Overview

The MSBME program accepts students from different undergraduate disciplines to be admitted to this program. As such, in order to provide the best learning experience to the graduate students regardless of their undergraduate background, the program is designed to help the student bridge the gap between their background and the MSBME program. As a first step, the program provides 2 remedial courses based on the admitted student's bachelor's background. The remedial courses are chosen such that all students are prepared for the graduate core courses offered by the program. The graduate student is required to take the remedial courses in the first semester such that by the second semester all graduate students have the core-based information and background that qualifies them to continue towards the graduate core courses offered by the program. As an example: a student with B.Sc. in Medicine, Dentistry, or Health Sciences has enough biological background to continue forward with some MSBME courses; however, they fall short in the mathematical background from an engineering point of view. Therefore, they are required to successfully finish two remedial courses, "Differential Equations for Engineers" and "Mathematics for Engineers". The opposite goes for students with engineering background, where they fall short in biological background. Hence, they are required two remedial courses, "Human Anatomy and Physiology", and "Cell Biology". The same goes for students with science or pharmaceutical background, the MSBME program specifies to students their required remedial courses. Once the remedial courses are taken, all students are allowed to register for the graduate core courses. It is advised that during the first year, students do not take any track electives till remedial and core courses are successfully passed. Another issue that may raise a concern for graduate students from different bachelor's disciplines is the choice of elective courses from the 5 different tracks given in Fig. 5. The five tracks offered are: 1- Bioelectronics and Instrumentation, 2- Biomedical Systems and Feedback Control, 3- Applied Computational Bioengineering, 4- Biomedical Physics and Imaging, 5-Biomaterials, Cellular and Tissue Engineering. Each track has a list of corresponding electives that are offered. Students are advised to check the course description and if it has, any pre-requisite courses required. If an elective course has pre-requisite courses listed before taking the graduate elective course, students wishing to take the course must prove they have the pre-requisite course taken during their bachelor's degree, or an equivalent course that qualifies them for the graduate elective course. Before registering for an elective course, students are advised to talk to their supervisor, and the course instructor to check for any pre-requirement of the elective course. For example, a student interested in taking "Biomedical Image Processing" needs to check the pre-requisites which are "Signals and Systems", and "Programming I". Students from electrical and computer engineering background have taken the pre-requisites during their bachelor's, so they can directly register for the course "Biomedical Image Processing". However, students from science, medicine, or others, most likely did not take either course during undergraduate. Therefore, they are requested to check with course instructor to check if any equivalent courses were taken during undergraduate studies, or if they are required to take one or both courses before registering the elective. For this, students are allowed to attend the undergraduate courses offered at the university with the recommendation of the course instructor, track co-coordinator and the program principle coordinator . On this note, the completion of the program will take more than 2 years considering the need for any remedial courses for chosen track/elective courses. The need for extra remedial courses will be faced by students desiring to divert from their bachelor's background. An engineer interested more in the biomaterial, cellular, and tissue engineering, or a pharmacist interested in the electronics behind biomedical research will require to build his knowledge in electronics and instrumentation before taking certain track electives. Overall, the graduate students are strongly advised to refer to their academic advisor and track coordinators for guidance before taking decisions on registering for elective courses.