Biomedical Engineering (MEng)

We are passionate learners here, so if you want to hone in on a specialty in the Biomedical Engineering industry, our Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering program gives you that flexibility. With a course-based curriculum that appeals to entrepreneurial engineers of all disciplines, you’ll find the program gives you the biomedical engineering expertise to advance in your industry.

Whether you want to help inventors of new medical instruments through patent law, or you'd like to design or develop new products—or you’re simply interested in how technology pushes the envelope in biomedical engineering—you’ll find a way to make that happen here.

The degree prepares you to consider the big picture as you understand the ethical implications of biomedical engineering developments and the roles of physicians, patients, and the marketplace in new products and innovations.

Biomedical Engineering Student working with scalpels

Graduate Admissions

Curriculum

The Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering program helps all types of engineers focus their specialty in the biomedical industry. The flexible program is especially suited for anyone going to school and working full-time.

Through course work that includes a multidisciplinary mix of biomedical engineering, advanced mathematics, life sciences, and various electives, students tailor their degree to their interests. Students work alongside renowned faculty to learn cutting-edge approaches in areas like tissue engineering, biomedical instrumentation, and biofluids.

A thesis is not required in this program, but you may choose to conduct a smaller research project as part of your degree.

Graduate Catalog

Engineering Human Blood Vessels

Similar Degrees

Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Mechanical engineering student working in computer lab

Robotics Engineering (MS)

Electrical & Computer Engineering (MEng)

Electrical and computer engineering students working on a project

Research

Students in this program learn through extensive project work that allows them to build collaborative skills, new approaches, and the broad perspective needed to solve real-world problems.

Because students in this degree program plan to specialize in one industry area of biomedical engineering and not follow a research path, the curriculum is not research intensive. If you prefer, you may create a small, independent research project.

Some recent BME research topics:

Mobile dialysis treatment
Noninvasive bone strength measurement
Creation of a microfluidic device to separate metastatic and nonmetastatic cancer cells

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Being on the leading edge of research advances means you’ll think like a scientist, an engineer, an entrepreneur—all with technology in the forefront.

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Research laboratories at WPI’s Life Sciences & Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park include a 124,600-square-foot space. These labs focus on non-invasive biomedical instrumentation design, signal processing, tissue biomechanics, biomaterials synthesis and characterization, myocardial regeneration, cell and molecular engineering, regenerative biosciences, and tissue engineering.

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Classroom knowledge is applied directly to real-world problems as faculty and students work side-by-side in labs, always striving for the next innovation in regenerative medicine, drug discoveries, tissue remodeling, medical imaging, or physiological monitoring.

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Successful collaborations with industry partners and significant funding for major research means our faculty and students have the resources to make discoveries that impact areas such as biomaterials and tissue engineering, biomechanics and mechanobiology, and bioinstrumentation and signal processing.

Whether students perform their own research projects or not, WPI’s state-of-the-art research facilities play a big part in the biomedical engineering program. Faculty members teach and conduct research projects in the dedicated Life Sciences & Biomedical Engineering Center in Gateway Park. A four-story center, the building offers research space and a modern core equipment facility.

Research & Facilities

Faculty Profiles

Kristen Billiar

Professor and Department Head

Biomedical Engineering

Understanding the mechanisms by which mechanical forces regulate the development and healing of connective tissues and the pathogenesis of disease is becoming one of the foremost problems at the intersection of biomechanics and cell biology—it has spawned the field of mechanobiology. In our lab we use precisely engineered, two-dimensional and three-dimensional constructs as model systems to study the effects of external internal (cell-generated) forces on cell behavior, matrix biochemistry, and the biomechanics of soft tissues and biomaterials.

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Jeannine M Coburn

Assistant Professor

Biomedical Engineering

The overall objectives of my research are to develop clinically translatable tissue regeneration and drug delivery strategies, and three-dimensional, in vitro human disease models using biologically-derived biomaterials. We will utilize techniques from engineering, chemistry and biology to address these research areas, including chemical modifications to alter drug-material interactions, small molecule and macromolecule conjugates to direct cell fate, and multi-cellular tissue/disease systems for paracrine signaling and direct cell-cell interactions.

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Glenn R. Gaudette

William Smith Dean's Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

Glenn R. Gaudette, PhD, is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from SUNY – Stony Brook. He has over 75 publications, co-edited a book on Cardiovascular Regeneration, has 4 issued patents and founded a company based on the technology developed in his laboratory. His research, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, aims to develop a treatment for the millions of Americans suffering from myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases.

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Songbai Ji

Associate Professor

Biomedical Engineering

The biomechanical mechanisms behind traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been an active research focus for more than 70 years. However, the field is still largely focused on impact kinematics or estimated brain responses in generic regions from single head impact to predict a binary brain injury status on a population basis. An important research focus in my lab is to integrate advanced neuroimaging into TBI biomechanics research to understand injuries to functionally important neural pathways. At the same time, we develop techniques to achieve near real-time response feedbacks.

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George D. Pins

Professor

Biomedical Engineering

The overall objective of my research is to create bioengineered scaffolds to enhance the regeneration of damaged tissues and organs. Specifically, my laboratory uses biomimetic design strategies and novel fabrication processes to develop three-dimensional constructs that emulate native tissue architecture and cellular microenvironments. We use these scaffolds to characterize the roles of extracellular matrix (ECM) cues and topographic features in modulating cellular functions, including adhesion, migration, proliferation, differentiation, and tissue remodeling.

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Marsha Rolle

Associate Professor

Biomedical Engineering

In my research laboratory at WPI, teams of graduate and undergraduate students collaborate with researchers at WPI and the University of Massachusetts Medical School to design, fabricate, culture and analyze cell-based engineered vascular tissue.

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Karen Troy

Associate Professor

Biomedical Engineering

The ability of our biological tissues to adapt to their mechanical environment, and the ways in which our tissues are well suited for their own mechanical role within the body, is a constant source of wonder to me. I am interested in understanding the mechanical signals that are experienced within the skeleton during different types of physical activity, understanding what features of these signals stimulate bone to adapt its structure, and in developing noninvasive methods to quantify bone strength.

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Catherine F. Whittington

Assistant Professor

Biomedical Engineering

My research focuses on combining bio-instructive biomaterials with cells to design 3D tissue-engineered platforms for regenerative medicine, disease modeling, improved predictability of therapeutic outcomes, and as translatable technologies for clinic and industry.

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Biomedical Engineering Department