Biomedical Engineering: The Major You Should Look Into

By Hannah Helpio on May 29, 2012


With Forbes recently ranking biomedical engineering (BIM here at Davis) as the No. 1 most valuable college major*, I decided to sit down with my BIM major friend and ask him some questions about his field of study; I wanted to know more about the major, and why he thought it ranks at the top of the most up-and-coming fields.

So, what made you decide to go into biomedical engineering?

Just because I was interested in everything. So the specific applications I’d seen in high school really interested me.

What sort of applications?

In high school, I had seen on the Discovery channel [that] they were using a modified Epson printer, and they were printing tissues with it in 3D. And there was also a skin regenerative procedure.

 What’s your area of interest?

Biomaterials and tissue engineering.

Why do you think BIM is suddenly gaining attention in the job market and for employers?

I think it’s need-driven, but I think it’s because BIM has started to emerge as its own field, whereas in the past there was no thing as biomedical engineering; it was mechanical engineers and doctors who did research did that kind of stuff. It’s always been a big thing, but I feel like [now] it has been grouped into this thing called biomedical engineering. Biomedical engineering always has been big, but now it just goes under the name of biomedical engineering.

 It seems like BIM is at the forefront of cutting edge science – the hallmark of new medical discoveries. Do you have any predictions for what may be “the next big thing,” or something that might soon become commonplace in hospitals, physical therapy, or surgeries?

I’d have to get really specific because there’s so much. But if we go into tissue engineering, at the forefront right now – the ultimate goal of tissue engineering is, if someone comes in and needs a heart, you’d be able to print a heart.

Right now, you need someone else who’s a donor. And there’s way more need than supply.

Right now, with research…you still need a donor, but they’ll take a heart and decelluralize it, which basically means taking everything apart… and then grow the scaffold in vitro. But they haven’t done it with people right now because it’s really dangerous. But they did it with a mouse; they they transplanted it into the mouse, and it lived for a day or so.

That’s where they’re at right now.

 The U.S. is notorious for its bad health. Do our health problems as a nation will generate new need, or has there always been a general need?

I think it’s definitely going to generate new need, but at the same time, there will always be people developing devices for a general need, whereas there will always be corporations who will develop for a specific clientele, or group with specific issues. Like something to treat the millions of symptoms of obesity.

All in all, biomedical engineering seems both other-worldly in its development and promising in its innovation. In any case, there’s a definite chance you’ll be able to undergo surgery for a new heart in 30 years – not from a donor, but from a printer.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/05/15/best-top-most-valuable-college-majors-degrees/

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