Department of Biomedical Engineering Webinar

Seriously.

I think we have, yeah. We had a bunch of people Sign up today.

Oh, wow.

Well, there we go. We're starting to get our participants coming in. Yay, welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us today on this beautiful Monday afternoon. My name is Randy Moore and I'm one of the Assistant Directors for Undergraduate Admissions at RPI, also the School of Engineering Liaison. And today we're going to talk about Biomedical engineering with Deanna Thompson, Associate Professor. So any questions that you have regarding the Biomedical engineering department, please reserve those for the end of the presentation.

But if you do have any questions regarding admissions, I will be able to answer those during the presentation and you can put your questions right in the chat. And I'll do my best to answer those to the best of my ability. And with that, Deanna, take it away.

Awesome. Thank you and and April Fool's Day to everyone. I wanted to welcome you to this session about biomedical engineering and share something about this great.

And this this great major in at RPI Biomedical Engineering. RPI is actually one of the oldest programs in the country and so that is kind of a interesting fun fact. Let me just move my slide deck over.

So we're going to talk today really about what is biomedical engineering and what do biomedical engineering do And then what would your life as a biomedical engineer look like as you're pursuing your degree at an RPI. And we have many different flavors of biomedical engineering. If you ever want any sort of detailed information, the best place to look at that is our biomedical engineering homepage. It has a link to our which is linked down below.

And there is a undergraduate handbook that's available that's actually super detailed that talks about all the different topics that we're going to be talking about today.

So what is biomedical engineering? I'd like to think about biomedical engineering and what got me really interested in biomedical engineering, as I was actually a chemical engineer as an undergrad.

Was the the idea of actually biomedical engineering being at the interface of medicine and biology and engineering and?

Hey, Randy, do you think you can mute yourself?

Thanks.

Yes.

That's alright. So it being at the interface of medicine, biology and engineering, and this is a great place to be, there's lots of activity happening. So really biomedical engineers develop devices and procedures that solve medical and health related problems by combining their knowledge of biology and medicine and with engineering principles and practices. So there's a there's a quote out there that basically describes the difference between engineering and science.

Science discovers what is, and engineering creates what never was.

And I sure can share these slides later if you'd like.

The engineering is kind of is the process of of transforming these set of requirements into a solution to benefit society. So if you're talking about creating a prosthetic, you would have all these design criteria that you would need, requirements that you need your design to do, and engineered solution is something that does not currently exist in nature.

But is created to fulfill those requirements in order to benefit society.

So we're biomedical engineers work. Our biomedical engineers actually do a lot of different things. They go into work in industry.

They go into, they go into.

Into Graduate School, they enter academia.

So they go into becoming other faculty members.

You know, we have biomedical engineers from our department who are faculty members at Columbia.

Clemson, Utah. All over the country.

We have biomedical engineers who work in government for the FDA and who do public policy work. We have biomedical engineers who go on to medical school who do get their MD or do their MD PhD.

And we have biomedical engineers who work along with their companies within hospitals or healthcare where they're actually working with surgeons in in real time to find the proper device for a patient or program a device for for a patient to be used. So biomedical engineers do a lot of different things.

And and part of like, the cool thing about biomedical engineering is getting the chance through internships and experiential learning, is to see what you'd like to do.

So here's some images of different things that biomedical engineers do and as I I mentioned right, biomedical engineers are involved in imaging and we have an imaging tract and and and biomedical engineering, they're involved in medical devices. We also have a medical device track. Some of those devices are more on the electrical basis, so neuro prosthetics or or cardiac medical devices. So you would be kind of at that interface of electrical engineering and mechanical engineering and some of them are actually more orthopedic.

So they would be more or developing surgical instruments. We have a number of biomedical engineers are involved in diagnostic diagnostics or tissue engineering creating new constructs, skin, muscle and and so forth neural tissue And then as well as you know we have biomedical engineers who are involved with prosthetics and and then the regular regulatory area not only in in private industry but for FDA.

And and so on and so forth.

So why should you become a biomedical engineer? And I think that the biggest reason is to is to basically make people's lives better.

So biomedical engineers enable research, create new research tools to make new discoveries. They improve diagnosis right by developing more tests and increasing the sensitivity of those tests. Work done going on in in the biomedical engineering department is actually creating a blood test to identify.

Children who have autism and and their the severity of the severity of their autism.

So this could be done before the child even is able to start talking and and and communicating when when those diagnosis are typically made and they're typically I think what they're what they're seeing with the with the data set they've they've worked with is they're seeing actually.

Being able to predict how severe the case, the autism case, is on the spectrum better than actually clinicians.

We are developing new procedures to create.

You know, new surgical procedures, new surgical instruments to make things less invasive with fewer complications and shorter recovery time. All to help people out.

We are, you know, starting to look at a growing and aging population. So there's a lot of work that's being done in the nearby, even the nearby technology incubator where they're looking at.

