Students pursuing the MS, Biomedical Engineering degree, offered by the Department of Biomedical Engineering , will have the satisfaction of being actively engaged in a discipline that has human health and welfare as its primary focus. Biomedical Engineering is an inherently interdisciplinary field in which professionals from engineering and the physical sciences play a major role in developing engineered products for deployment in the human body.

Program Objectives

The MS, Biomedical Engineering program incorporates and develops oral and written communication skills, teamwork, and the ability to address and deal with ethical issues, all of which are essential for professional success in the global marketplace and for lifelong learning. The MS, Biomedical Engineering program is designed to produce graduates who will be able to:

• Solve complex biomedical engineering problems and tasks in areas including design, manufacturing, and quality control.
• Use engineering, science, and relevant regulations to justify recommendations.
• Evaluate the impact of their work on their fellow human beings and society as expressed through regulatory, ethical, economic, global, and environmental considerations.
• Deliver effective presentations of biomedical engineering results in written and oral formats.
• Engage in lifelong self-directed learning to maintain and enhance professional skills and capabilities and keep abreast of the rapid developments in biomedical engineering and science.
• Be effective leaders capable of working in diverse environments and teams, in a globally competitive landscape.

Requirements for Admission

Applicants must meet all university admissions 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, as determined by the Graduate Coordinator. Once the series is completed satisfactorily, with grades of B or better, 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.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students must meet the university requirements for candidacy, which include the successful completion of a minimum of 9 units of graduate-level classes with grades of B or better. The University requires that all graduate students complete the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR)  as a condition for advancement to candidacy .

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) . The GWAR is satisfied with the degree requirements core courses (BME 207 , BME 274 ).

Culminating Experience

Included in the 30 approved course units is the requirement that 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. For either option, the student is required to develop a project proposal in BME 291 . This must be approved by the student’s reading committee at the culmination of this course. Once the proposal is approved, the student is required to:

1. implement the approved research plan using appropriate methods for the investigation,
2. use appropriate statistical techniques for analysis of the data and drawing conclusions,
3. discuss the results in light of findings reported by other investigators,
4. write a professional report of appropriate length, and
5. present it and defend the project to the reading committee.

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 tenured or tenure-track faculty member, to serve on the student’s thesis committee. The student must write a thesis proposal and have it approved by the thesis committee and pass BME 291 - MS Thesis/Project Preparation Seminar  (1 unit) and BME 298 - MS Project  (2 units) or  BME 291 - MS Thesis/Project Preparation Seminar  before enrolling in the 3-unit BME 299 - MS Thesis  or BME 299I . The thesis must also meet all 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 BME 291 - MS Thesis/Project Preparation Seminar  (1 unit) before enrolling in the 2-unit BME 298 - MS Project  or BME 298I  (2 units).

The project proposal is prepared in BME 291  and must be approved by the student’s reading committee at the culmination of that course.