Self-Designed Biomedical Engineering
(SBME) Track

The SBME track is aimed at helping highly motivated students who have a strong sense of career direction that falls beyond the scopes of regular BME tracks.   Students taking SBME track must fulfill all the core BME requirements, but are allowed to design the "track" portion of the curriculum.   Example areas include biomedical robotics, neural engineering, and computational biomedical engineering.

The SBME track is fundamentally different from the GBME track. Whereas the GBME track increases breadth and may include only courses that are already associated with the four other defined tracks, the SBME track provides depth while allowing students to choose courses from across the University.

Requirements
1. Students wishing to pursue a self-designed track should first consult the Chair of the BME Undergraduate Affairs Committee (UAC), Prof. Robert Tilton, for initial feedback and guidance.   A SBME track proposal must be submitted to the UAC at least three weeks prior to Pre-Registration during the spring of the sophomore year.   The proposal must include:

• The four courses to be included in the track, including information on when these courses are expected to be offered.
• Catalog descriptions of the four courses.
• A justification of how these courses represent a coherent, BME-relevant theme.

2. All four courses in the SBME track must represent a coherent theme that is relevant to Biomedical Engineering (e.g., neuroengineering, medical robotics, computational biomedical engineering, etc.).

3. At least one course in the track must be judged by the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Affairs Committee (UAC) to have significant biological or medical content.

4. Students may count EITHER Surgery for Engineers 42-660 (9 units) or Biomedical Engineering Research project (at least 9 units), but not both, as fulfilling one track elective.   The research project (42-200/300/400 Sophomore/Junior/Senior Biomedical Engineering Research Project OR 39-500 CIT Honors Thesis) must be on a BME topic supervised or co-supervised by a BME faculty member and conducted for 9 or more units of credit.

5. Once approved, the UAC Chair and the student will sign a contract listing the theme and the four courses comprising the SBME.   The contract will be placed in the student’s BME curriculum progress file.

6. In the event that course scheduling issues beyond the student's control prevent that student from completing an approved self-designed track, the student may:

• petition the UAC to substitute a different course that fits the track theme or
• petition the UAC to be credited for the GBME track if he/she completes one of the regular track gateway courses plus either three of the originally proposed SBME track courses, or two of the originally proposed SBME courses plus Surgery for Engineers (9 units)  or Biomedical Engineering Research (at least 9 units).

UAC contacts are Prof. Robert Tilton (committee chair), and Prof. Conrad Zapanta (BME Associate Head).

Course Planning Worksheet (doc, pdf)

(Updated 08/22/09)