BMEBT Course Descriptions
Specialization courses are found among the many graduate course offerings in participating departments. Only specific courses are listed here.
BMB 510: Introduction to Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology
3 credits
Prerequisite: BMEBT degree candidate or permission of a program co-director. Team-taught introductory course that emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to current topics in the range of academic disciplines and gives students their first exposure to faculty research areas. The course, as much as possible, will involve faculty from all participating campuses, will involve outside industry speakers to present topics of contemporary importance, and will offer joint lectures from guest speakers.
BMB 520: Quantitative Physiology
3 credits
Physiology at the organ system level with a quantitative approach. The course helps integrate the curriculum for individuals with life science and engineering undergraduate backgrounds, permitting engineers and physical scientists an appreciation of how organisms function from the organ/system perspective and giving life scientists a more rigorous quantitative approach to physiology than is usual in undergraduate courses.
BMB 530: Instrumentation and Laboratory Experience
3 credits
Prerequisite: Permission of BMEBT advisor. A practical, hands-on lab course giving students exposure to cutting-edge research methodology in a number of different areas, with a balance between biomedical engineering and biotechnology areas. A team approach is encouraged as students employ various laboratory techniques to carry out short-term projects. Students will either rotate through a number of different experimental procedures within a single investigator’s laboratory or rotate through multiple faculty laboratories, learning a particular type of methodology for which the laboratory may be noted and uses frequently. The course may also provide laboratory experiences/demonstrations at sister campuses and industrial sites where faculty members have affiliations.
BMB 540: Advanced Cell and Molecular Biology
3 credits
Rigorous treatment of topics in advanced cell and molecular biology, illustrating applied research through examples and presenting biochemistry concepts at the cell/molecular level.
BMB 570: Applied Math for Life Scientists
3 credits
This course provides an intense treatment of the subject matter designed to achieve applied math literacy for students with life science and related backgrounds.
BMB571: Bioethics
1 credit
This course is offered online out of the UMass Lowell campus
BMB 573: Graduate Directed Study
3 credits
Prerequisites: Graduate standing; permission of instructor, graduate director, and college dean. Study under the supervision of a faculty member in an area covered in a regular course not currently being offered. Terms and hours to be arranged.
BMB 620: Capstone Project
3 credits
Prerequisites: Approval of instructor and student’s graduate committee. A culminating experience in which the student synthesizes his/her course knowledge and experimental skills into a brief but detailed experimental study, which also involves cross-field interdisciplinary cooperation. Although in some cases this project may be done individually under the supervision of one faculty member, it is expected that students will join in a team-based, collaborative effort involving students from a number of different disciplines, post-doctoral fellows, and industry representatives; and with intercampus participation.
BMB 630: Independent Research
variable credits
Prerequisites: Approval of instructor and student’s graduate committee. Investigations of a fundamental and/or applied nature. Independent Research is often work on a future dissertation undertaken before the student has satisfied the qualification steps for BMB 720. With approval of student’s graduate committee, up to 15 credits of BMB 630 may be applied to the 30-credit requirement for dissertation research.
BMB 710: Doctoral Seminar
1 credit
Doctoral students’ research in progress, emphasizing not only research but also communication and writing. Every active doctoral candidate will present her or his work in progress in the seminar, and in addition there will be at least two presentations from external speakers. Students will write summaries of each presentation. Students must complete this course in at least two different semesters. Course is graded pass-fail.
BMB 720: Doctoral Dissertation Research
variable credits
Prerequisites: Successful completion of PhD comprehensive examination and approval of doctoral dissertation proposal by the student’s graduate committee. Investigations of a fundamental and/or applied nature representing an original contribution to the scholarly research literature of the field. PhD dissertations are often published in refereed journals or presented at major conferences. A written dissertation must be completed in accordance with the rules of the Graduate School. Admission to the course is based on successful completion of the PhD comprehensive examination and submission of a formal proposal endorsed by the student’s graduate committee and submitted to the appropriate BMEBT Graduate Program Director.