Undergraduate Study

Professor Lawrence H. Staib
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Yale has a long history of excellence in Biomedical Engineering. At Yale, Biomedical Engineering is a tightly-integrated, interdisciplinary department, composed of faculty, researchers and staff from both the School of Engineering & Applied Science and the School of Medicine. The department has two primary overlapping missions: to educate students and to engage in research in biomedical imaging, biomechanics, systems biology and biomolecular engineering. The goal is to advance knowledge in these important areas, designing biomedical engineering technologies that further our understanding of human physiology, improve health care and ultimately bring these advances into clinical practice.  Biomedical Engineering at Yale has exciting opportunities and advanced facilities for student research projects in these areas.

The Malone Engineering Center contains research space for faculty and students, as well as departmental offices. Biomedical Engineering laboratories and offices are also housed in several research buildings on the Medical School campus and West Campus. The Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC), the Positron Emission Tomography Center (PET), the Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program, and Systems Biology Institute all provide laboratory space for Biomedical Engineering faculty and students.

Undergraduate students in Biomedical Engineering take core courses in the fundamentals of Biomedical Engineering including physiological systems, biocomputation, biomechanics, biosignals and biotransport. They also take a year-long laboratory sequence covering an array of quantitative laboratory techniques. Students are introduced to independent research projects through one or more semester-long Special Projects, designed together with faculty advisors. In addition, students will take at least three courses in a particular track (biomedical imaging, biomechanics, systems biology and biomolecular engineering), as well as a Senior Seminar to give them a broader perspective of the field. Finally, as part of their Senior Project, Yale Biomedical Engineering students select from research projects to address a range of important problems with an impact on human health, such as:

  • Computational and experimental approaches to cardiac biomechanics integrating genomic, functional, and anatomical data
  • Device design and mechanical testing for improved surgical intervention
  • Machine learning approaches to disease diagnostics, prognostics and treatment guidance from non-invasive imaging
  • Experimental and computational approaches to characterizing biochemical signaling networks
  • Biomaterials for drug and antigen delivery to the immune system
  • Stem cell therapy for treatment of neurological disorders, such as brain cancer, stroke, and traumatic brain injury

This is an exciting time for biomedical engineers at Yale with unique training as engineers at the interface of the biological and physical sciences, and Yale has a superb, interactive, and inclusive environment for exploring this interface. The department continues to aim to develop technology that enhances human health while striving to reduce health-care costs and improve health-care equity.

For detailed curriculum information, visit Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum Information