What is Biomedical Engineering?

Biomedical engineering is when engineering principles and design concepts are applied to medicine and biology to create technologies that help diagnose and treat healthcare issues. Biomedical engineers work with and develop a wide range of technologies from tiny nanoparticles to huge diagnostic machinery.

When people think of biomedical engineering they might think of a prosthetic arm or an x-ray machine, but biomedical engineering also encompasses things like , and .

Solving modern healthcare issues requires biomedical engineers have a firm foundation in not just biology and engineering, but also computer science, electrical engineering, chemistry, and more. It is this interdisciplinary approach that allows biomedical engineers to find innovate solutions and develop new, lifesaving technologies.

Biomedical Concepts

Why Do we Shrink Over the Course of a Day?

Why do we wake up taller than when we went to sleep? Biomedical engineering professor Mark Buckley explains the biomechanical phenomenon known as pyroclastic creep. Pyroclastic creep is just one example of how engineering concepts can be applied to the human body.

Bioengineering at Rochester

Our biomedical engineering research doesn't stay in the laboratory. Between the , , and the , students have numerous opportunities to watch their medical discoveries move from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside.

Our department specializes in several areas of biomedical engineering research including:

 Our students are also innovators in the  and our senior design program where they create solutions to healthcare-related problems.