CMU Biomedical Engineering Clinical Collaborations and Experiences
Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) College of Engineering built its world-class reputation by developing technologies that solve real-world problems. We specialize in transdisciplinary collaboration that results in creative, innovative, and impactful solutions.
CMU’s Biomedical Engineering (BME) follows the same approach, tackling real-world clinical problems through inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration in the classroom, the laboratory, and the clinic. To accomplish this, CMU BME collaborates with three leading medical centers: the Allegheny Health Network (run by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield), Mayo Clinic, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
CMU BME students have an opportunity to collaborate with clinicians from these medical centers in the classroom, the laboratory, and the clinic. Faculty from these medical centers teach CMU courses focused on clinical medicine and the application of engineering technology in that setting. These faculty also co-mentor research projects at the undergraduate, Masters, and PhD level, providing our students with a first-hand perspective on how their technologies will be implemented in the clinic and how they can impact a patient’s life. These collaborations also provide students an opportunity to visit the clinic and work with patients directly.
At the undergraduate level this includes:
- Serving as project mentors for our senior BME Capstone Design courses (42-401: Foundations of Biomedical Engineering Design and 42-402: Biomedical Engineering Design Project)
- Facilitating clinical needs finding via the BME Summer Undergraduate Research Program (BME SURP). This allows a team of undergraduate BME students to work within various hospitals to identify areas of need that could be solved within our BME Capstone Design courses.
- Teaching courses that focus on clinical applications of biomedical engineering, such as Medical Devices and Surgery for Engineers.
At the graduate (MS and PhD) level this includes:
- Sponsoring and mentoring one-semester projects that focus on clinical or laboratory research projects for our Master of Science - Applied Study students
- Sponsoring and mentoring 21-month, in-depth research projects for our Master of Science - Research students
- Serving as mentors and PhD committee members to help guide PhD research projects and provide access to patients for clinical research projects
- Teaching courses that focus on clinical applications of biomedical engineering, such as Medical Devices and Surgery for Engineers.
Allegheny Health Network (AHN)
- CMU BME faculty have access to pre-clinical research facilities within the Allegheny Health Network Research Institute at Allegheny General Hospital;
Mayo Clinic
- CMU BME has formed the Transforming Transplantation Initiative with Mayo Clinic to develop and apply engineering technology toward the expansion of access to transplantation and to improve its efficacy.
- The Transforming Transplantation Initiative features graduate research funding provided by CMU and Mayo Clinic and a shared research seminar every two weeks that is attended by CMU and Mayo Clinic faculty, students, and staff.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)
- CMU shares an MD-PhD program with the University of Pittsburgh, the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP);
- We share neuroscience, neural engineering, and MRI research facilities within the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) and the Brain Imaging Data Generation & Education (BRIDGE) Center;
- CMU BME and UPMC Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine have formed the Pitt/CMU Pulmonary Engineering Consortium. Under the consortium, UPMC clinical trainees do research in CMU laboratories and CMU engineering students work on research projects at UPMC;
- Several CMU BME faculty investigators are members of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM);
- We share a training program focused on Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine (BiRM).
CMU's College of Engineering built its world-class reputation by developing technologies that solve real-world problems.