Creating systems that will help the elderly to be able to do things that they previously could do now they can't do or to help.

The differently abled population of people, right? How do they gain more confidence? How do they are able to manage their lives with less intervention, so have more autonomy to have a higher quality of life?

We'd also like to improve the manufacturing of these devices to make them cheaper, smaller and more sensitive. We'd like to be able to predict the disease and individualize the treatment, and that has actually become personalized medicine.

Is becoming a huge area. In fact Rensselaer is making.

A A is is partnering with Mount Sinai to create a Center for Engineering Precision Medicine.

So when you get done, you know your parents are all going to be wondering are you going to be able to get a job? And the the average salary for a biomedical engineer I just typed this in today is about $66,917.00 a year.

And this is with no no skills entry level biomedical engineering salary. The medium salary is about 97,000.

For someone mid career and and and this is just to give you an idea of kind of the growth range. Obviously this can vary quite a bit from industry to industry and also depending on what type of job you're doing in industry, whether you're you know just staying on the technical side, whether or not you have a Masters or a PhD as well as whether or not you have a business degree or or other degrees along the way.

So what does a Biomedical Engineering degree at RPI look like? And this is this is, I'm sure you've seen if you've been to campus.

A statue of Eric Johnson, class of 1922 outside of the Johnson Engineering Center on a beautiful summer summary or early fall day. And we have different specialties within biomedical engineering. Biomedical engineering is a pretty wide diverse field.

So we have biomaterials, bio mechanics, bio imaging, medical devices and biomedical data science. And the way I like to think about this a little bit is for students who are interested in in sort of chemical engineering or chemistry and and material science, biomaterials, engineering within BME. Is, is, is something good for you to think about for those of you who really enjoyed physics and more mechanical engineering or maybe trying to decide between the two.

Bio Mechanics approach is actually balances those two. Bio imaging would be more similar to electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. Medical devices kind of is a mixture of biomedical, mechanical and electrical and biomedical. Data science really pulls in some of those more computationally intensive tools and applies them to all sorts of problems.

So what do you, what are you typically going to take your first year?

So what, especially what specialty caters to the brain and I would say a lot of them, I would say bio computation does and I think medical devices also does as well.

These program templates you can find online and it's kind of difficult to see, at least on my screen, but hopefully.

I'm smaller and and the presentation is bigger on your screen. But you know your first year you're pretty much going to take almost similarly what everyone else is going to take. At RPI and the school of Engineering, there's going to be some minor minor differences. You're going to take Introduction to Engineering Analysis. You're going to take Chemistry, You're going to take Calculus. You're going to take Engineering Graphics and CAD or Engineering Communications. You're going to take another one credit class which is called Engineering Processes. Learning how to use our machine shop, getting trained in a lot of the safety procedures, learning how to build things, learning how to.

Create what you want to build graphically so you can actually load them into our 3D printers or milling machines. You are going to take some physics and biology and you're going to start taking your humanities and social science courses specifically thinking about your integrative pathway, looking at depth and breadth and so. So that's kind of your your your freshman year is specifically what you're going to be taking.

As we move on into your second year, you are actually going to.

Start building upon, umm, you know more, umm more. I would say you know, higher level things. We're going to take more physics, more calculus. We're going to get involved in computer programming. We're going to give you a flavor of all different types of biomedical engineering. So you're going to take a class in biomaterials, bio mechanics and bio imaging and instrumentation and from there on you can enter your your junior year where you're going to.

Kind of. At that point, decide which track you actually want to take.

And getting involved in in design and and and so on and so forth.

If you took APAP classes for some of the classes, would you have to take them again? You can submit your scores. Yes, you can submit your scores.

OK. So looking at this from a different perspective, this is kind of like the yellow brick road, right? So our Gray classes here are your introductory engineering classes. We're going to start at the bottom of this and you are going to take a lot of math and and physics and biology and chemistry and this is creates a base, right. You're going to take some very general biomedical engineering courses. These would be your biomaterials, bio, imaging, bio mechanics.

We're going to take Biotransport, we're going to take you know modeling A biomedical systems and we're going to take.

Computer programming for biomedical engineers, we're going to take some humanities and social sciences. And during this period of time after Arch, we're going to do a Co-op or an internship and we're going to spend a semester away and then we're going to come back and we're going to take more technical electives and and basically.

Complete our engineering degree by taking these.

Building block classes, these BME electives that are going to build upon our area of interest and this is going to be capped off with our Capstone engineering experience which is a part of a two series design sequence. So we start here as a as a sophomore beginning junior year with introduction engineering, design and professional development one and then we move on to.

A commercialization class where we start with our engineering design group thinking about the problem, what's what exists and how to translate that into actually a company. And then we move on to our Capstone design course.

So that's kind of really soup to nuts. What what a if you were just majoring in in biomedical engineering, kind of what your your course load would look like.

