Biomedical Engineering
The Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program is administered by the combined biomedical engineering graduate faculty from both North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The joint program also has close working relations with the Research Triangle Institute and industry within the Research Triangle area. These associations enable students to obtain research training in a wide variety of fields and facilitate the selection and performance of dissertation research. Thus, the department, thus, provides students with excellent opportunities to realize the goal of enhancing medical care through the application of modern technology.
Biomedical engineering is a dynamic field stressing the application of engineering techniques and mathematical analysis to biomedical problems. Faculty research programs are key to the program, and they include five primary research directions: rehabilitation engineering, regenerative medicine, biomedical imaging, biomedical microdevices, and pharmacoengineering. The department offers graduate education in biomedical engineering leading to the master of science (MS) and doctor of philosophy (PhD) degrees.
Students typically enter this program with backgrounds in engineering, physical science, mathematics or biological science. Curricula are tailored to fit the needs and develop the potential of individual students. In addition, courses in statistics, mathematics, life sciences and engineering provide a well-rounded background of knowledge and skills.
Doctoral Degree Requirements
A minimum of 52 semester hours of graduate work is required (beyond the Bachelor's degree). Degree candidates in this program are expected to obtain experience working in a research laboratory and to demonstrate proficiency in research. The PhD dissertation should be judged by the graduate committee to be of publishable quality. The student must meet the Graduate School’s residency requirement at UNC-CH or NC State as appropriate. Further information on the BME PhD program can be found on the department website.
Required and Highly Recommended Courses
Students must complete six credits of graduate engineering topics, six credits of graduate life science topics, three credits of engineering mathematics, and three credits of statistics. Nine credits of technical electives are also required. Students may choose from a number of courses to meet these requirements. Such choices are made in consultation with the student's academic advisor and the Director of Graduate Programs/Studies.
Students are required to take a BME Seminar each semester which is offered at both UNC-CH and NC State. Students must also complete a Mentored Teaching Experience and a Professional Development Seminar.
Comprehensive and Qualifying Examinations
Doctoral students qualify for the PhD degree by meeting grade requirements in their core courses, completing qualifying exams in their first year, and then advancing on to written and oral preliminary exams before admission to candidacy. Details can be found on the department website.
Admission Requirements
Students must satisfy all entrance requirements for The Graduate School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or the Graduate School at North Carolina State University, and must demonstrate interest and capability commensurate with the quality of the biomedical engineering program. Prospective students may apply to the graduate school through either UNC–Chapel Hill or NC State. All applicants are considered together as a group. Generally, applications should be submitted by the second Tuesday of December for consideration for admission in the coming fall semester. Students are no longer required to submit their GRE scores. Admitted students are expected to maintain an overall GPA of at least 3.00 and are encouraged to have undergraduate research experience. The program requires that a personal statement (1-3 pages) about research interest and background be submitted.
Students should have a good working knowledge of mathematics at least through differential equations, plus two years of physical science or engineering and basic courses in biological science. Deficiencies in preparation can be made up in the first year of graduate training.
Applicant Information
For the 2024-2025 academic year, the Biomedical Engineering department is not accepting applications for the Biomedical Engineering (MS): Traditional Concentration. Students can apply to the Biomedical Engineering (MS): MedTech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Concentration or the Biomedical Engineering (PhD).
- Delivery Method: On Campus
- Entrance Exam: None
- Interview Required: None
Faculty
Department Chair
- Paul Dayton
Associate Chairs
- Lianne Cartee, Associate Chair for Education
- Shawn Gomez, Associate Chair for Research
Directors
- Lianne Cartee, Director of Undergraduate Studies
- Matthew Fisher, Director of Graduate Studies
Associate Director
- Naji Husseini, Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies
Distinguished Professors
- Lianne Cartee, Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor
- Paul Dayton, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor
- He (Helen) Huang, Jackson Family Distinguished Professor
- H. Troy Nagle
- Roger Narayan
- Koji Sode, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor
Professors
- Lianne Cartee
- Paul A. Dayton
- Caterina M. Gallippi
- Shawn Gomez
- Leaf Huang
- H. Troy Nagle Jr.
