Special Topics
BB 570 Current Topics in Biology and Biotechnology journal club
1 credit
Course will cover advances in a selected topic in Biology and Biotechnology each semester. Each student will be responsible for identifying and presenting a paper in the topic area for class discussion. The presenter will be required to present sufficient background (prior papers and a review article) on the article they choose to present and discuss in class. Possible topics include: the Proteosome, Genomic Imprinting, RNAi - discovery to drugs, Immune Regulation, Metabolic Engineering, and Systems Biology.
BB 570 Scientific Writing and Proposal Development
1 credit
Course will cover key elements to writing successful grant proposals and manuscripts in the life sciences. This includes project development, identification of funding agencies or journals, proposal and manuscript writing and editing, as well as aspects of the submission and review process. Students will be expected to develop a NIH style postdoctoral proposal outside their dissertation field and participate in a mock proposal review panel. For Biology and Biotechnology students course must be taken prior to their Qualifying Exam.
BB 570 SP TOP: Stem Cell Biology and Applications
The objective of this graduate level course is to provide students with information on the latest developments in animal and human stem cell research and on the potential application of stem cells to medicine. The course will explore derivation, manipulation, maintenance and differentiation of embryonic, adult and induced pluripotent stem cells. Stem cells will be examined in terms of their molecular, cellular and potential therapeutic properties. Genetic reprogramming by nuclear transfer and gene transfer will be critically evaluated. Current findings will be considered in a historical context; ethical and political considerations will be discussed. Students will be evaluated based upon their participation in class, performance on problem sets, and a midterm and final exam.
BME 595B. Biomaterials in the Design of Medical Devices
Biomaterials are an integral part of medical devices, implants, controlled drug delivery systems, and tissue engineered constructs. Extensive research efforts have been expended on understanding how biologic systems interact with biomaterials. Meanwhile, controversy has revolved around biomaterials and their availability as a result of the backlash to the huge liability resulting from controversies related to material and processing shortcomings of medical devices. This course specifically addresses the unique role of biomaterials in medical device design and the use of emerging biomaterials technology in medical devices. The need to understand design requirements of medical devices based on safety and efficacy will be addressed. Unexpected device failure can occur if testing fails to account for synergistic interactions from chronic loading, aqueous environments, and biologic interactions. Testing methodologies are readily available to assess accelerated effects of loading in physiologic-like environments. This combined with subchronic effects of animal implants is a potential tool in assessing durability. It is difficult to predict the chronic effects of the total biologic environment. The ultimate determination of safety comes not only from following the details of regulations, but with an understanding of potential failure modes and designs that lowers the risk of these failures. This course will evaluate biomaterials and their properties as related to the design and reliability of medical devices.
BME 595X. Cell and Molecular Biology for Engineers
This course is intended as an advanced course in cell and molecular biology for engineering students, with an emphasis on molecular approaches to manipulating cell responses for biomedical engineering applications. Course topics will include in depth exploration of the molecular basis of cellular function, including protein biochemistry, signal transduction, cell-extracellular matrix interactions and gene expression. An introduction to tools and techniques used in modern cell and molecular biology will also be provided.
NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy a life science requirement in the biomedical engineering program. It cannot be used to satisfy a biomedical engineering course requirement.
CHE580M Applications of Molecular Modeling
The theories and algorithms underlying modern molecular modeling methods will be examined. Emphasis will also be placed on application of these methods to study a variety of problems related to materials science and chemistry. Students will be given ample opportunity to use various modeling programs and become familiar with the relevant literature. No programming experience is necessary.
ECE 529B. Analog Circuits and Intuition
The ability to see the simplicity in a complex design problem is a skill that is not usually taught in engineering classes. Some engineers, when faced with design problems, immediately fill up pages and pages of calculations, or do complex circuit simulations or finite-element analyses. One problem with this approach is that if you get an answer, you don't know if it is correct unless you have an intuitive "feel" for what the answer should be. The application of some simple rules-of-thumb and design techniques is a possible first step to developing intuition into the behavior of complex electrical systems. This course outlines some ways of thinking about analog circuits and systems that are intended will help to develop intuition and guide design. The lectures are a mixture of instructional sessions covering new background material, and design case studies. (Prerequisites: Undergraduate background in device physics, microelectronics, control systems, electromagnetism)
ECE 539M Introduction to Antennas and Antenna Systems
This course provides an introduction to the standard metal and dielectric antennas and addresses their most basic characteristics: polarization, directivity, gain, and impedance bandwidth. Both narrowband and broadband antennas as well as basic antenna arrays are considered. An emphasis is also made on the current modeling software and techniques – Ansoft HFSS and CST Microwave Studio. The course structure is directed toward the practical antenna design for RF and MW engineering and enables senior undergraduate students to take this course. Course topics include: Antenna patterns, gain, directivity, polarization; Effective aperture; Radiated fields ; Linear and planar arrays; Antenna self- and mutual impedance; Broadband and frequency-independent antennas; Dipoles and monopoles; Microstrip antennas; Small antennas.