You know, I think that RPI pretty low walls. So there are a lot of students who get minors in along with their biomedical engineering degree. That minor could be in computer science, it could be in, it could be in another type of engineering, it could be in biology, it could be in economics or management. So there are lots of different ways that you can actually create a minor. You can use your free electives which is about 12 credits of free electives.

And along with typically 12 to 16 credits hours is what you need for a minor.

You can actually stay for an additional year or an additional semester, depending on how many AP credits you came in with to actually complete your coterminal degree. So this is actually getting a master's degree along with your bachelor's degree in 4 1/2 to five years.

You would retain all of your.

I think majority of your financial aid moving into that.

You can actually do Co-op programs.

And you can go off and apply your knowledge that you're learning in the classroom to solve real world problems working in a company. This is great because you know, you know, depending on what you have decided you wanted to do. Some students leave here and leave here as an undergrad to do a Co-op and they come back and they're just like this was such a great experience. I learned so much. I now see how all these classes are related.

And they come back with just sort of more confidence and ready to go. Other students come back and and we're like you know I really wanted to work in, in this type of you know personal products and or cell and tissue engineering. And you know I spend the time, a bunch of time working in there and I and I realized that's not the type of company I want to work for. I'd like to do this stuff because I'm really interested in something else. And so that's I think the great.

Idea of doing a Co-op or an internship experience to gain like work related experience to either decide this is what I really want to do or no I I was deciding between two ideas and and I want to do something else.

There are a number of students who do study abroad programs, right? To experience a different culture and to study in a different country. I mean, the world is, you know, the world. The business world is global, and it is not uncommon for people who are involved in training programs.

You know, with, you know, GE and and other companies to spend part of their time actually living abroad. And so having that experience as an undergrad is actually.

I think very valuable.

We have an undergraduate research program and this is this is a great, great way for you to get your first taste of real work experience.

When you're starting off, I mean, the biggest complaint that I hear from students is like, you know, OK, I want to get a job. I want to get an internship. And typically when you get an internship, let's say you did really well in your classes and let's say you were, you know, involved in in student activities and and whatnot. But there's a lot of people who are pretty good in their classes and involved in student activities. So what kind of sets you apart? And I think you know.

Our design sequence sets them apart because it's something you can really talk about in your interviews. But the other thing I think that sets you apart is actually being involved in undergraduate research, right? So it's showing a certain degree of dedication. It's learning about an area in a very detailed, very detailed manner. And I think that's really, I think that's really exciting and it allows people to gain real world experience at RPI, so they can be much more competitive for these external programs.

We actually have a pre Med program.

Where students are advised by a pre Med advisor, but we also have the physicians Engineer program, Physician Engineer program with Albany Med where you can apply at the end of your sophomore year to this program. And once you're admitted you do not have to take MCATS. You just have to follow along and and maintain the 3.5 GPA and you are automatically in in enrolled into Albany Medical College upon completion of your BME degree.

So we'll talk about some of these programs a little bit more as we move on.

So the pre Med program. So this pre Med program earns your regular.

BME BS degree and this is just basically a template to make sure that you take all of your pre Med requirements that are needed for.

For admission to medical school and allow you to prepare for your Mcat's.

It's a pretty, it's a pretty intense program right. The pre Med courses include introduction of biology and lab. So this is above and beyond intro to cell biology which is you know what all the other BME's take. So you need for pre Med you typically need a full year of biology so that's intro biology as well as intratocell and molecular biology with lab.

You need to take Gen. Chem one and then Chem 2 right? So Chem 2 would be above and beyond what our BME program requires. Our BME program does not require organic chemistry. Organic chemistry too. Although if you are a biomaterial student you are required to take organic chemistry one and you have to take organic chemistry labs one and two. You do have to take molecular biochemistry for pre Med.

And so this this amounts to you basically applying a lot of your free electives to these pre Med specific courses.

So you includes 133 hours instead of 128 and it's pretty math science intensive. It requires an additional experience in hospital and so that's typically recommended that you do that during your summer or waste semester as well as in the ARCH program and you're going to need to take your MCAT.

After your third year, if you want to start medical school immediately after your 4th year.

So, so, so that and this is the pre Med template. This is not for the faint of heart. It is jam packed pretty much every semester with 1617.

Or more credits of of of course work.

And you would have to talk to your pre Med advisor, but my understanding is over the years.

Encourage you, even if you had AP credit, to take the these courses regardless because it because they I think they use that as a basis to compare all incoming students for their composite letter that they write for a medical school.

The physicians engineer program is actually a little bit different than the pre Med program. The physicians engineer program is a joint program with Albany Medical College. You do not have to take the MCAT once you get admitted to this program. So we typically only have like two or three spots a year.

And this requires agpa of at least 3.5 each semester to remain in this program, so if your GPA falls below that.

They would be looking for you to exit the program.

These physician engineer students have to take follow the pre Med template and they actually have to conduct undergraduate research during your away semester. Students participate in this personal care assistance program at Albany Medical College and so you get kind of like a mini rotation type thing to do. Students will actually receive their Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering from RPI after their 4th year and an MD from Albany Medical College after their 8th year.

