M.S. in Biomedical Engineering

The Biomedical Engineering (BME) Graduate Program prepares individuals for careers in one of the fastest growing disciplines of engineering. The program currently offers one focus area in Molecular and Cellular Systems. Future focus areas will be added as need arises and resources are secured. Instructors from a spectrum of backgrounds in biomedical engineering offer a comprehensive core curriculum comprising five courses and a seminar course. Electives are accepted from a number of courses taught in the School of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Pharmacy, and School of Medicine. Graduates of this program will have the technological background to solve important problems in a number or areas including health care, biomedical research, biotechnology, and bioengineering.

M.S. Admission Requirements

The general admission requirements described in the Graduate Program in the Catalog apply to the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program (BMEGP). The following additional requirements hold for the initial focus area in Molecular and Cellular Systems. They may be modified or augmented as other focus areas are added to the program. Successful applicants to the BMEGP must have a bachelor's degree in a natural science or engineering field in which they attained a sophisticated level of ability to study, model, or manipulate biological systems at the molecular or cellular level. Because of the multifaceted nature of BME research, the Admissions Committee will make admissions decisions on a case-by-case basis. The following subject areas will be used to judge the suitability of students for admission:

Introductory Molecular and Cellular Biology
General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry
Calculus and Ordinary Differential Equations
Thermodynamics
General Physics
Biochemistry or Biomolecular Engineering

Persons who have not passed courses in one or more of these subject areas may be admitted to the BMEGP, but may be required to take undergraduate courses to eliminate deficiencies in their background. Each case is considered individually.

Application Process

Please see the Graduate Program section of this Catalog for the general process for applying to graduate school. In addition to those requirements, successful applicants to the M.S. program in Biomedical Engineering must submit the following directly to the BMEGP Program Office for review by the Admissions Committee:

letter of intent on why the BMEGP is of interest
three confidential letters of recommendation
GRE entrance examination scores

M.S. Degree Completion Requirements

The general requirements for this degree are identical to those specified in the Graduate Program section of this catalog. (Please see the Graduate Program section for detailed requirements and procedures common to all UNM graduate programs.) In addition the the general requirement specified in the Graduate program, graduates must complete the core and elective BME M.S. curriculum specified below. The BMEGP offers both Plan I (thesis) and Plan II (non-thesis) options for completion of an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering. BME 567 (Biomedical Engineering Seminar) should be taken every semester, but a student can only apply a maximum of 4 credit hours of this seminar toward their course degree requirements.

Curriculum for Students in the BME M.S. Degree Program
Focus Area: Molecular and Cellular Systems

The following core courses are required of all Master's students in Biomedical Engineering.

BME 517	Applied Biology for Biomedical Engineers
BME 544	Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Molecular Components in Cells
BME 547	Biomedical Engineering Research Practices
BME 556	Protein and Nucleic Acid Engineering
BME 558	Methods of Analysis in Bioengineering

Equivalent graduate-level courses taken at other institutions may be used to satisfy these requirements. The BMEGP Graduate Advisor or the BMEGP Curriculum Committee must approve such substitutions.

For completion of the BME M.S. degree the student must complete a minimum of 6 credit hours of elective courses from the list below. (Please see the Graduate Program section for detailed requirements and procedures common to all UNM M.S.. Plan I and Plan II programs.)

Master's students may substitute electives other than those listed below as approved by the BMEGP Graduate Advisor or the BMEGP Curriculum Committee.

Engineering Electives

CHNE/NSMS 522L	Fundamentals of Nanofluidics
CHNE/NSMS 530	Surface and Interfacial Phenomena
CHNE/NSMS 536/436	Biomedical Technology
CHNE/NSMS 538/438	Biosensors Fundamentals and Applications
CHNE 504	Nanomaterials
CHNE 521	Advanced Transport Phenomena I
CS 529	Machine Learning
CS 530	Geometric and Probabilistic Methods in CS
CS 561	Algorithms/Data Structures
CS 590	Topics: Complex Adaptive Systems
ECE 500	Theory of Linear Systems
ECE 510	Medical Imaging
ECE 533	Digital Signal Processing
ECE 537	Foundations of Computing
ECE 539	Digital Signal Processing
ECE 547/CS 547	Neural Networks
ECE 561	Engineering Electrodynamics
ECE 581	Colloidal Nanocrystals for Biomedical Applications
ME 501	Advanced Mechanics of Materials
ME 504	Computational Mechanics
ME 512	Introduction to Continuum Mechanics
ME 530	Theoretical Fluid Mechanics
ME 571/NSMS 569	Advanced Materials Science

Biology/Biomedical Sciences Electives

BIOM 509	Principles of Neurobiology
BIOM 510	Physiology
BIOM 514	Immunobiology
BIOM 515	Cancer Biology
BIOM 516	Molecular Genetics and Genomics
BIOL **351	Microbiology
BIOL 547	Advanced Techniques in Light Microscopy
BIOC 545L	Intensive Introductory Biochemistry

Keys and Symbols Reference

Biomedical Engineering

M.S. in Biomedical Engineering