1998 - 2000 Catalog Archive

Department of Bioengineering

Ronald L. Fournier, Chairperson
Krzysztof J. Cios, Graduate Director


Bioengineering is a relatively new discipline with rapidly growing job opportunities that applies engineering and life science principles in order to study, understand, modify and control biological systems. The goal of bioengineering is to develop new concepts and techniques that can be applied to a variety of problems in medicine and in the manufacture of bio-related products.

Achievement of these goals requires engineering graduates that are trained in both engineering and the life sciences. The Department of Bioengineering is multidisciplinary in nature. It draws on faculty resources, collaborative research programs and course offerings throughout the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Pharmacy, various departments at the Medical College of Ohio and other area medical institutions.

The Department of Bioengineering offers the Engineering Science M.S. degree and the Ph.D. degree in the following focus areas: Cellular Engineering, which includes artificial organs, biochemical engineering, genetic engineering, and tissue engineering; Neuroengineering and Imaging, which includes computational neuroscience and neuroengineering, medical imaging, and medical informatics; Biomechanics, which includes biofluid mechanics, gait analysis and orthopedic biomechanics; and Biomaterials, which includes fabrication of macro and micro biosensors. The largest concentration is in Cellular Engineering and Neuroengineering and Imaging.


Entrance Requirements

The graduate program in the Department of Bioengineering is open to qualified individuals with a bachelor/master's of engineering degree or a bachelor/master's of science degree. Applicants should have an excellent grade point average in previous undergraduate or graduate work and present an appropriate background for continued study in their focus area. Students with a bachelor/master's of science degree may be eligible provided they have one year of engineering physics and two years of calculus. Other courses may be required to meet prerequisites and they will not be applied toward the graduate degree.

All applicants are required to submit official transcripts of undergraduate and any previous graduate work, plus three letters of recommendation. Applicants having less than a 3.0 undergraduate GPA from an accredited U.S. or Canadian university and all applicants from non-English-speaking countries are required to submit the results of the Graduate Record Examination. In addition, international students must submit TOEFL exam scores. The minimum acceptable average score from verbal, quantitative and analytic sections on the GRE is 1800. The minimum acceptable score for the TOEFL is 550.

Itis required that students plan their entrance for the Fall Semester. Applications for admission should be completed by early spring. The Statement of Purpose on the application form should clearly indicate which of the four research focus areas is your interest.


Master of Science Degree Program

Thirty semester hours of approved graduate work are required for a Master's degree. The student is expected to meet the following general requirements: 6 hours of biosciences to support the research focus area; 12 hours of Bioengineering elective courses to support the research focus area; a Bioengineering project for 4 hours credit or the M.S. thesis option (for 9 hours); 2 hours of Bioengineering Seminar (attendance and participation at the weekly focus area meetings and seminars is mandatory); and the remaining hours may be other bioengineering, engineering or bioscience courses.


Doctor of Philosophy Degree Program

The Doctor of Philosophy degree in Engineering Science is conferred on the basis of extended study and high scholarly attainment in the field of bioengineering. This is to be proven by publication of the research results in peer-reviewed journals. The entrance requirement for the Ph.D. program is the M.S. in bioengineering. Other appropriate fields that meet the stated requirements of the Bioengineering Department will be considered. For example, the M.D., D.D.S., and D.V.M. also may be acceptable, provided the student presents evidence of an appropriate engineering background at the undergraduate level. The Ph.D. program will require a minimum of 3 years for completion.

Atleast 60 semester hours beyond the M.S. degree or 90 semester hours beyond the B.S. degree is required for the completion of the Ph.D. The general requirements for the Ph.D. degree are: a year of advanced Ph.D. coursework, including at least 12 credit hours of regularly scheduled courses are to be taken during the first year, and additional independent study courses; completion of the Bioengineering Qualifying Exam during the Spring Semester of the first year in the Bioengineering graduate program; preparation and defense of the Dissertation Research Proposal by the end of the Fall semester of the second year (at least 45 semester hours of credit must be taken for the dissertation research, which can only be registered for after defending the Dissertation Research Proposal; no more than 3 semester hours of bioengineering seminar (attendance and participation at the weekly seminars is mandatory); publication of the results in recognized peer-reviewed journals with the published research results collated to form the core of the dissertation, which must be successfully defended.

Admission to Candidacy

All doctoral students must meet the following requirements before being admitted to doctoral candidacy: an average grade of at least 3.0 for all graduate level coursework; selection of a faculty adviser and formation of a dissertation committee; satisfactory performance on the Bioengineering Qualifying Exam; and successful defense of the Dissertation Research Proposal.

Qualifying Exam

The qualifying exam consists of two parts: a student assessment and an oral exam. The assessment is a detailed analysis by the faculty of the student's potential for succeeding at the doctoral level in the field of bioengineering. The second part of the qualifying exam is an oral exam that is approximately two hours in length and is held later in the same semester. The exam will include subjects of importance to the student's program and will probe areas of strength and weakness. Students either pass or fail the exam. The department faculty as a whole will evaluate the outcome of the qualifying exam to determine the pass or fail result.

Last Updated: 11/15/23