Courses

• ENG BE 788: Soft Tissue Biomechanics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: ENG BE 420 and ENG BE 521; or ENG ME 521 or equivalent with consent of instructor.
  This course will introduce students to the mechanics of soft biological tissue. In particular, the response of the heart, vasculature, and tissue scaffolds to mechanical loads from the perspective of nonlinear solid mechanics will be studied. Constitutive models for hyperelastic materials will be adapted to biomaterials to handle mechanical characteristics such as nonlinearity, viscoelasticity, and orthotropy. Basic experimental methods, and anatomy and physiology of particular tissue types will also be introduced. Emphasis is placed on integrating the basic analytical, experimental, and computational methods for a more complete understanding of the underlying mechanobiology. Meets with ENG ME788. Students may not receive credit for both. 4 cr.
• ENG BE 790: Biomedical Engineering Seminar
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Required for graduate students in biomedical engineering.
  Discussion of current topics in biomedical engineering. Students are expected to read assigned journal articles and to participate actively in weekly discussion meetings. Meetings organized around presentations by invited guests of their research problems, strategy, and technique.
• ENG BE 791: PhD Biomedical Engineering Laboratory Rotation System
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: PhD standing in biomedical engineering.
  This course allows PhD students to take part in a laboratory rotation system. During these rotations, students become familiar with research activity within departmental laboratories that are of interest to them. These rotations help students identify the laboratory in which they will perform their dissertation research. Postbachelor's PhD students must complete three rotations: one in their first semester of matriculation, and two in their second semester. Post-master's PhD students must complete a minimum of two rotations, one of which must be in their first semester of matriculation. Normally each rotation will last up to seven weeks.
• ENG BE 792: Critical Literature Review
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First year BME PhD graduate students only.
  Peer-reviewed publications in the area of biomedical engineering will be critically evaluated. Scientific ethics and the process of review and publication of manuscripts will be discussed. The classes will be a mix of didactic information and group discussion. Methodological issues covered will include study design, techniques used, and interpretation of research findings. Students completing this course will understand the principles underlying preparation and publication of scientific manuscripts and will be able to apply these principles as they read the scientific literature.
• ENG BE 801: Teaching Practicum
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Students must be in the BME PhD program.
  This course cannot be used to meet the structured course requirements. Practical teaching experience for an assigned course, includes some combination of running discussion sections, managing laboratory sections, providing some lectures, preparing homework and solution sets, exams, and grading. Attend lectures/seminars on best teaching practices.
• ENG BE 802: Teaching Practicum II
  Practical teaching experience.
• ENG BE 900: Research
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
  Participation in a research project under the direction of a faculty advisor. Includes research leading to the development of an MS thesis proposal or PhD prospectus, as well as the work necessary to generate an original MS thesis or PhD dissertation.
• ENG BE 951: Independent Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: By petition only.
  A course of reading under the direction of a faculty advisor covering subject matter not available in a lecture course. Final report or examination normally required.
• ENG BF 527: Applications in Bioinformatics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: See course description
  The field of bioinformatics is concerned with the management and analysis of large biological datasets (such as the human genome) for the purpose of improving our understanding of complex living systems. This course introduces graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students to the core problems in bioinformatics, along with the databases and tools that have been developed to study them. Computer labs emphasize the acquisition of practical bioinformatics skills for use in students research. Familiarity with basic molecular biology is a prerequisite; no prior programming knowledge is assumed. Specific topics will include the analysis of biological sequences, structures, and networks. E-mail questions to the instructors, Joshua Campbell (camp@bu.edu) and Jignesh Parikh (jparikh@bu.edu).
• ENG BF 541: Bioinformatics Internship
  Internships provide the bridge between classroom/laboratory study and ?real-world? employment. Each student must complete an internship with a minimum of 400 hours of on-the-job experience (e.g., 10 weeks full-time work in the summer). The format is very flexible, and part-time internships running concurrently with classes or employment are acceptable. Students must consult with their academic advisor to assess the suitability of a proposed internship.
• ENG BF 571: Dynamics and Evolution of Biological Networks
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS MA 226 and CAS MA 242; EK102 can be used in lieu of the MA242 pre-req. Familiarity with differential equations and linear algebra at equivalent levels and the consent of instructor can be used in lieu of both pre-reqs.
  The course focuses on mathematical models for exploring the organization, dynamics, and evolution of biochemical and genetic networks. Topics include: introductions to metabolic and genetic networks, deterministic and stochastic kinetics of biochemical pathways; genome-scale models of metabolic reaction fluxes; models of regulatory networks; modular architecture of biological networks.
• ENG BF 690: Bioinformatics Challenge Project
  Project course for first year Bioinformatics graduate students. Open-ended problems will involve bioinformatics as a key element, typically requiring the use of large data sets and computational analysis to make predictions about molecular function, molecular interactions, regulation, etc. Projects will be proposed by the Bioinformatics program faculty and selected by student in teams of three. The end result will be a set of predictions, some of which can be validated retrospectively using data available through online sources and some of which will require experimental validation. During the last 2 months of the academic year, teams will design feasible validation experiments in consultation with the experimental faculty.
• ENG BF 752: LAW&Eth Bio Sci
  
• ENG BF 778: Physical Chemistry for Systems Biology
  This course introduces students to quantitative modeling in bioinformatics and systems biology. We begin with basic principles of statistical thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, with selected applications in biomolecular systems. Next we describe molecular driving forces in biology, and computation with biomolecular structures. Finally we discuss quantitative models of biomolecular networks, and design principles of biological circuits.
• ENG BF 810: Phd Lab Rotat'N
  
• ENG BF 821: Bioinformatics Graduate Seminar
  TBA
• ENG EC 311: Introduction to Logic Design
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: ENG EK 307
  Introduction to hardware building blocks used in digital computers. Boolean algebra, combinatorial and sequential circuits: analysis and design. Adders, multipliers, decoders, encoders, multiplexors. Programmable logic devices: read-only memory, programmable arrays, Verilog. Counters and registers. Includes lab. 4 cr,
• ENG EC 327: Introduction to Software Engineering
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: ENG EK 127
  This course aims to introduce students to software design, programming techniques, data structures, and software engineering principles. The course is structured bottom up, beginning with basic hardware followed by an understanding of machine language that controls the hardware and the assembly language that organizes that control. It then proceeds through fundamental elements of functional programming languages, using C as the case example, and continues with the principles of object-oriented programming, as principally embodied in C++ but also its daughter languages Java, C#, and objective C. The course will conclude with an introduction to elementary data structures and algorithmic analysis. Throughout, the course develops core competencies in software engineering, including programming style, optimization, debugging, compilation, and program management, utilizing a variety of Integrated Development Environments and operating systems. 4 cr.
• ENG EC 330: Applied Algorithms for Engineers
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: ENG EC 327 and CAS MA 193.
  Introduction to the general concept of algorithms. Efficiency and run-time of algorithms. Graph algorithms, priority queues, search trees. Various approaches to design of algorithms and data structures, together with their applications to numerical and non-numerical problems. 4 cr.
• ENG EC 381: Probability Theory in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS MA 225.
  Introduction to modeling uncertainty in electrical and computer systems. Experiments, models, and probabilities. Discrete and continuous random variables. Reliability models for circuits. Probability distributions. Moments and expectations. Random vectors. Functions of random variables. Sums of random variables and limit theorems. Signal detection and estimation. Basic stochastic processes. Discrete-time Markov chains. State-diagrams. Applications to statistical modeling and interpretation of experimental data in computer, communication, and optical systems. 4cr,