Students can apply to the to the department by May 31st with a recommendation from the department will be made to Albany Medical College. Students are then invited for an interview in the second-half of their arch semester. So basically you're here for two years, you take the courses, all the pre Med requirement courses. We have, your GPA we have, we know you as a student at RPI, you apply, you know and you're interviewed at Albany Medical College, Albany Medical.

College ultimately makes the final decision of whether you admitted to to their program.

And there's very little difference between our engineering degree. It's not an engineering light degree, although I think we allow you to use.

Two of your technical electives to to take a course called Investigative Medicine, which is a course that Albany Medical College teaches. So we give you credit for that there.

So one of the things I think that that's unique at RPI, you know, having been a student at the University of Michigan as well as at Rutgers University and at the Harvard MIT system, all of our classes are taught by professors who have weekly office hours.

The average student numbers in our BME elective courses are between 20 and 30. So you get to really get to know your faculty member and and the classmates.

And the average enrollment in our BME core courses are under 40. So this is, this is, this is great. I mean, it's pretty, it's a pretty small, small class. That means you have more time to talk to your faculty member, your faculty member who's who's teaching the class. But we also have teaching assistants who help grading and and hold office hours as well. So there's a lot of support and a lot of.

Points for interaction.

Because our student numbers are relatively small, there's more opportunity for you to get to get to know people to get involved in undergraduate research, right? And so that is, I think, a real benefit of coming to RPI.

So we have some really top notch facilities. So we're research one institution, we have all the same facilities.

As a regular research one institution, my lab is actually in the Center for Biotechnology and Interplanetary Studies, and our core facilities rival that of any larger school. But the nice thing is we have a smaller user number of people who are using it.

You were, you were exposure as an undergraduate. Are you going to be building things right? We have you build things in Introduction to Engineering Design. We have you build things in your senior Capstone design. And so these resources, these fabrication resources both.

You know, for the entire institute, but also our Profab lab for.

Specific BME specific capstone space.

Are available to you to build and make things right.

There's a number of clubs on campus that build and make things, all types of things outside of the normal classroom schedule. We have great computing facilities. You're going to learn how to use computer design and you're going to be able to use when you generate meshes to be able to model forces on those meshes or fluids traveling through things.

We have math software and and and simulated instrument interface software with Labview and Simulink.

We also have a micro nano fabrication facility. So if you want to make things that are very, very small and integrated circuit or you know or microfluidic device, we have the facilities for you to actually be able to do that.

There's also many maker spaces on campus.

And off campus.

So these are some images of some of these maker spaces and the more rough and tumble in the top corner here, these are in in the machine shop to where you're actually building and machining things, right. We actually have this is our BME lab facility and so this, this is the open room set up. We actually have a cell and tissue culture facility that's specifically for BME.

That's great. This is a looks like a 3D printed part of a skull. We have this makerspace for BME. We also have this Manufacturing Innovation and Learning lab.

To and and this is an image of someone working in the clean room wearing a Bunny suit.

So lots of lots of facilities. I mean you typically if you're here on campus walking around in April, you'll see undergraduates carrying their senior design projects or their introduction Engineering design projects from from from class to class because of testing days.

So our focus is on solving real world problems. We give you the educational background in order to understand the.

The the mathematics behind that. But we had to have a design focus. We have a three semester design sequence where you take 1 semester and Introduction, Engineering, Design. And this is a pretty exciting class because you're taking this class along with Mechanical Engineers, material science.

Electrical engineers, Computer science.

Who am I forgetting? Environmental engineers and aerospace and civil engineers. So all of these students take class together and you actually learn about the design process, working in these multidisciplinary groups. So this is, you guys are all at that point as sophomores. You're all kind of like, you know, baby engineers. You're just learning your discipline and you're working together to solve a an interesting problem that you decide for on your own.

We are then going to go to our two semesters of BME capstone, so the first course is actually centered about the engineering design process.

And learning about how a new medical design actually a medical device gets actually made and what the regulatory systems that are required to actually make it are. Capstone design projects are sponsored. Typically we have a clinical collaborator.

We have Center for Disability Services.

We have medical companies, we have professions and the professionals in the field, so they could be surgeons or.

Physicians or or or whatnot?

And if they're industry sponsored, IP is actually then protected. We have design space and material resources for these B&E students to to make these designs and we actually go through multiple stages of design and fabricating to create a proof of concept prototype these designs are are presented.

This is open to the public where we are given a 2 minute commercial to showcase kind of and gain interest in your design and then you actually have either an open forum or closed forum where you present the more details of your or your design and then showcase your your what you actually made as your prototype.

This, these are open to the public and so if you're local and want to swing by, I'm sure that we can provide that information to you for you to see that it's always a fun time for the students and their families to come and.

And and celebrate everything that they've learned.

We have alumni and industry experts to come and along with faculty to judge the quality of their designs.

