Organization

Innovative Biomedical Engineering at the Intersection of Traditional Basic and Engineering Sciences

Research and education in BME started more than 40 years ago at Carnegie Mellon, with activities spread among many science and engineering departments.  The BME Department serves the key function of facilitating cross-disciplinary research, managing the educational programs, and coordinating the development.  It adopts a multi-prone structure to take full advantage of the collaborative culture at Carnegie Mellon and to organize the large, scattered body of faculty into a cohesive research and education force.

Particularly noteworthy is an unusually high fraction (>40%) of BME-related faculty members who are jointly appointed with partner science or engineering departments/centers.  The intimate knowledge and equal involvement in both departments allow them to coordinate joint activities including courses, seminars, research symposia, and faculty recruitment.  Equally important are courtesy faculty members who hold primary appointment in a partner department and greatly broaden the intellectual territory of the Department.  Many of them teach BME-related undergraduate courses and all of them are committed to training BME graduate students.  In addition, many BME faculty members lead or participate in multi-disciplinary research centers related to BME, which further increase the outreach of the Department.