- Weili Lin
- J. Michael Ramsey
- George (Rick) Stouffer
Associate Professors
- Ashley Brown
- Yevgeny Brudno
- Jacqueline Cole
- Michael Daniele
- Bob Dennis
- Kenneth Donnelly
- Oleg Favorov
- Matthew Fisher
- Jason Franz
- Donald Freytes
- Michael Gamcsik
- David Hill
- Devin Hubbard
- Naji Husseini
- Derek Kamper
- David Lalush
- Jeffrey Macdonald
- Scott Magness
- Matthew Penny
- Gianmarco Pinton
- Nitin Sharma
- Mark Tommerdahl
- Anka Veleva
- Bruce Wiggin
- David Zaharoff
Assistant Professors
- Amy Adkins
- Pritha Agarwalla
- Wen Yih Aw
- Rahima Benhabbour
- Joseph Burclaff
- Melissa Caughey
- Silvia Ceballos
- Brian Diekman
- Alon Greenbaum
- Michael Jay
- Kennita Johnson
- Jinwook Kim
- Wesley Legant
- Ming Liu
- Virginie Papadopoulou
- Ross Petrella
- William Polacheck
- Imran Rizvi
- Francisco Santibanez
- Sarah Shelton
- James Tsuruta
Lecturers
- Sidhartha Jandhyala
- Nick Jardine
Courses
This course utilizes clinical immersion to identify medical device and other healthcare opportunities. Students will be exposed to diverse healthcare environments and learn to triage opportunities based on financial, regulatory and intellectual property landscapes. Guest lectures will feature experts in the medical device, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries as well as local entrepreneurs.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing; R: Restricted to students enrolled in the M.S. Biomedical Engineering - MedTech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program
Typically offered in Summer only
This course teaches path-to-market concepts including regulatory aspects unique to medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Topics include detailed analyses of Phase I-IV clinical trials, 510(k) and PMA approvals, Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) Investigational New Drug (IND) application, Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and clinical research organizations (CROs). Students will participate in frequent visits to local biotech companies. Guest lectures will feature experts in FDA processes, clinical research and early stage biotech ventures.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing; R: Restricted to students enrolled in the M.S. Biomedical Engineering - MedTech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program
Typically offered in Fall only
This course covers product development and project management for new biomedical-related products from accessing various streams of funding to allocation of resources for rapid prototyping and scale-up manufacturing. Students will visit local biotech companies and prototyping facilities. A guest lecture series will feature best practices from entrepreneurs and industry practitioners.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing; R: Restricted to students enrolled in the M.S. Biomedical Engineering - MedTech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program
Typically offered in Spring only
This course will immerse students in state-of-the-art medical device materials and manufacturing methods. Students will explore materials that are commonly used in medical devices, including metals such as nitinol and various grades of stainless steels, as well as engineering plastics such as PEEK and sustainable materials such as renewable polyethylene (PR) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The course will also introduce common manufacturing methods and design guides for each of the materials covered with the students responsible for the design and manufacture of components and subassemblies to demonstrate an understanding of the techniques. Finally, the students will be required to leverage some of these materials and manufacturing techniques to develop components and assemblies for use in their solutions for the needs identified in BME 501 and further developed in BME 502 and 503.
Restriction: Graduate Standing in M.S. Biomedical Engineering Program
Typically offered in Fall only
Fundamentals of continuous- and discrete-time signal processing as applied to problems in biomedical instrumentation. Properties of biomedical signals and instruments. Descriptions of random noise and signal processes. Interactions between random biomedical signals and systems. Wiener filtering. Sampling theory. Discrete-time signal analysis. Applications of Z-transform and discrete Fourier transform. Digital filter design methods for biomedical instruments. Biomedical applications of filter design, signal restoration, and signal detection.
Typically offered in Spring only
This course covers the engineering of novel pharmaceutical delivery systems with enhanced efficacy and safety profiles, with an emphasis on the design and application of materials that overcome drug delivery barriers or challenges. Topics will include drug delivery fundamentals and transport mechanisms, materials and formulations for drug delivery, and applications.
R: For Undergraduate students taking the course at the 500 level: BME 302 and BME 209 and CH 221; For Graduate students: Graduate standing
Typically offered in Spring only
This course surveys the methods and application of wearable electronics and microsystems to monitor human biometrics, physiology, and environmental conditions. Topics covered include wearable electrocardiograms, blood-glucose monitors, electronic tattoos, wearable energy harvesting, "smart" clothing, body area networks, and distributed population networks. Critical comparison of different sensor modalities, quantitative metrics, and how their limitations in realistic applications define the selection, design, and operation criteria of one type of sensor over another will be considered.