And typically awards are made afterwards. So here's a here's some examples. So you know I think a year ago the this these group of students actually created and and some of them were finishing up their their their master's juries now created a multi chamber device to actually.

To do pathology without any exposure to toxic chemicals.

So they could do this in a in a surgical suite where they could actually send their samples off to pathology without any sort of.

You know, coming into contact with these toxic chemicals.

We had this group that was recently.

Entered and presented in the Fall and to the Biomedical Engineering Society, Coulter.

College program and I think they won Best Design in the Atrial Fib category.

And so this was really exciting. These students, you know built their design and along with their, their, their faculty member and an industry collaborator, they were able to present this design and showcase amongst some of the, you know, colleges across the country and and compete. So that's you know we have opportunities the department then supported them to be able to make that.

Trip to to present their work.

We have students who work in in lots of different areas, so traumatic brain injury is a is a is a big problem.

And many times when you have a cranium in me, as the brain's beginning to swell to prevent herniation, you would remove part of the skull and and maybe the patient would be wearing a helmet to protect that region of the brain that would be left exposed. And then you have a cranioplasty to actually.

Put that piece of bone back in place. One in four patients actually die following days following a craniotomy and.

Our design group actually created a Neurosafe solution where it could be tethered to the to the skull and you could actually change its distance from.

Becoming completely in line to partially in line.

To allow that brain swelling to go down. And so our the design group actually created this and they actually won I think a $15,000 award for.

In they won a $15,000.

NCI Cancer Prize for presenting their design group. So RPI is, you know, is a school of entrepreneurs and there's a number of.

Maker spaces and and there's a number of.

People are trying to start companies right? Coming up with good ideas and through the design projects and and actually starting companies and and one example of this was.

A Matthew Dion who actually went and did a study abroad.

He traveled with his his advisor and he into a developing country and found that.

Prosthetics and prosthetic fitting was actually quite a bit, quite a big problem and in sub-Saharan Africa. And so he actually worked to create a inexpensive, inexpensive device to actually readily fit.

A patient's growing limb, so you could actually have, you know, basically replace the socket. So you know as a child is growing that that socket could be the replace. So the prosthetic limb would would not wear and would not fit poorly.

And he actually I think won €200,000 to to to start this company as a business startup grant and so and where he's making an expensive prosthetic legs, right that could be readily available to amputees in developing worlds. And so I think that's kind of exciting. So in conclusion.

BME is kind of, you know, is multifaceted. We have straight in the middle regular BME where you can pick a A, you know.

Get a general BME degree. You can also specialize within a specific track of biomedical engineering, so whether it's medical devices, biomaterials, bio mechanics, or by a competition we support.

Pre medical students and a number of our students go on to medical school and and and we've had a number of students who've entered MD PhD programs.

We have a dedicated pre Med advisor.

So if you are in the pre Med track, you will be advised by one person because there are nuances to advising students who are interested in pre Med.

Similar to any other degree at RPI, you are going to come in and you're going to be assigned to an academic advisor as well as someone in the hub.

In your sophomore year, you're going to kind of graduate and come to your BME faculty advisor and we are going to provide you.

Detailed information about you know, policies and procedures about RPI, but also give you career advice as you, as you you know, move from a sophomore to a senior and and beyond.

I think RPI is a great advantage because you know, our students are so engaged and we have very small classes. You have the ability to interact with faculty and and graduate students.

Our physicians engineer program is I think pretty unique.

Because it allows you to go have like a basically get out of jail or get out of MCAT free card. And if you're accepted to the Albany Medical Center, we have a close relationship with Albany Medical College. And also you actually will take advanced Physiology taught at AMC and there's actually a lab that is pretty popular with as part of your advanced Physiology course.

And we're here to help you.

Right. I mean, RPI is because of our size, we have the advantage of spending, you know, time to talk to you about your career goals and see how we can help you achieve them.

I like RPI, right? I I think their engagement in engineering design process is actually really is is really exciting.

It always amazes me what students come up with as they move from, you know, their introduction to engineering design projects to.

When they graduate as seniors and are really taking on some big challenges. So I think with that.

I'm going to stop here.

And I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

And we do have quite a few questions that came in, so I'm going to read those to you, Deanna.

OK.

And I can scroll up to see if any I've missed any because I'm sure I have.

There would be ones that I would approve through.

So does Graduate School for BioMed have to include medical schools and masters sufficient for success in the field 100%?

Many. I mean, there's a number of students who graduate their bachelor's degree and and go on, you know, I would say that for, for, for anything.

If you come in with tons of AP credit, I think that there's maybe a bit of an advantage to staying and doing your masters and completing it for you know, total of four years here. Because you'll have time here to form relationships, to be involved in clubs, to get you know be here long enough to leadership to do your way semester to do maybe a Co-op and and and kind of grow as a person and it and as an engineer.

