Next fall, the School of Engineering and Applied Science will welcome its first class of undergraduate students embarking on the pursuit of two new degrees offered at Washington University. The first degree is an accredited professional degree in biomedical engineering, while the second has been designed primarily as a pre-medical option.
Biomedical engineering applies engineering concepts, methods and techniques to biology and medicine.
It is concerned with the analysis of biological systems, such as living cells, tissues and organs, as well as the organization of these systems into integrated organisms, such as the human body. The new degrees will be offered initially by an interdepartmental program headed by Salvatore Sutera, Ph.D., professor and chair of mechanical engineering. Depending on the identification of resources, the engineering school plans to open a Department of Biomedical Engineering within two years. Today, biomedical engineering is carried out in four of our seven engineering departments and 15 of 19 medical school departments. Modern engineering provides powerful computers, innovative instrumentation and mathematical models to study biological and medical problems and conditions.