Nov 27, 2024  
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

Biomedical Engineering, B.S.


Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Programs by Degree

Biomedical engineering (BME) is a multidisciplinary field that applies engineering principles and design methods to improve the interaction and integration of engineering with medicine and biological sciences for advancing human health. The 4-year Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in BME undergraduate program is designed for students who aspire to engineer novel treatments, devices, materials, technologies, or processes to improve human healthcare. Students seeking careers in industry, the healthcare professions, government agencies, or graduate studies in BME are candidates for this program.

The curriculum provides students with a unique set of qualitative and quantitative healthcare problem definition, analysis, and solution skills. This program includes the shared freshman-engineering curriculum, foundational engineering courses and a variety of upper-level BME courses. To fulfill the curriculum, students complete a 2-semester interdisciplinary Capstone Senior Design project focused on the design of an engineering solution to a complex problem of interest to biomedical engineers and healthcare professionals.

BME and Product Design courses are intended to instill “design-thinking” in students. The curriculum is distinct from other B.S. BME programs due to integral design-thinking courses and experiences. These design-thinking experiences balance left-brain technical education with right-brain creative experiences to cultivate skills needed to: 1) communicate empathetically with all stakeholders in a design cycle; 2) frame healthcare challenges into engineering problems; and 3) design, prototype, build, test, refine, and implement solutions that solve contemporary healthcare problems and meet all user needs.

Consistent with our Mission Statement, the Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Program at the University of Kentucky strives to produce graduates who will:

  1. Utilize their training at the interfaces of engineering, medicine, and design to solve problems related to health and healthcare.
  2. Engage in on-going learning related to biomedical engineering to update their skillset and contribute to the advancement of the field.

Degree Requirements


Each student must complete the following:

UK Core Requirements


See the UK Core section of this Catalog for the complete UK Core requirements . The courses listed below are (a) recommended by the college, or (b) required courses that also fulfill UK Core areas. Students should work closely with their advisor to complete the UK Core requirements.

I. Intellectual Inquiry in Arts and Creativity


II. Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities


  Credit(s): 3

III. Intellectual Inquiry in the Social Sciences


  Credit(s): 3

IV. Intellectual Inquiry in Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences


V. Composition and Communication I


VI. Composition and Communication II


VII. Quantitative Foundations


VIII. Statistical Inferential Reasoning


IX. Community, Culture and Citizenship in the USA


  Credit(s): 3

X. Global Dynamics


  Credit(s): 3

UK Core hours: 33


Graduation Composition and Communication Requirement (GCCR)


Graduation Composition and Communication Requirement hours (GCCR) 3


Subtotal: Premajor hours: 46


Subtotal: Major hours: 51


Electives


Students must choose six courses (18 hours) as follows:

  1. Four BME electives (BME 395 , any BME course at a level of 400 or above excluding required courses).
  2. One engineering elective at a level of 300 or above that does not significantly duplicate content in required BME courses and is not a more elementary version of a required course, or a BME elective (BME 395 , any BME course at a level of 400 or above excluding required courses).
  3. One engineering or science elective. The engineering elective must meet the requirements described in #2 above. The science elective can include the following:**

Subtotal: Electives: 18


TOTAL HOURS: 127


Curriculum


§ Transfer students will take EGR 215 , Introduction to the Practice of Engineering for Transfer Students, in place of EGR 101  and EGR 103 .

Δ Students must complete both EGR 101  and EGR 103  to fulfill the UK Core Arts and Creativity requirement. Transfer students may satisfy the UK Core Arts and Creativity requirement by taking EGR 215 .

*Graduation Composition and Communication Requirement (GCCR) course.

Freshman Year


Sophomore Year


Junior Year


Senior Year


Second Semester


Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Programs by Degree