Minor in BME

BME offers a minor program for those students who desire coordinated training in BME but may not have the time to pursue the BME additional major. The Biomedical Engineering Minor is designed to train students to apply engineering techniques to problems in medicine and biology. Emphasis is placed on describing biological organisms as engineering systems and on applying engineering technology to clinical and laboratory situations.

Upon completing the Biomedical Engineering Minor, the student may elect to continue graduate studies in Biomedical engineering or basic biomedical sciences at either the master's or Ph.D. level. In addition, many of the courses in BME minor will assist students in preparing for medical school. Students who pursue jobs in biomedical engineering are involved in developing and improving medical devices, automating medical procedures using computers, characterizing the operation of physiological systems, designing artificial organs, and altering microbes and mammalian cells for the production of useful drugs and chemicals.

BME minor accepts undergraduate students from both within and outside CIT. Students in the minor program can choose from a wide range of electives to build skills in a number of areas of BME.

Requirements for CIT students: five courses, minimum of 48 units

• 03-121          Modern Biology
• 42-101          Introduction to Biomedical Engineering (co-req. or pre-req. 03-121)
• 42-202          Physiology (pre-req. 03-121 or permission of instructor)
• xx–xxx           BME track course*, #
• xx–xxx           BME track course*

*    Any BME track gateway, elective or capstone course from any of the four BME tracks or any other 42-5xx or 42-6xx courses may be counted.  See B.S. Program Overview.
#    Both CIT and non-CIT students may replace one BME track course with a research project, 42-200 Sophomore BME Research, 42-300 Junior BME Research, 42-400 Senior BME Research or 39-500 CIT Honors Thesis, as long as the research project is supervised by a regular or courtesy BME faculty member and the project is conducted for 9 or more units of credit.

Requirements for non-CIT students: six courses, minimum of 60 units

• 03-121          Modern Biology
• 42-101          Introduction to Biomedical Engineering (co-req. or pre-req. 03-121)
• xx–xxx           A second Introductory Engineering Course
• 42-202          Physiology (pre-req. 03-121 or permission of instructor)
• xx–xxx           BME track course *, +, #
• xx–xxx           BME track course **, #

*    Any BME track gateway, elective or capstone course from any of the four BME tracks or any other 42-5xx or 42-6xx courses may be counted.  See B.S. Program Overview.
+    This course cannot be a required course in the student’s major.
**  This course must be a BME track gateway, elective or capstone that is offered by one of the CIT Departments (06-xxx, 12-xxx, 18-xxx, 19-xxx, 24-xxx, 27-xxx or 42-xxx).  In addition 03-232, the biotechnology version of Biochemistry I, is also acceptable.
#    Both CIT and non-CIT students may replace one BME track course with a research project, 42-200 Sophomore BME Research, 42-300 Junior BME Research, 42-400 Senior BME Research or 39-500 CIT Honors Thesis, as long as the research project is supervised by a regular or courtesy BME faculty member and the project is conducted for 9 or more units of credit.

Course Planning Worksheet (doc, pdf)

(updated 08/22/09)