Spring 2010 Special Topics Courses

ENG BE 400 A1: Transport Phenomenon in Biological Systems (Zaman)

Biological Systems operate at multiple length scales and all scales depend intrinsically on internal and external transport of molecules, ions, fluids and heat. This course is designed to introduce the fundamentals of biological transport and to apply these fundamentals in understanding physiological processes involving fluid, mass and heat transfer. Students will learn the fundamental conservation principles and constitutive laws that govern heat, mass and momentum transport processes and systems as well as the constitutive properties that are encountered in typical biological problems. Transport is also critical to the development and proper functioning of biological and medical instruments and devices, which will also be discussed. Biomedical examples will include applications in development of the heart-lung machine, estimation of time of death in post-mortem cases, burn injuries through hot water, respiratory flow in smokers lungs etc.
4 credits MW 8-10am

NOTE: This course satisfies the Biomedical, Engineering or Professional elective requirement

ENG BE 500 A1: Systems Biology of Disease (Kasif)

This course will train students to apply or develop new computational network and machine learning concepts to probe into the systems biology of disease. The course will cover computational frameworks such as biological networks (including metabolic, regulatory and signal transduction networks), microarray analysis, proteomic analysis, next. generation sequencing, imaging, machine learning, genetics, pathway analysis and other technologies to medical diseases initially focusing on clinical problems such as cancer, diabetes, inflammation and aging. The course is aimed at seniors and graduate students in biomedical engineering or bioinformatics. However, students from other disciplines ranging from medicine to physics or computer science can attend the class with some prerequisites. There are no exams and grading is based on bi-weekly homework, reading research papers, class presentations and a team project. The aim of this course is to cover general concepts in biological computing that provide the foundation of thinking computationally about anomalous behavior in biological systems that causes disease. The course also aims to teach students to work in teams and develop the skills to plan and coordinate a scientific project. During the course we will have guest lectures from scientists working in local biotechnologies or hospitals.

4 Credits MW 2-4

NOTE: This course satisfies the Professional elective requirement only

ENG EC 500 A1: High Performance Programming with Multi Core, GPU’s and FPGA’s

(Herbordt)

Considers theory and practice of hardware-aware programming.  Key theme is obtaining a significant fraction of potential performance through knowledge of the underlying computing platform and how the platform interacts with programs.  Studies architecture of, and programming methods for, contemporary high-performance processors including complex processor cores, multicore processors, graphics processors, and field programmable gate arrays.  Laboratory component includes use and evaluation of programming methods on these processors through applications such as matrix operations and the Fast Fourier Transform.

Prerequisites:  EC413 (Computer Organization) or equivalent.  Experience programming in C is required.

4 credits MW 2-4

ENG ME 700 A1 - Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering: Biomed Ultrasound (Porter) 

This course will cover scientific principles and concepts that lay the foundation for diagnostic and therapeutic applications of ultrasound in medicine. Fundamentals will include wave propagation and attenuation in biological materials, transducer design and operation, the design and characterization of ultrasound contrast agents, and the bioeffects of propagating acoustic waves and acoustic cavitation. Applications of ultrasound technology to be discussed include harmonic imaging, targeted ultrasound contrast agents, and ultrasound-mediated drug and gene delivery.

4 credits MW 12-2

ENG ME 700 A2 - Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering: Theory of the Gyroscope (Nagem) 

Kinematics of three-dimensional rigid body motion.
Euler angles, quaternions, Cayley-Klein parameters.
Euler and Lagrange dynamical equations.

Representation of the motion by elliptic integrals and elliptic functions.

Applications to gyroscopic instruments.
4 credits TR 12-2