Prerequisite: Senior standing
Typically offered in Fall only
Fundamentals of medical instrumentation systems, sensors, and biomedical signal processing. Example instruments for cardiovascular and respiratory assessment. Clinical laboratory measurements, theraputic and prosthetic devices, and electrical safetyrequirements. Students should have background in electronics design using operational amplifiers.
Typically offered in Spring only
Quantitative analysis of excitable membranes and their signals, including plasma membrane characteristics, origin of electrical membrane potentials, action potentials, voltage clamp experiments, the Hodgkin-Huxley equations, propagation, subthresholdstimuli, extracellular fields, membrane biophysics, and electrophysiology of the heart. Design and development of an electrocardiogram analysis system.
Prerequisite: BME 302 or (ZO 421 and a course in electrical circuits)
Typically offered in Spring only
Cellular Engineering utilizes engineering principles to solve problems in cellular and molecular biology, particularly in the context of regenerative medicine and cell therapies. This course will cover a broad range of topics that allow for quantitative analysis and manipulation of cellular and subcellular processes. Topics covered in this course include: cell growth kinetics; enzyme kinetics; signal transduction networks; genetic engineering; receptor-ligand interactions; quantitative analysis of cell-cell and cell-material adhesion; mechanisms of mechanotrandsuction; and commercialization and scale-up.
P: BME 325 or BMME 325 or BCH351
Typically offered in Fall only
This course focuses on understanding the biology and mechanics of bone tissue, in healthy and altered states such as in injury, aging, and disease. Topics include: skeletal anatomy and physiology; bone tissue composition, structure, and function; mechanical behavior of bone at cell, tissue, and organ levels; skeletal functional adaptation to its mechanical environment; and experimental and analytical methods in bone mechanics and mechanobiology. Fundamental research in the field and clinical applications are discussed.
Typically offered in Spring only
Topics at the interface of nanoscale science and biotechnology will be discussed. Chemical, physical, and biological properties of nanostructured biomaterials, devices, and systems. Lectures and problem-based learning will be used to present development of nanobiotechnology-enhanced materials and devices.
Typically offered in Spring only
Students study human body kinematics, force analysis of joints, and the structure and composition of biological materials. Emphasis is placed on the measurement of mechanical properties and the development and understanding of models of biological material mechanical behavior.
P: BM(M)E 301, BM(M)E 302, [BM(M)E 345 or MAE 214 or CE 313]
Typically offered in Fall only
This course focuses on the design of tissue engineered replacements which attempt to mimic the underlying structural and functional properties of the original tissue. Overall course objectives are to 1) provide students with the knowledge to understand the functional requirements of native tissues and topics related to functional tissue engineering, and 2) prepare students to design new engineered tissues that can meet physiological demands. Topics include: design of native tissues and replacements from an engineering perspective; tissue composition, structure, and function; modeling of native and engineered tissues; methods to enhance tissue engineered replacements; and regenerative engineering.
P: BME/BMME 345
Typically offered in Spring only
Student multidisciplinary teams work with local medical professionals to define specific medical device concepts for implementation. Medical specialty immersion with clinical departments at local medical centers; design input based on stakeholder-needs assessment' market analysis and intellectual property review; new medical devices with broad markets; design output and device specification; product feasibility and risk assessment; design for medical device manufacturing.
Typically offered in Fall only
This course explores the use of robotic and mechatronic technology to restore function in individuals with sensorimotor impairment. The theoretical framework will be introduced for assessment and design of both assistive and therapeutic applications. Students will create a computer model of movement of limb in conjunction with a mechatronic device.
Typically offered in Spring only
Overview of medical imaging systems using ionizing radiation. Interaction of radiation with matter. Radiation production and detection. Radiography systems and applications. Tomography. PET and SPECT systems and applications.
This course will focus on non-invasive methods/techniques that use visible light/NIR/UV to monitor biological processes in humans, animal models and cells. The first part of the course will focus on the basic principles of light (e.g. radiation transport equation) and light-tissue interactions. The second part will focus on a variety of spectroscopic and imaging methods, flow cytometry and more. Applications include: The pulse oximeter, monitoring metabolic activity and non-invasive diagnosis of diseases. The course is designed for biomedical engineering students who plan to work in the medical device industry.
