Biomedical Engineering

Western’s new Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program is a response to the demand by students and the future needs of the health-care industry. With technology playing an increasingly large role in health care, biomedical engineers are at the forefront of developing solutions to current problems and advancing future medicine.

The program is designed to be taken as a five-year concurrent degree in conjunction with a degree in a core engineering discipline – chemical, electrical, mechanical, or mechatronic systems engineering. Graduates of the concurrent-degree program will be well-qualified for engineering positions in the medical device sector and a variety of other sectors, admission to leading biomedical engineering graduate programs, and admission to medical school.

All students will complete a common first year. During the first year at Western, students will take a variety of introductory courses to build a solid engineering foundation. At the end of the first year, students will be prepared to make an informed decision on their degree path.

Beginning in second year, students will take courses on one of the four core engineering disciplines, as well as fundamentals in biomedical engineering. In third year, students will complete the majority of the required courses for their core program, as well as general Biology 1001 and Biology 1002. In fourth year, all BME undergraduate students will take the required BME and biomedical sciences courses together. Students will also take biomedical science and health-care related non-technical electives. In the summer following the fourth year, students participate in a research placement, co-op, or industrial internship related to BME.

In the final year, the two degrees are integrated. Students will complete a capstone design project within their core program and a research thesis within biomedical engineering.