Bioengineering

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course introduces the underlying molecular basis of cellular and sub-cellular processes in cells, with special emphasis for engineers. The course introduces students to some of the physiological concepts and systems that are important application areas for technology in the field of bioengineering and develops the practical laboratory skills to use the technologies introduced in the lectures.

The material world is surrounded by a large number of chemical products manufactured with various types of materials including organic, inorganic and their composite materials. Even in the human body, biological materials are constantly being produced with the help of specialized enzymes and biochemical reactions. This coures provides chemistry-oriented topics concerned with the development of functional materials in various areas of engineering.

This course covers basic aspects of chemical production, with special emphasis on environmentally friendly methodologies for the synthesis of fine chemicals and advanced materials.

 

This course examines kinematics and kinetics of human locomotion, bone, and soft tissue failure, macro- and micro-circulatory mechanics in various organs, and practical approaches to quantifying biomechanics. It describes how mechanics plays a role in basic physiological processes in the human body, as well as employing kinematic and kinetic principles to describe human locomotion. The course explores failure mechanisms of bone, as well as the differences between macro and microcirculatory flows. Students examine mass and fluid transport mechanisms in physiology.

This neural engineering course offers a study of the following topics: neurophysiology; neural modeling; brain imaging; brain networks; brain-computer interfaces; brain-machine interfaces; managing injuries of the nervous system.

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering II refers to any technological applications of chemical and biological systems, such as biomolecules and environmental materials to make or modify products or green processes for specific purposes. This class focuses on biomaterials, biomedical engineering, membrane transport, protein engineering, environmentally benign materials and reactions, biomass conversion, fluid dynamics, green process and industrial processes. Basic aspects of engineering for biotechnology, biological and environmental materials will be discussed.

Knowledge of organic chemistry and biochemistry is required for this course.

Biomechanics, as a growing field of engineering, has many applications in the health and sport sectors. This broad field of study includes the design of artificial implants, the development of human tissues in the lab, the measurement of human movement and the detection and treatment of pathological conditions, the understanding of the performance of our muscles and how to employ it in sport, the diagnosis of injuries, the imaging of biological tissues and the detection of their pathological state, etc. In this course, the fundamental principles of biomechanics and their application to real life situations will be covered including: basic understanding of the application of mechanical principles in biology, understanding of anatomical and biomechanical terminology, application of biomechanical principles to human movement, basic understanding of the mechanical properties of biological tissues and the techniques used to determine them, and more recent advanced topics such as mechanics of cells, tissue imaging and tissue engineering. Participants should have successfully completed courses in engineering mechanics and materials science and possess knowledge on programming software.

This course provides students with a fundamental understanding of the chemistry and materials science principles related to Bioengineering. It covers the main functional groups in organic molecules, their roles in building more complex structures and functionalizing surfaces; the main techniques for identifying and characterizing engineered molecules; the foundations of classical thermodynamics and applications in biomedical engineering and molecular sciences; chemical kinetics, Fick's laws and steady state diffusion; and the wet lab skills of students, including preparing a range of biomaterials and practice with the main techniques used for classifying such materials.

This course instils the principles of digital logic design and computer fundamentals. It provides a basis for students to understand what happens inside digital computers and how they communicate with the real world. It illustrates how both digital computers and complex medical instrumentation are built up from simple logic circuit elements. It relates logic and digital systems to the fundamentals of computer programming. Lastly, it provides the basic skills of programming in the ANSI C language and Matlab to convey a sense of the professionalism required of programmers in order to write reliable C code for safety-critical applications, such as medicine.

In this course, students develop their understanding of electronics components and systems architecture and how these are used in different types of biomedical instrumentation. Students then use this knowledge during a practical task to develop an instrument prototype following a set of bioengineering/biomedical specifications.