Carolina and the College of Engineering and Computing announce Biomedical Engineering Interdisciplinary Program

	Researchers from the College of Engineering and Computing (top) and the School of Medicine (bottom) collaborate and strengthen the research of the Biomedical Engineering Interdisciplinary Program

The College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina began offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in biomedical engineering in the fall of 2006, following a March 2 (2006) approval from the SC Commission on Higher Education. These degree programs were developed in collaboration with Clemson University. Carolina’s degree programs in Biomedical Engineering and Clemson’s degree programs in Bioengineering are complementary to each other.

The chemical engineering and mechanical engineering departments jointly administer the USC biomedical engineering degree programs, which will also have teaching and research support from USC's School of Medicine, College of Arts and Sciences and the Arnold School of Public Health.

"We're the only university in the state with a medical school to complement our engineering and computing college, and the collaboration between the two provides a solid foundation for these degree programs," said Michael D. Amiridis, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing.

"In its first two years, we've had approximately 70-80 students participate in our biomedical engineering degree programs." said Abdel E. Bayoumi, director of the BME program. "Gauging the interest and success we've had so far, we anticipate that that number will grow much higher in the future."

Prior to the program's inception, USC had already recruited faculty members with expertise in biomedical engineering in anticipation of the degree programs' approval. The University is using its share of a $9 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to the state to help cover salary and laboratory start-up costs for new faculty members.

The provost's office has approved a cluster hiring through USC's Faculty Excellence Initiative that has brought six more new faculty members with biological engineering backgrounds to engineering, medicine, and arts and sciences.

"As the state's flagship university, we offer a comprehensive array of degree programs in both traditional and cutting-edge disciplines. Biomedical engineering is an important and growing field in which we already have a critical mass of expertise; these degree programs help to build that even further," said Provost Mark Becker, who played a key role in pushing the initiative through the CHE approval process.

The demand for graduates in biomedical engineering is strong nationally. Typically, about one-third of graduates of such programs go on to attend medical school; one-third go to graduate school for master's or doctoral level degrees; and one-third seek employment at the bachelor's degree level.
"Biomedical engineering is a very good foundation for medical school with its problem-solving emphasis," Amiridis said. "Those who want to work after completing the bachelor's degree find employment in hospitals and for medical device manufacturers."

While the field of biomedical engineering is very broad, Carolina plans to focus its graduate programs on areas in which it already has strong teaching and research capabilities. "Cell to tissue biomechanics and tissue engineering -- particularly as associated with cardiovascular tissue -- are two such areas," Amiridis said. "Wound healing research will be another focus at the graduate level."

The undergraduate biomedical engineering degree curriculum includes 130 credit hours of coursework and a strong ethics and professional development component.

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