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The Department of Biomedical Engineering at UAB was founded in 1979 and was a graduate-only program until 2001. The Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering was established and approved by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees in 2001. Presently, the BME department offers degree programs leading to the Bachelor’s, Master’s (thesis based) and Doctoral degrees.
The Biomedical Engineering Bachelor’s degree program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org. The Biomedical Engineering Degree Program at UAB is the only accredited BME program in the State of Alabama.
Our first Bachelor’s students graduated in 2002. Currently, the Department of Biomedical Engineering consists of 13 full-time faculty, 44 graduate students and 156 undergraduate students. To date we have graduated113 Bachelor’s, 270 Master’s and 82 Doctoral Students.
OUR VISION
The vision of the BME Department is “to be an internationally recognized, research oriented department of biomedical engineering; a top choice for undergraduate and graduate education”.
OUR MISSION
The mission of the BME Department is to “improve healthcare by making scientific discoveries, solving problems and advancing technology using quantitative methods; to prepare graduates to succeed in the evolving fields of biomedical engineering and biotechnology”.
QUALITY FACILITIES, STRONG RESEARCH, ACTIVE FACULTY
The BME faculty has developed an outstanding interdisciplinary curriculum to train students to solve health-care related problems using advanced quantitative and analytical techniques. All of our courses are taught by full-time BME faculty members, who also maintain an active research program. A strength of the BME faculty is their research productivity; faculty members in BME bring expertise from their discipline into the classroom.
We have high-quality facilities for laboratory experiments, computer simulations and lab-based projects that provide opportunities for students to gain experience with instrumentation, computer simulations and lab techniques common to our discipline. Many of the BME courses include a laboratory component where students receive hands-on training in the instruments, technologies, principles, or techniques taught in the course.
HONORS PROGRAMS
Many BME Bachelor’s students are part of the university wide honors programs such as the Science and Technology Honors Program, the University Honors Program, the Early Medical School Acceptance Program the Global and Community Leadership Program. More than 45% of BME undergraduates participate in research under the guidance of a BME primary or secondary faculty member. Typically, undergraduate research students are part of the UAB Science and Technology Honors Program, the University Honors Program, or the BME Honors Program and upon completion of their senior thesis will graduate with honors. Many honors students participate in our Fifth Year Master’s (thesis based) degree program
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Students can further their professional development through participation in biomedical engineering student organizations (such as the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Society for Biomaterials, Engineers Without Borders) an internship or co-op in industry or the UAB School of Medicine. Many engineering students also complete a minor in business. These additional experiences provide opportunities to apply principles mastered in your courses to ‘real world’ problems in biomedical engineering.
PREPARED FOR WORKFORCE
Graduates from the Department of Biomedical Engineering are well-prepared to enter the workforce, pursue advanced education in graduate school, or attend medical, dental or another professional school. BME graduates find employment in industry with medical products companies such as BioHorizons Implant Systems, Biological Innovations, GE Medical, Guidant Corporation, Novartis, Phillips Medical Systems, Proctor & Gamble, St. Jude Medical, Smith & Nephew, SurModics Pharmaceuticals, TransGenRx, or Wright Medical Technology, medical centers and hospitals, regulatory agencies like the FDA, health care groups, consulting companies, or computer application groups. BME graduates also pursue advanced education (Master’s, PhD, medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, MD/PhD, DMD/PhD) at institutions such as Duke, Georgia Tech, Rice University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Texas, UAB, Vanderbilt. The BS in BME degree is also excellent preparation for further professional training such as medical or dental schools. The State of Alabama, including Birmingham, has a rapidly growing Biotechnology sector, as shown in this CNBC story.
OUR GRADUATES
In the 2009-2010 academic year, we graduated 23 Bachelor’s, 10 Master’s and 3 PhD students. For the Bachelor’s graduates, 18 of 19 who applied for grad school, professional school or a position in industry were placed (95% placement) – 3 in industry, 7 in graduate school, 7 in professional school (Medical, Dental, Pharmacy) and 1 attending Officer Candidate School at the US Naval Academy.
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