THE BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TEACHING & INNOVATION CENTER at Boston University s College of Engineering
The vision At Boston University s College of Engineering, we intend to create an exciting new resource that will revolutionize how our highly ranked Biomedical Engineering department teaches its students about synthesizing technology and biology to improve human health and at the same time, inspires students to independently or in teams pursue innovative ideas applied to all aspects of biology and medicine. The time is right to transform our 25-year-old traditional facility into a unique, cutting-edge Biomedical Engineering Teaching & Innovation Center: BME/TIC, for short. It will be a place where our undergraduates learn through direct, hands-on experience, under the supervision of our world-class BME faculty members. BME/TIC will also allow students to engage in BME-related innovation and entrepreneurship to push concepts, test ideas, and learn new things in their own way, either at their own pace or as part of a collaborative team. It will help students use cutting-edge technologies as they apply to a variety of life scales from biomolecules, cells, blood, tissues, and organs to the whole human body. Finally, it will prepare them to understand and draw upon the ever-expanding universe of data to advance personalized medicine. We have looked. There is no other teaching and learning space quite like BME/TIC either at BU or elsewhere. It builds on a highly successful model for non-biological engineering disciplines called the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) that we pioneered several years ago. When completed, BME/TIC will strengthen an already world-class program, enhancing our teaching and innovation focused on living systems. We have the plan. Now we are seeking partners to join us in this ambitious venture. 2
The context Why is Boston University the right place to create BME/TIC, and why is it needed now? First, the College of Engineering breaks new ground every year. We have risen in the U.S. News & World Report rankings faster than any other engineering school. We re now one of the top 35 engineering schools in the country only two decades after granting our first PhD degree. We have one of the premier BME departments in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. It is also one of the largest, with 36 full-time faculty, who collectively win research grants that total close to $30 million per year. We attract some of the most talented faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world. And there s another key driver of this effort: Society is in the beginning stages of a revolution in precision medicine and digital medicine. On this frontier, new biosensors are combining with large data sets for example, from imaging to wearable sensors to health records to provide real-time assessments of clinical status, as well as responses to specific interventions and personalized therapies. The likely results? Improved quality of care, and dramatic reductions in the costs of health care. And BU BME will be at the forefront. Our BME traditions date back to 1966, when we became one of the very first institutions to grant a degree in biomedical engineering. In the past decade, our BME undergraduate population has doubled, thanks to our strong reputation and the rapid development of the field. Today, we welcome more than 150 new undergraduates every year. Counting both undergraduate and graduate students, there are nearly 800 young men and women studying BME at Boston University. The department currently has a dedicated undergraduate teaching laboratory that was created some 25 years ago. Its primary focus is on the tissue, organ, and whole body levels which is where the field was, back then. Today, however, much of the cutting-edge work in BME is at the level of the genome and the cell to maintaining our competitive edge. Laboratory space for undergraduates that reflects that new focus is critical. 3
The specifics BME/TIC will have three major components, all of which will serve the facility s twin goals of supporting teaching and providing open innovation access for students. The Bioinstrumentation and Sensor Facility The Cellular Engineering and Biotechnology Facility The Digital and Precision Medicine Design Suite This space will be used for many of the core lessons that will be taught to all BME undergraduates and for students to innovatively develop unique and novel ways to measure, sense, and interpret biological and physiological signals experiential learning opportunities that will be made possible by BME/TIC. They will include, for example: The design and use of built-from-scratch biomedical devices for example, fluorescence microscopes, pulse oximeters, and frequency- domain diffuse optical systems EEG-based brain/machine interfaces and their applications Doppler velocimetry that allows assessment of blood flow in living tissue Biomotion capture and analysis to understand human-body biomechanics and neuromuscular function This core facility will revolutionize the way we teach BME, by enabling every undergraduate to get hands-on experience in applying engineering methods to cells, living tissue models, biomolecules, genetic