum mechanics and finite element methods to the study of the mechanical behavior or soft tissues and associative applications in biomedicine. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and BMEN 240 or equivalent.

668. Biothermomechanics. (3-0). Credit 3.

Application of continuum thermomechanics to quantify soft tissue behavior in response to combined thermal and mechanical loads including thermoelasticity and thermal damage. Prerequisites: BMEN 240, 341, and graduate classification.

669. Entrepreneurial Issues in Biomedical Engineering. (3-0). Credit 3.

Description and analysis of issues associated with initiating business ventures to transfer biomedical technologies into the health care sector, including intellectual engineering technology area; and utilizing recent case studies of previous ventures. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

673. Radiation Biology. (3-0). Credit 3.

The response of biological systems to ionizing radiation at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels; effects of different dose levels with emphasis on the underlying mechanisms relevant to long term health effects at low doses. Prerequisite: NUEN 409 or graduate classification. Cross-listed with NUEN 673.

674. Communications in Biomedical Engineering. (2-0). Credit 2.

General concepts for communicating the results of biomedical research including written papers, conference proceedings, proposals and grants, as well as oral presentations and basic ethics. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

675. Biomedical Case Studies. (1-0). Credit 1.

Introduction to the engineering design process for solving biomedical problems by using the case study method in biomedical instrument design. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

680. Biomedical Engineering of Tissues. (3-0). Credit 3.

Introduction to aspects of tissue engineering with an emphasis placed on tissue level topics including tissue organization and biological processes, with insights from recent literature (state-of-the-art). Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

681. Seminar. (1-0). Credit 1.

Designed to permit student to broaden capability, performance and perspective in biomedical engineering via his or her own formal presentation and by presentations from other professionals.

682. Polymeric Biomaterials. (3-0). Credit 3.

Preparation, properties, and biomedical applications of polymers including: polymerization; structure-property relationships; molecular weight and measurement; morphology; thermal transitions; network formation; mechanical behavior; polymeric surface modification; polymer biocompatibility and bioadhesion; polymers in medicine, dentistry, and surgery; polymers for drug delivery; polymeric hydrogels; and biodegradable polymers. Prerequisites: Graduate classification, BMEN 342, or instructor approval.

684. Professional Internship. Credit 1 or more each semester.

Training under the supervision of practicing engineers in settings appropriate to the student’s professional objectives. Prerequisites: Approval of chair of student’s advisory committee and department head.

685. Directed Studies. Credit 1 to 12 each semester.

Allows students the opportunity to undertake and complete, for credit, limited investigations not included within thesis or dissertation research and not covered by other courses. Prerequisite: Approval of department head.

689. Special Topics in... Credit 1 to 4.

Selected topics in an identified area of biomedical engineering. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

691. Research. Credit 1 or more each semester.

Research for thesis or dissertation.