I think there's a number of people who've gone on right out of their bachelor's degree and worked in industry. And often times, you know, industry will pay for you to do your master's. And so people have done that, right? They students who've come out of my lab doing undergraduate research, you know, one of them got a job at Celgene and they were working at doing more bio process work and they realized that, you know, they understood the biomaterials and they understood the bio mechanics, but.

One of the things they were missing is a lot of the bio process work.

And that was a little bit more aligned to chemical engineering. So they actually got their masters in chemical engineering and then from there they ended up getting later on they ended up getting their PhD in in biomedical, going back to biomedical engineering because they wanted to lead a research group at a company. So it kind of depends upon your goals.

I think engineering degrees in general allow a degree of flexibility. You know, if I look at the people I went to Graduate School with, some are patent attorneys now.

Some are you know or MD, pH, DS and in doing clinical research.

You know, some are working in business.

Some are working and, you know, still applying their degree.

And and and doing something, you know, kind of very similar to their graduate work. So there's there's kind of, there's not A1 size fits all.

Does Graduate School OK? Yeah. Yeah. So I think I just answered that question. So do you guys have any other questions that you have for me?

I think there's any tissue engineering specialty within BME.

Don't be shy.

Can you hear me?

You guys are going now. OK, let's see what we got.

OK. Does Graduate School for BioMed necessarily have to go through medical school? Is any tissue engineering faculty especially within BME tons actually are There are a number of us in in biomedical engineering who have who are working in many different types of tissues. So I would say.

Doctor David Coors working on muscle tissue.

Doctor Mariah Hans working on vocal fold muscle and brain.

Doctor Ryan Gilbert is working on brain and neural. I'm working on neural.

You know Doctor Leo one is working on basically development, cardiac development as well as other types of work, musculoskeletal and organ is done by.

Doctor Liz Blaber and her actual experiments go up into the International Space Station, so that's pretty cool.

So there's a lot of tissue engineering specialty in BME.

With biomedical engineering, can we choose one subspecialty also we get help to understand. So as I mentioned in the presentation, we have you take three kind of Discovery Channel overview courses in one in biomaterials, one in bio mechanics and one in bio imaging and instrumentation. We also have you take a biocomputation class. You really are taking four different classes that have a different flavor, right focus.

And I think that helps you pick your subspecialty, you know for once you take those classes.

There are some, there are someones that will over over that are very closely related to one, like bio mechanics and and and medical devices. But there are differences and so if you're if you're interested in in certain classes, your advisor will help you select the appropriate track.

We don't have, I don't believe we have any entrance exams for calculus and physics you we offer we don't offer any precalculus or pre physics classes. You come in and you take calc one and physics one. So I don't you just you get an AP or IB class in order to a test score in order to get out of those but not necessarily do B&B students take AI machine learning course in the undergraduate years so there is actually a brand new course we actually started a A.

A minor in biocomputation and one of the courses in that biocomputation class is AI and Biomedical Engineering. So we are actually developing courses in in that area.

And I believe in image processing and in medical imaging there is more incorporation of AI. What are some examples of capstones that seniors do? So I I gave you a couple.

You know these atrial FIB devices, you know we've done some devices where they've detected.

Cerebral spinal fluid leaks during real time during surgery.

People have made surgical instruments.

People have made.

You know lot a lot of mobility devices for elderly or the differently abled. So there's lots of different types of capstone design courses, capstone projects that people have used. I think the the really cool thing is you know in ID we have you kind of come up with your own idea and then.

You explore and talk to people, but.

And you're working with your faculty member to give you some feedback. But in in capstone, you're working with an industry expert and I think they give you very, they give you complimentary feedback to the faculty member and I think sometimes you know it, you know, they more narrowly focused things for you, right. So they give you real feedback of like how it would work in the company, like, yeah, this is a great technical solution.

But the surgical staff would never do this, so it would never be accepted, right? So, you know, we encourage you to come up with like some out-of-the-box designs, some crazy designs, right, To get your creative juices flowing. But but I think their job is to rein people in a little bit as well.

Are there a lot of job opportunities in the career fair for BME? So I actually haven't went to the career fair for BME.

And I would say.

I would say that there are, we actually have some really good relationships with with medical device industry and and and and beyond.

You know, we have a number of students who've went on to like Medtronics or Stryker or Johnson and Johnson.

You know Celgene by a small biotech companies, big biotech companies. So there are a lot like Regeneron down the road.

GE, so we have actually some very good relationships where they hire a lot of our, our, our rents learning and you know having the ability to do internships locally is also really nice. If someone in BME wants to get an MBA in the accelerated program five year total, what's the future?

Opportunity of such a combination.

Look, I think that there are a number of people who do that who who get their MBA, the M, the masters in management is I think a little easier to get through because the NBA actually has has more courses or the the course load is is a little bit more intense.

I would encourage you to talk to the management school.

About that we do have, I think Rensselaer has a really interesting.

Take on on some of these management and and MBA programs because we're really focused on technology and entrepreneurship.