systems, and other biological systems. These new lab-based experiences will include: Fundamental techniques of biotechnology The design and assembly of genetic circuitry The design, fabrication, and use of programmable microfluidic cell culture Live cell imaging and the analysis of programmable genetic constructs Measuring and designing properties of biomaterials This new resource will allow groups of students to work collaboratively on challenges and opportunities related to medical informatics, drawing on advanced computational and teleconferencing tools. These might include, for example: Real-time electronic health care and wearable sensors Machine-learning approaches to draw insights from complex biomedical data Computational modeling to understand biological function, and to design new devices and pharmaceutical agents to improve human health Medical image processing and analysis Bioinformatics for understanding the causes of diseases at the molecular level One key goal in designing and building BME/TIC is to allow for flexibility in the use of space. For example, we anticipate using movable walls and partitions between the bioinstrumentation and cellular engineering spaces. This will enable our faculty to teach classes without distractions from adjacent spaces and at the same time, still allow for creative afterhours use of spaces and equipment. And finally, we anticipate that the flexibility of the space will foster collaboration among students from many disciplines and backgrounds. 4
The BME/TIC solution Our new laboratory space will allow for both highly specific uses and substantial flexibility. 5
How you can help We are looking for partners who can help create BME/TIC, and ensure its success. Boston University and the College of Engineering will make significant investments in the infrastructure needed for BME/TIC and to ensure we can continue to recruit and enhance the experience of the nation s top students interested in the field of Biomedical Engineering. Still more investments will be needed both to build, equip, and maintain it. We invite philanthropic investors to join us and help create this new facility s core components: The Bioinstrumentation and Sensor Facility The Cellular Engineering and Biotechnology Facility The Digital and Precision Medicine Design Suite For details on these and other naming opportunities within BME/TIC, please see BME/TIC giving opportunities (provided upon request). We also seek corporate support for BME/TIC. Based on our several years of experiences with EPIC (see sidebar), we anticipate forging strong, mutually beneficial partnerships with leading corporations in the BME field. Those partnerships might comprise, for example: Direct financial support Identifying the skill sets and instrumentation that will be needed at the intersection of sensing, biology, and digital medicine In-kind contributions of hardware and software thereby keeping our equipment up to date, and training our students in company-specific technologies Providing access to data derived from real-world applications In-person support of BME education, including guest lectures, case studies, and real-time skill-building Creating BME-related projects, challenges, and internships The template: EPIC The Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) opened in January 2014 is a pioneering 15,000-square-foot, $12 million facility that helps address a critical need in the U.S.: training prospective engineers in the advanced design and manufacturing processes of the future. We built EPIC to give students hands-on design, prototyping, and small-scale manufacturing experience. It has been a resounding success. It serves more than 700 students per semester, immersing them in the concept-to-product realization process in an integrated and holistic way. It also serves as a maker space for students from across BU, including fine-arts majors, business students, and many others. BME/TIC deliberately draws on the lessons learned through EPIC and applies them in an important new context. EPIC serves students (and teachers) in the more traditional, dry engineering disciplines for example, mechanical and electrical whereas BME/TIC will also support the fields of engineering that work with fluids, tissues, and other wet materials. 6
Supporting the societal engineer The College of Engineering has embraced an ambitious goal: to create what we call societal engineers. These are skilled professionals who combine their engineering foundation, their understanding of the innovation process, and their passion for addressing society s grand challenges. They appreciate the role that innovation plays in advancing quality of life. They develop technologies that improve health, translate basic science into commercial products, and create new jobs and industries. We invite you to join us in building BME/TIC. 7 ENG17001 The Biomedical Engineering Teaching & Innovation Center will play a vital role in shaping and developing those skilled, purposeful, and passionate professionals in a field that is increasingly critical to the progress and well-being of our College, our graduates, and our society.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Kenneth R. Lutchen Dean, College of Engineering 617-353-2800 klutch@bu.edu