Typically offered in Fall only
The course is an introductory class to microscopy. This course aims to build the intuition that engineers use to understand optical systems and will cover the basic principles of light, such as reflection and refraction, light-wave characteristics, polarization, interference, coherence and more, with an emphasis on optical components that utilize these concepts. A particular focus will be on microscopy and geometrical optics and multiple topics in this area such as: the Abbe theory of image formation, darkfield imaging and fluorescence microscopy. Recent literature in the field will be reviewed and complex imaging systems simplified in order to understand their design principles. The course is designed for biomedical engineering students who plan to work in the medical device industry.
Prerequisite: BME/BMME 365
Typically offered in Spring only
In-depth study of the engineering design of biomedical polymers and implants. Polymeric biomaterials, including polymer synthesis and structure, polymer properties as related to designing orthopedic and vascular grafts. Designing textile products as biomaterials including surface modification and characterization techniques. Bioresorbable polymers.
Typically offered in Fall only
The immune system influences nearly all aspects of human health and therefore deserves consideration by investigators developing devices, drugs and strategies to improve human health. The course begins with a brief review of the immune system, fundamental immunological assays and the role of the immune system in disease. The second part of the course focuses on immune responses to a range of biomaterials. The third part will explore immune responses in the context of vaccines, immunotherapies and regenerative medicine.
P: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Spring only
Chemical, physical, biological, and engineering aspects of nanostructured materials used in medical implants.
Prerequisites: Introduction to the Materials Science of Biomaterials (BME (MSE) 203), Human Physiology for Engineers I (BME 301) and Human Physiology for Engineers II (BME 302). Equivalent courses accepted at discretion of instructor.
Typically offered in Spring and Summer
In this half-semester laboratory module, students will gain practical experience with two key elements of tissue engineering: tissue building and angiogenesis. Using advanced culture techniques, students will construct a complex living tissue that closely resembles its natural counterpart, then assess its ability to support ingrowth of capillaries (angiogenesis). The effects of different biomaterials and angiogenic factors will be evaluated. The engineered tissue will be embedded, sectioned and stained for histological analysis.
Prerequisite: BIT 466/566 or permission of instructor
Typically offered in Fall only
This course covers essential concepts of organ and tissue design and engineering using living components, including cell-based systems and cells/tissues in combination with biomaterials, synthetic materials and/or devices. Topics include: In vivo tissue structure and function; Isolation and culture of primary cells and stem cells; Principles of cellular differentiation; Mass transport processes in cell culture systems; Design, production and seeding of scaffolds for 3D culture; Design of bioreactors to support high-density cell growth; State-of-the-art engineered tissue systems; Clinical translation; and Ethics.
Typically offered in Spring only
A study of topics in the special fields under the direction of the graduate faculty.
Prerequisite: Senior or Graduate standing in Engineering or physical or biological sciences or textiles
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Students obtain professional experience through advanced engineering work in industrial and commercial settings under joint supervision of a member of the graduate faculty and an outside professional.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in BME
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Instruction in research and research under the mentorship of a member of the Graduate Faculty.
Prerequisite: Master's student
Typically offered in Spring and Summer
Thesis research.
Prerequisite: Master's student
Typically offered in Spring and Summer
For students who have completed all credit hour requirements and full-time enrollment for the master's degree and are writing and defending their thesis.
Prerequisite: Master's student
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
A study of topics in advanced or emerging special areas under the direction of the graduate faculty. Experimental doctoral level courses.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in engineering, physical, or biological sciences or textiles
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Elaboration of advanced subject areas, techniques and methods related to professional interest through presentations of personal and published works; opportunity for students to present and critically defend ideas, concepts, and inferences; opportunity for distinguished scholars to present results of their work. Discussions to uncover analytical solutions and analogies between problems in biomedical engineering and other technologies, and to present relationship of biomedical engineering to society.
Prerequisite: Doctoral student in BME or other engineering, physical science, or biological science majors, or textiles
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Teaching experience under the mentorship of faculty who assist the student in planning but the teaching assignment, observe and provide feedback to the student during the teaching assignment, and evaluate the student upon completion of the assignment.
Prerequisite: Doctoral student
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
For students who are preparing for and taking written and/or oral preliminary exams.
Prerequisite: Doctoral student
Typically offered in Summer only
Instruction in research and research under the mentorship of a member of the Graduate Faculty.
Prerequisite: Doctoral student
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Dissertation research.
Prerequisite: Doctoral student
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
For students who have completed all credit hour, full-time enrollment, preliminary examination, and residency requirements for the doctoral degree, and are writing and defending their dissertations.
Prerequisite: Doctoral student
Typically offered in Spring and Summer