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Innovations in Bioengineering at Penn State
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Penn State Bioengineering Overview |
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Bioengineering activities at Penn State are administered by the College of Engineering's Department of Bioengineering and encompass undergraduate studies at the University Park campus, and multidisciplinary graduate studies at University Park and within the College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. At the graduate level, an Intercollege Graduate Degree Granting Program is funded by both the College of Engineering and Graduate School to maximize the interactions among faculty at both campuses. Within the College of Medicine, graduate studies in bioengineering are coordinated through the newly formed Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the Hershey Medical Center. The central mission of the Department of Bioengineering is to serve as the focal point of engineering activities in the life sciences for the Penn State University system. A newly established undergraduate major in Bioengineering leads to the B.S. degree in bioengineering. The major consists of a core curriculum of life science and engineering courses with opportunities for concentrated areas of study in one of four option areas: electrical, chemical, mechanical engineering, and materials science. An undergraduate minor in Bioengineering is offered to qualified students in all Colleges of the University. At the graduate level, the program offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Bioengineering. The long term vision of the program is to contribute to the development of engineers who may enhance the application of engineering to the solution of problems in medicine and biology and thus contribute to the immediate health care needs of the patient population. Training opportunities in the engineering sciences aim to support productive careers in academia, government and industry related to health care. The Bioengineering program at Penn State arose from a collaboration between faculty in the College of Medicine and College of Engineering which began in 1970 to develop implantable circulatory assist and artificial heart devices. At that time, Dr. William S. Pierce, a cardiothoracic surgeon, joined the faculty and began a research program aimed at developing an artificial heart. With the collaboration of Dr. John A. Brighton, then Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and currently University Professor and Provost Emeritus of Penn State, a long standing and fruitful effort was begun which enlisted the participation of graduate students within the College of Engineering. In 1971, Dr. David B.Geselowitz , a biomedical engineer with an interest in electrocardiology was recruited to institute a bioengineering program. By 1976, the development of a pneumatic left ventricular assist device had progressed to permit the first world-wide successful use in a human patient. Since that time, this device and its subsequent refinements have been used in over 60 patients at Penn State and over 250 patients world-wide, with the primary goal of providing circulatory assist as a bridge to transplant until acceptable human hearts were obtained. In recognition of this outstanding contribution to saving numerous lives and pioneering contributions in the development of circulatory assist devices, the Penn State heart assist device was designated in 1991 as an International Mechanical Engineering Historic Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Parallel development of an implantable total artificial heart was also marked by outstanding achievements. The Penn State pneumatic heart is currently the only artificial heart approved by the Food and Drug Administration for clinical application. A collateral effort in artificial lung development led by Dr. Michael Snider, is currently the only NIH sponsored program of its kind. With the artificial heart program serving as a nucleus for development of the Bioengineering Program, continued expansion and growth has resulted in the establishment of research laboratories in a broad spectrum of biomedical engineering activities such as: ultrasound diagnostic imaging, neuro-electrophysiology, electrocardiology, microvascular blood flow, cellular biomechanics, physiological transport, biofluid mechanics and the development of an artificial lung. Continued growth of the program is clearly reflected by a steady rise in the number of full time graduate students studying for M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Bioengineering over the last 17 years. During that period, annual enrollments have risen 3-fold to a current enrollment of approximately 40 graduate students. The growth of Bioengineering at Penn State reflects the philosophy that bioengineering is a research driven academic program and hence its growth has paralleled that of extramural sponsored research funding. Current funding amounts to research expenditures of over $2M per year which is administered directly through the Program. Graduate students participate in research projects that are administered through other academic units as well. |
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