Biomedical Engineering is an evolving field that has challenged the historical disciplinary barriers between the life sciences and engineering. While BME research activities frequently result in clinical therapies and medical treatments, the field remains intimately tied to the engineering disciplines.
Sometimes we like to say the biomedical engineering is akin to the “liberal arts of science and technology” in an effort to convey the breadth of areas and subjects our students will explore as they move through the major. Graduates of the Coulter Department have pursued careers as diverse as medicine, dentistry, public health, hospital administration, healthcare IT, government service at regulatory agencies like the FDA, healthcare consulting, medical field engineering, device design, patent law, technology startups, entrepreneurship, designing shoes for Nike, and public service through Teach for America. Therefore, it should be no surprise that, as a field with virtually no textbooks to date, biomedical engineering education poses special challenges — and opportunities.