But I will say, and this is, this is maybe my own bias.

I do think that.

That sometimes it's good to jump out and get some working experience and then potentially go back in to to especially with an MBA degree.

How good is the RPI pre Med advising, medical school rate? I don't know that on specific, I don't know that specifically.

Umm, I would have to get back to you on that. Umm, I don't know how many people apply because I am not the pre Med advisor. I would say that you know one of the things to kind of keep in mind is that the pre Med program.

Is you know, I showed you the template and if you didn't see it because I was scrolling pretty fast through, I would encourage you to go to the BME website. You know you're taking organic chemistry and physics and calculus and and lots of classes all at once in addition to your engineering classes.

So there are a number of students who do very well by doing that and there are also a number of students that that is too much for them. And so I think if I were advising my own child who is interested in medicine, I would say take it a little slow.

I personally would rather stay a little bit longer at RPI and go through it a little bit more.

Slowly. Then try to take 20 credits or 19 credits of math, science and engineering, all in one semester.

Because I think you know, at the end of the day, to get into medical school, if you're not in the physician engineer program, you need great MCAT scores, you need a great GPA, you need to get research experience, and you need to complete all your requirements. Those are the things that they care about, right? And so.

You know, if you are, if you're taking too many classes, you know, if you're taking organic chemistry and someone else is taking organic chemistry as the hardest glass and you're taking it along with three other courses and you don't get enough time to study for it, you know you don't do as well. And so that impacts your ability to get into medical school. But we have, I mean, you know, recently we had a student who got into the MD PhD program at Penn. So we have students who get very high.

Programs, you know and and and do very, very well.

So how many students are typically accepted in the program? I think they have spots for 3:00 to 5:00.

So three to five a year.

What is CNC? I think that's back in my.

In machining.

Slide.

And.

Probably going to.

Hate me?

I would have to get back to you on that. I don't know that off the top of my hand.

Do students need to find sponsors for themselves that they sign, they are assigned. So we put you in groups and typically I think what they do is they have a match process where you they talk about the projects and then you write a cover letter or why you should be the engineer on that project and then they team you up in in, in groups to do that. So we actually give you a course on exposure to regulatory guidelines and practices and that's the course, the first part of your capstone design course.

It's called commercialization of biomedical engineering enterprise or something like that.

And so you actually get exposure to that. And I think that that's one of the things that our RPI graduate students are undergraduates, you know, people are impressed with because they get that exposure.

Yes, we have. Does RPI provide help in identifying Co-op and internship opportunities?

Yes, in a couple different ways.

In the 1st way we have.

Our, you know.

Job center, right. Professional development center on campus and there are a number of companies that come through there and you can actually sign up for interviews and co-ops and whatnot. So. So that's one way.

#2 is you know, students, you know talk to their faculty members and and we will oftentimes say, hey, have you thought about doing this? We have a biomedical engineering LinkedIn site where you can link up with alum and I think alum are you know are actually very interested sometimes and and very interested in talking to undergraduates.

You know some of that talk can actually be, you know, I would like to work into, I'd like to make, you know I'd like to make medical devices, cardiac medical devices. OK, well, what were classes you're working in that field? What were classes that were super helpful or what type of people do you hire in that in that for that type of job. And so that actually I think you get a lot of feedback by talking to alumni, I think also talking to faculty members and and graduate students who have gotten internships and whatnot.

You know, we try to expose you to different different things that are out there. You know there are internship programs where you can do undergraduate research at at universities over the summer and these are called summer undergraduate research programs. And you know, we as as faculty try to expose students to as many different opportunities as as, as that. So there is help.

You know, we're not going to necessarily, you know, send out a list.

Every week, but there is some help, but you know you have to be also proactive about that and work your own networks as well.

What can students do to best increase their opportunities to get undergraduate research experience? And is there a reason why only 50% some aren't interested? I mean, honestly, some are just not interested.

You know, I think that the biggest way is to just get in there and and and try to volunteer in some sort of way.

You know, often times if you know the the biggest thing I would tell any new student is to come in and and do the best that you can your first year. It sets you up for success. It gives you so much more confidence.

So pay attention to not over committing, pay attention to, you know, having a network of people that you can talk to about like you know, share notes with and like study with. I think that's really helpful to build community.

Go to office hours, Talk to faculty member, ask, look up with their researches. See if you're interested in that research. Talk to them about their research. Faculty members always love to talk about research. Talk to the graduate students, ask them about their research. You know, you can do this by going to office hours. So office hours don't necessarily have to be you coming to ask questions, but it could also be you trying to understand what's going on in campus. I would say a lot of, a lot of my students who've T8, they've met undergrads while TAing and they're like, oh, you should look at so and so because.

You know, they're doing really well in the class and and they're, you know, always very put together and and whatnot.

So there's opportunities for people to get engaged in undergraduate research. There's also undergraduate research programs where they called summer undergraduate research projects where you can get like, I think it's like $3000. Not tons of money, but it's enough money to pay for your housing and and and room and board over the summer.

