The concentration in Biomedical Devices offers the student the opportunity to focus on the design, development and manufacture of medical devices that either come into contact with the human body or are implanted within the human body. This is an inherently interdisciplinary field. The concentration area has been created to provide individuals with B.S. degrees in an engineering field or chemistry or physics with the necessary graduate level education that prepares them to function effectively in this environment.
A student must meet all of the requirements for entry into the Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering Program. The transition courses required for admission to this concentration are:
• BME 115 - Foundations of Biomedical Engineering (4 units)
• BME 65 - Biomedical Applications of Statics (2 units)
• BME 68 - Biomedical Applications of Metals and Ceramics (3 units)
• BME 165 - Applied Engineering Biomechanics (3 units)
• BME 147 - Quantitative Methods for BME (3 units)
• CHEM 1A - General Chemistry (5 units)
• CHEM 1B - General Chemistry 5 units)
• EE 98 - Introduction to Circuit Analysis (3 units)
• MATH 133A - Ordinary Differential Equations (3 units)
• PHYS 50 - General Physics/Mechanics (4 units)
• PHYS 51 - General Physics/Electricity and Magnetism (4 units)
Students who have not completed these classes or their equivalents during their undergraduate program will be required to complete these classes with a grade of B or better. This is in addition to the 30 semester units required for the Master of Science degree.
Requirements for Admission
Applicants must meet all university admission requirements. (Please see SJSU Admission Requirements). Applicants who have a major GPA of 3.0 or higher are not required to take the GRE. All others must take the GRE General Test and obtain a combined score of 315 or higher in the Verbal and Quantitative sections, and 3.5 or higher in the Analytical Writing section.
Students can be admitted to either classified or conditionally classified standing. To be admitted to classified standing, a student must possess a BS degree in biomedical engineering, or its equivalent from an accredited institution with a grade point average of 3.0 or better in the last 60 semester units, have met the GRE requirement if their major GPA is below 3.0; and have completed the Transition Courses, or their equivalents, with grades of B or better.
Conditionally Classified Admission
Students can be admitted to conditionally classified standing if they have a BS degree in an engineering discipline, chemistry, physics or biology from an accredited institution. Students with conditionally classified standing will take a series of Transition Courses. Once the series is completed satisfactorily, students can petition for transfer to classified standing. For more information on the transition courses contact the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Coordinator at biomedical-engineering@sjsu.edu.
Requirements for Candidacy
Students must meet the university requirements for candidacy, which include successful completion of a minimum of 9 units of graduate level classes. The University requires that all graduate students complete the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) as a condition for advancement to candidacy. Please refer to the SJSU catalog section titled “Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement ” for details.
Course Requirements
To meet the requirements for the MS, Biomedical Engineering degree, a student must complete 30 units of approved courses. Students must achieve a minimum of a “C” in each course, a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better in all their coursework, AND a GPA of 3.0 or higher for the courses listed in the Candidacy form.
Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement
At SJSU, students must pass the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR). For information on the GWAR, please see http://info.sjsu.edu/gcw.html.
Culminating Experience
In addition to the 30 approved course units, students must also complete a written thesis or project report and an oral defense of their thesis or project. The candidate may choose either the Plan A (thesis) or Plan B (project) option.
Plan A (Thesis)
The student who opts to complete a master’s thesis is responsible for securing the commitment of a full-time tenured or tenure-track BME faculty member who agrees to serve as thesis committee chair. The student must also secure the commitments of two additional university faculty members, one of whom must be a full-time tenure or tenure-track faculty member, to serve as the student’s thesis committee. The student must write a thesis proposal and have it approved by the thesis committee and pass the BME 291 - MS Thesis/Project Preparation Seminar (1 unit) and BME 298 - MS Project (2 units) before enrolling in the 3-unit BME 299 - MS Thesis . The thesis must meet university requirements as stipulated in this catalog and in the SJSU Master’s Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation Guidelines. It will be written under the guidance of the candidate’s thesis committee chair with the assistance of the thesis committee.
Plan B (Project)
Students opting to complete a master’s project must pass the BME 291 - MS Thesis/Project Preparation Seminar (1 unit) before enrolling in the 2-unit BME 298 - MS Project (2 units). They will also take an additional 3-unit elective as part of their 6- units culminating experience.
The project proposal is prepared in BME 291 and must be approved by the student’s reading committee at the culmination of that course. Once the proposal is approved, the student is required to (a) implement the approved research plan using appropriate methods for the investigation, (b) use appropriate statistical techniques for analysis of the data and drawing conclusions, (c) discuss the results in light of findings reported by other investigators, (d) write a professional report of appropriate length, and (e) present it and defend the project to the reading committee.
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