Biomedical Engineering: Strategies for Improvement Purple Sage 2003

1. Biomedical Engineering: Strategies for Improvement Purple Sage 2003

2. Summary of Major Accomplishments

3. Specific Strategies • Recruit full complement of excellent faculty • Identify functional space for department • Implement undergraduate degree program • Recruit top graduate students • Inform influential national leaders about department • Develop collaborations with Texas Medical Center

4. Departmental Accomplishments • New building • New faculty • New students • BME undergraduates are some of the best students in the College of Engineering • Average SAT score of 1367 • 30% are in Engineering Honors Program

5. BME Faculty Recruiting • 12 new tenure track faculty lines • 6 BME dept. faculty hired in first 2 years • Lisa Brannon Peppas (targeted drug delivery) • Stas Emelianov (ultrasound imaging) • Wolfgang Frey (nanostructured biomaterials) • Mia Markey (computational decision aids) • Nicholas Peppas (biomaterials, drug delivery, nanotechnology) • Krish Roy (drug delivery, gene therapy, stem cell engineering) • 2 new BME dept. faculty hired last year • 3 positions open currently

6. Orly Alter • Education & Experience: • BS ’89, Tel Aviv University • PhD ’98, Stanford University • Post-doctoral fellow, Stanford University, Pat Brown and David Botstein • Bioinformatics • Models for genome-wide expression data using singular value decomposition

7. Laura Suggs • Education & Experience: • BS ’93, UT (CHE) • PhD ’98, Rice • Research Scientist, Biovascular, Inc. • Research Associate, BME, Minnesota • Cell and Tissue Engineering • Cardiovascular tissue engineering • Stem cell engineering

8. Undergraduate Program • New Courses • BME 102 • Laboratory courses • Junior class electives • Advising • New advising system

9. Plans for Improvement

10. As a new department – Everything is an improvement!

11. Specific Strategies • Recruit full complement of excellent faculty • Identify functional space for department • Implement undergraduate degree program • Recruit top graduate students • Inform influential national leaders about department • Develop collaborations with Texas Medical Center Critical for faculty recruiting

12. Recruiting Top Graduate Students • Recruiting weekend • Earlier application deadline (Dec.15) • Proactive fellowship committee • Minimum required stipend set for Department ($20k for Fa 04) • Restructured graduate curriculum • Training grants for recruiting tools

13. Core Graduate Curriculum • Quantitative Systems Physiology & Pathophysiology • Fall 2003, Richards-Kortum, 3CR • Mathematical Modeling • Fall 2003, Milner, 3 CR • Fields, Forces & Flows in Physiologic Systems • Fall 2003, Peppas, 3 CR • Principles of Biomeasurement • Fall 2003, Valvano, 1CR • Biostatistics, Study Design & Research Methods • Spring 2004, Markey, 3 CR

14. Quantitative Systems Physiology & Pathophysiology • Cellular Physiology • Michaelis Menten Kinetics, Metabolism, Diffusion, Active Transport, Cell Cycle, DNA Microarrays • Neoplasia • Neuro-muscular Physiology • Membrane Potential, Ion Channels, HH Model, Synapses, Muscle Contraction, Excitation-Contraction, Hill Eq. • De-myelinating disorders • Cardiovascular Physiology • ECG, Blood Flow and Blood Pressure, Models of the Circulatory System, • Atherosclerosis and MI

15. Mathematical Modeling • Course incorporates 3 major threads: • 1) Graphical user interfaces • 2) Non-linear ODEs and PDEs • 3) Numerical methods • Technology aids: • Real time student feedback (IR Remotes) • Computer lab access • Students download ‘broken notes’ before class • Assessment: • HW, Quizzes, Computer Exam, Written Exams, Project

16. Fields, Forces & Flows in Physiologic Systems • Rheological Problems in Physiology • Blood, synovial fluid, cell membranes • Flows in Cellular & Physiological Systems • Fluid mechanics, biological suspensions, microcirculation • Forces in Cellular & Physiological Phenomena • Heat transfer and mass transfer • Application of Transport Phenomena to Medical Devices • Hemodialysis, respiration, tissue engineering, pharmacodynamics • Fields in Cellular & Physiological Systems

17. Principles of Biomeasurement • Overall objective: • Realistic attitude  collecting biomedical data • Specific educational objectives: • 1) The process of how signals are converted into digital form • Analog amplifiers, analog filters, sample and hold • ADC, period, frequency, phase • Nyquist Theorem and aliasing • 2) How are data stored and processed in the computer • LabView introduction, user interfaces, displays, FFT, digital filters, data acquisition, storing data in files • 3) Analysis of noise • Where does it come from? How do we quantify it? How do we reduce the effect of noise? • 4) Survey of transducers used in biomedical measurements • electrical, thermal, mechanical, chemical

18. Biostatistics, Study Design & Research Methods • Provide students with background & experience to use: • testing of hypothesis • confidence limits • regression analysis • correlation • analysis of variance • experimental design and factor analysis • discriminant analysis • Bayes classification • applications of statistics in BME research

19. Challenges • Prerequisite knowledge • CHE & ME students lack electronics background • EE students lack fluids background • Many students lack statistics and/or physiology background • Level for graduate classes? • How account for diversity of backgrounds?

20. Possible Solutions? • Require stricter prerequisites • Introductory overview class with background • 1-hr credit modules in background areas • More rigorous than true 1 hour class? • Long-term solution? • Credit towards degree?

21. Graduate Student Training Grants • Provide support for new PhD students • Significant recruiting enhancement • Allow building in focused areas of strength • High prestige factor

22. Funding Sources • NSF – IGERT Award • First in country in bioengineering • Continuation award recently funded • NIH – T32 Predoctoral Training Grant • Previous award at UT • New application planned for Spring • NIH – T32 Postdoctoral Training Grant • Joint with Texas Medical Center • Near future initiative

23. Cellular & Molecular Imaging For Diagnostics and Therapeutics •Engineering •Medicine •Physics •Chemistry •Biology Director: Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum Co-Directors: Drs. Nicholas Peppas & Christine Schmidt NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) Program http://www.bme.utexas.edu/igert

24. Scientific Theme of UT IGERT

25. UT IGERT Specifics • $3.8M renewal for 5 years • Student stipends • Travel funds • Program coordinator (Charlotte Harris) • Core imaging user facility • User facility manager (John Wright) • Seminar program • Annual retreat and semester events • External committee visits • 19 current IGERT PhD trainees • 6-7 new trainees recruited each fall • Stipend: $27.5K/year for 2 years

26. UT Training Grant Structure • Co-advisors from 2 departments at UT & a clinical advisor from Texas Medical Center • Doctoral portfolio program of optics courses • Research Seminar • Ethics Seminar • Technology Assessment & Transfer Training • Internship: Industrial, Clinical, International • Annual Retreat

27. Bringing Collaborators Together • Collaborative Student Advising • Annual Research Retreat • Weekly Seminar Series • Student presentations • Outside speakers • User Facility

28. Interdisciplinary Publications Richards-Kortum et al, J Eng Educ, in review, 2003.

29. Interdisciplinary Patents

30. Summary • Accomplishments: • New building • New faculty • New students • Improvements: • Graduate core courses • Graduate student training grants

31. Questions?