And you, you know, get a little bit of a stipend on top of that and it allows you to you know, get engaged in undergraduate research and and and then present for, you know, your, your, your beyond that.

I would say that it's a good question about the typical rate of physician engineer program.

I would say that some of it so, so unlike the scientist engineering program with biology which is very, very competitive, I would say that the physicians engineers program ends up.

People end up cutting themselves, right? So if you.

If your GPA is below 3.5, right, you you're not going to qualify for the program because you know they want you to maintain a 3.5 GPA. So your GPA has to be above a 3.5, right? You know you'll have to have taken all these classes by a certain period of time. You will have to, you know. So there's certain criteria. The pool gets narrowed very, very, very quickly and I think some people within the pool.

Like.

Columbia or you know.

Or Harvard or, you know, Penn or something like that. So they're not interested in going to Albany Med.

Some people are like, you know, they want to go to Med school and they, you know, are fine with going to Albany Medical College. And so, you know, so I think that the kids who maybe at the Super, super top who don't who want to go to a very high.

High end medical school would not necessarily apply. The students who whose GPA is lower were not eligible to apply, so it ends up being pretty narrow.

How I can for the slide deck I can?

We'll figure out a way to get it, to get it to you. Randy might be able to help us us with that.

Job placement, I would say most of our, you know, job placement is we have a Center for. So I would say I as a faculty member have reached out to people.

Especially for students who I felt were like really, really strong and, you know, have had maybe a little bit of an unlucky break along the way to make sure that they, you know, make good connections with people.

But most of our, you know, all of our students, at least from what I hear, find jobs. You know, even the students who who are kind of struggling along. I mean the students who struggle, I think.

Right. It's going to take them longer to get a job, but everyone typically gets a job. Who's looking for a job? Who's job seeking is looking for a job?

A physician engineer. So this means someone who is who's planning on going to medical school in this medical school, Albany Medical Medical College program.

Can you get a minor degree? Yes, you can certainly get a minor degree. It just depends on how many hours you want to sleep and and how many credits.

You know you can. You can take in that period of time.

When you get an internship, does it have to be close to your major? It could be related to something different, totally. I mean, we've had some people who've done, you know, their internships in more mechanical or who've done things and and more computational sciences or even in biology. So it can be an internship and and and whatever. Sometimes people are trying things on so when they can actually.

2018.

So they can actually, you know.

Maybe thinking about getting a masters in a different in a different field and that kind of, you know, they want to learn this and then this and then kind of put it together in a unique sort of way.

Can you hear me?

PM.

I think we do not have any international campuses, but we do have affiliated programs with.

Singapore, I think.

In Denmark. And then and and I believe one other place.

Is the pathway to medical school similar to advancing to medical school? From a Master's in BME? I would say it's it's it's similar.

I think some people decide late and and so they you know or some people had struggled a little bit with their GPA and and undergrads they did got decided to get a master's degree and it it kind of just takes a little bit longer.

There is some overlap, but there is a lot of lap.

Right. So you have to take.

Organic chemistry to At least in labs, you have to take physics is fine. You have to take an extra biology class. You have to take an extra inorganic chemistry class. You have to take biochem. So there's probably like 5 extra classes and the rest of the classes.

The psychology, sociology, and English writing can all be taken within your required classes.

Can you hear me?

In half, yes, I can hear you now.

Sounds good.

OK. Yeah, I don't know what was going on there. We kind of run out of time. We're currently at 5:04. I think we're taking the last question at Georgia.

Totally.

From a bit ago. So yeah, I know there's like a lot of questions. Is there any way that the students that are still on this presentation might be able to reach out to you directly, Deanna, to address some questions that they might have? It might have been on your last slide, but that might be a good way to.

Address.

Yeah, yeah, I'll put, I'll put up my.

I mean, I would say that the best. You can e-mail me obviously.

But I would also say that you should look at our handbook. A lot of these questions will be in the handbook and I'll probably explain them more detail than than even I explain them. So my e-mail address is at the bottom. It's Tom D4, so the first the letters of of my name.

5 letters of my last name D and the number four at rpi.edu.

There's only three women in the in the in it who are tenured faculty member in the department, so it should be easy to pick out my picture.

And I look forward to hearing from you.

Yeah. We do want to thank everybody for being on the call today for all the great questions that have come through.

And like I say, since we've, we've kind of run out of time. If you do have any questions directly to, please feel free to reach out to thompd4@rpi.edu.

To get your questions answered.

So again, thank you everyone.

Yeah. Thanks so much. It was great seeing you guys. Thanks for sharing April Fool's Day with me.

And I look forward to seeing you on campus.

OK. Thank you, everybody.

Have a great rest of your Monday.

Yeah, Awesome week.

And as I mentioned before, this is recorded. So just you know, reach out to admissions@rpi.edu, we will get you a copy of this presentation.

So that you can review it.