Undergraduate Program
The objectives of the undergraduate program in biomedical engineering are as follows:
1. professional employment in areas such as the medical device industry, engineering consulting, biomechanics, biomedical imaging, and biotechnology;2. graduate studies in biomedical engineering or related fields;
3. attendance at medical or dental school.
The undergraduate curriculum
is designed to provide broad knowledge of the physical and engineering sciences and
their application to the solution of biological and medical problems. The first two
years provide a strong grounding in the physical and chemical sciences, engineering
fundamentals, and mathematics. This background is used to provide a unique physical
approach to the study of biological systems. The last two years of the undergraduate
program provide substantial exposure to modern biology and include courses in
engineering and engineering science that extend the work of the first two years. The
program also offers three tracks to guide students in the choice of technical courses,
while sharing a common core curriculum. The tracks are different from one another, and
there is great breadth within each. These qualities allow the faculty to prepare
students for activity in all contemporary areas of biomedical engineering. Graduates of
the program are equipped for employment in the large industrial sector devoted to health
care, which includes pharmaceuticals, medical devices, artificial organs, prosthetics
and sensory aids, diagnostics, medical instrumentation, and medical imaging. Graduates
also accept employment in oversight organizations (FDA, NIH, OSHA, and others), medical
centers, and research institutes. They are prepared for graduate study in biomedical
engineering and several related areas of engineering and the health sciences. Students
in all three tracks of the program can meet entrance requirements for graduate training
in the various allied health professions. No more than three additional courses are
required in any of the tracks to satisfy entrance requirements for most U.S. medical
schools.
First and Second Years
As outlined in this bulletin, in
the first two years all engineering students are expected to complete a sequence of
courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, English composition, and physical education,
as well as nontechnical electives including the humanities. For most of these sequences,
the students may choose from two or more tracks. If there is a question regarding the
acceptability of a course as a nontechnical elective, please consult the approved
listing of courses here or contact your class dean for clarification.
Please see the charts in this
section for a specific description of course requirements.
In addition, a pre-professional
engineering course is required. Students may select from a variety of offerings within
SEAS. For students interested in biomedical engineering, we recommend taking BMEN E1001: Engineering in medicine or APPH E1300y: Physics of the human body in fulfillment of
this requirement. For the computer science requirement, students should take COMS W1005.
BIOL W3995: Ethics for biomedical engineers is
required in the senior year and counts as 2 points of nontechnical elective credit.
All students should take APMA E2101: Introduction to applied mathematics
(ordinary differential equations and linear algebra) in addition to ELEN E1201: Introduction to electrical engineering and
ENME-MECE E3105: Mechanics in their second year.
Third and Fourth Years
The biomedical engineering programs
at Columbia at all levels are based on engineering and biological fundamentals. This is
emphasized in our core requirements across all tracks. In the junior year, all students
begin their biomedical engineering study with the two-semester Introduction to molecular and cellular biology, I and II (BIOL
C2005-C2006 ), which gives students a comprehensive overview of modern
biology from molecular to organ system levels. Parallel to these biology studies, all
students take the two-semester Quantitative physiology, I and
II sequence (BMEN E4001-E4002) which is
taught by biomedical engineering faculty and emphasizes quantitative applications of
engineering principles in understanding biological systems and phenomena from molecular
to organ system levels. In the fields of biomedical engineering, experimental techniques
and principles are fundamental skills that good biomedical engineers must master.
Beginning with the second semester of the junior year, all students take the
three-semester sequence Biomedical engineering laboratory,
I-III (BMEN E3810, BMEN E3820, BMEN E3830). In this three-semester series,
students learn through hands-on experience the principles and methods of biomedical
engineering experimentation, measurement techniques, quantitative theories of biomedical
engineering, data analysis, and independent design of biomedical engineering
experiments, the scope of which cover a broad range of topics from all three
tracks—biomechanics, cell and tissue engineering, and biomedical imaging. In the senior
year, students take the required course Ethics for biomedical
engineers (BIOL W3995), a SEAS nontechnical elective that covers a wide range
of ethical issues expected to confront biomedical engineering graduates as they enter
biotechnology industry, research, or medical careers. Also in the senior year, students
are required to take a two-semester capstone course, Biomedical engineering design (BMEN E3910 and BMEN E3920), where students
work within a team to tackle an open-ended design project in biomedical engineering. The
underlying philosophy of these core requirements is to provide our biomedical
engineering students with a broad knowledge and understanding of topics in the field of
biomedical engineering. Parallel to these studies in core courses, students take
track-specific required courses to obtain an in-depth understanding of their chosen
concentration. The curriculum of all three academic tracks—biomechanics, cell and tissue
engineering, and biomedical imaging—prepares students who wish to pursue careers in
medicine by satisfying most requirements in the pre-medicine profession with no more
than three additional courses. Some of these additional courses may also be counted as
nonengineering technical electives. Please see the course tables for schedules leading
to a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering.
It is strongly advised that students
take required courses during the specific term that they are designated in the course
tables, as conflicts may arise if courses are taken out of sequence.
Technical Elective Requirements
Students are required to take at least 48 points of engineering content coursework toward their degree. The 48-point requirement is a criterion established by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Taking into consideration the number of engineering content points conferred by the required courses of the BME curriculum, students are advised to complete the remainder of their engineering course work by taking technical electives that are clearly engineering in nature, specifically:
1. technical elective courses
with sufficient engineering content that can count toward the 48 units of engineering
courses required for ABET accreditation:
a. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, except: BMEN E4010, E4103, E4104, E4105, E4106, E4107 and E4108
b. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, except: MECE E4007: Creative engineering and entrepreneurship
c. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Department of Chemical Engineering, except: CHEN E4020: Safeguarding intellectual and business property
d. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Department of Electrical Engineering, except: EEHS E3900: History of telecommunications: from the telegraph to the
Internet
e. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Materials Science program
f. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics program, except: CIEN E4128, E4129, E4130, E4131, E4132, E4133, E4134,
E4135, and E4136
g. all 3000-level or higher
courses in the Earth and Environmental Engineering program
2. Courses from the following
departments are not allowed to count toward the required 48 units of engineering
courses:
a. Department of Applied Physics
and Applied Mathematics
b. Department of Computer Science
c. Department of Industrial
Engineering and Operations Research
The cell and tissue engineering
track requires 4.5 of the required 9 points of technical electives to be from
engineering courses; in the biomechanics track, 2.5 points of technical electives must
be from engineering courses; in the imaging track, the requirements satisfy the 48
points of engineering content. Once 48 points of engineering-content technical electives
are satisfied, students may choose any course above the 3000 level in SEAS as well as
biology, chemistry, and biochemistry as technical electives.
The accompanying charts describe the
eight-semester degree program schedule of courses leading to the bachelor’s degree in
biomedical engineering.