Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University

Biomedical engineering is one of the most rapidly expanding fields of engineering, and Vanderbilt was one of the first universities to create a biomedical engineering program.

Biomedical engineering is wide-ranging and includes everything from developing devices that allow physicians to see within the body without opening it, to developing equations that provide insight into how the circulatory system responds to changes in cardiac function; from observing and determining how microscopic cells and groups of cells control macroscopic events, to managing information flow in a medical center.

As a biomedical engineering undergraduate student at Vanderbilt, you will learn how to apply engineering concepts to practical problems in biology, medicine and health care. The program is accredited by ABET, Inc., the recognized U.S. accrediting authority of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. In addition, there are opportunities to double major in electrical engineering or chemical engineering, and you will have numerous summer research and intern opportunities. When you graduate, you will be prepared to go on to medical school, or graduate school, or begin your career as a biomedical engineer in public or private organizations.

You can obtain master of science, master of engineering, and doctor of philosophy degrees in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt. As a biomedical engineering graduate student, you will be able to participate in a rich diversity of interdisciplinary research initiatives.

Some 400 undergraduate and graduate students study biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt.                      

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Mission, Objectives, and Outcomes
of the Biomedical Engineering Program

The mission of the BME department encompasses that of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering, which is to provide a high quality engineering education in selected areas of engineering, balanced with broad learning opportunities from other fields, and integrated to provide intellectual richness and flexibility. Expanding upon this, it is the mission of the Vanderbilt Department of Biomedical Engineering to

• Enlighten our students with the engineering, mathematics and basic sciences that advance health care and biomedical technologies;

• Develop the reasoning faculties of our students, enlarge their minds and instill in them precepts of accuracy, ethics and enterprise; and

• Form the engineers, physicians, scientists and industrialists upon whose leadership continued progress in scientific understanding, health and industry depend.

Pioneering Biomedical Engineering

The biomedical engineering program at Vanderbilt is well established and was one of the first in the nation. Vanderbilt first offered a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering in 1968, and by 1980 had created a master of science program and a doctoral program in biomedical engineering. The Department of Biomedical Engineering was formally initiated in 1988, and the undergraduate program became accredited by the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology in 1993.

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