Prerequisites: undergraduate analog electronics and basic introductory knowledge of electromagnetic theory (ECE 2112 and ECE 3113).
Textbook: "Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design", 3rd edition by Constantine A. Balanis, 2005, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 047166782-X
ECE539W/CS525W Wireless Access and Localization
This course covers the systems engineering aspects of wireless access networks and their relation to localization techniques for Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or other graduate students interested in this field. The course provides a comprehensive overview of wireless access techniques used in wide, local and personal area networks and relates these technologies to emerging localization techniques using cellular, UWB, WiFi, and other signals of opportunity used in emerging smart devices such as iPhone. The emphasis of the wireless access methods is on comparative performance evaluation and system description of TDMA, CDMA and OFDM transmission and distributed contention and assigned access methods. The emphasis on localization is on comparative performance evaluation of different algorithms in multipath rich indoor and urban areas.
ME593C / MTE594C SP TOP: Clean Energy-- Technological, Economic, Social, and Policy Considerations
This seminar will consider several clean energy technologies and discuss their economic, social, and environmental impact. The participants will discuss policy options and explore global perspectives. The seminar will consist of three sections:
- Study different Clean Energy technologies such as: solar energy, bio-fuels, clean coal and others.
- Discuss underlying concepts of sustainability, energy forms, environmental impact and policy options,
- Analysis several case studies such as the use of plug-in electric vehicles or the impact of ‘food for fuel’.
The course will be team taught by Professors: Bar-On, Thompson, Saeed, Rissmiller, Jiusto, and guests.
The participants will be required to perform independent research under the direction of the instructors.
This course will study advanced topics in kinematics with a focus of mechanism synthesis techniques. The primary focus will be on planar mechanism, but will also treat spherical and spatial mechanisms. Course content will come from a variety of sources including class notes, texts, and journal articles. Course topics will be applied through a semester long design project. Topics of study include: review of kinematics fundamentals, classification of mechanisms, type synthesis, graphical synthesis techniques, and analytical synthesis techniques including dyad form, ground pivot specification, MK circles, Burmester curves, Chebychev spacing, velocity synthesis, four and five prescribed positions, and multi-loop synthesis. Spherical mechanisms, spatial mechanisms, spatial transformations, and spatial dyad synthesis will also be discussed.
Prerequisites: Undergraduate course in kinematics or instructor permission.
MFE 594A / ME 594. SP TOP: Computer-Aided Tooling
The objective of this course is to provide a fundamental knowledge of manufacturing tooling and computer-aided fixture design, to enhance the design and analysis capabilities in manufacturing tooling areas, and to gain the problem solving skill. This course starts from reviewing the fundamental knowledge of manufacturing processes and fixture design principles, and continues with introducing the newly developed computer-aided fixture design and analysis technologies. Study topics include fixture planning, fixture design, and fixture design verification. Laboratory study of modular fixture assembly, software practice and development, and a project will be included. The course is project-based and research oriented.
PH 597C. Current Topics In Physics
The purpose of this course is to familiarize graduate students with current trends in physics as well as develop presentation and learning skills. The focal point of this course is the department colloquium series, where outside experts present their recent and exciting work covering a broad range of topics. Students will be required to attend all talks in the series. At the end of the semester, each student will present a condensed summary of one speaker and be able to field simple questions from the instructor and peers. Moreover, students will pair up to spend time entertaining one guest speaker for either lunch, coffee or dinner. They will then write a synopsis of this speaker's colloquium, that includes a brief review of the relevant background.
SS 590 SP TOP: Health Care Dynamics
Why would people go to the doctor more (or less) tomorrow than today? In this course students will explore and learn to simulate behaviors of health care providers, patients, and payers in the U.S. health care system with the goal of better understanding how macro-level patterns emerge from micro-level behaviors. A suite of system dynamics models is developed to explore problems of controlling health care costs and patient utilization. The smaller system dynamics models merge into a larger policy system model that can be used to explore proposed improvements and policy resistance in this sector of the economy. In addition to developing a policy-level model of the health care system, models will be developed on such topics as the spread and control of contagious diseases including SARS, AIDS, seasonal influenza, and pandemic flu, and the dynamics of medical centers of excellence. The objective of the course is to enable the student to develop a system-wide perspective and a framework for health care problem-solving. Prerequisites: SD 550 System Dynamics Foundation: Managing Complexity.
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